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Wine Specials Today

Blog: Living Well

January 11, 2010

A new year, and a new decade? Perhaps. This reminds me of the Millennium, when some said 2000 was the beginning of the new century and some said it was the end of the previous one, and that 2001 was the start of the new century. So, is 2010 the end of one decade or the start of another? Choose your side; there are arguments for both.

Meanwhile, nothing much changes from day to day. We get up, we eat, we work--or sometimes look for work--and shop and try to decide what to have for dinner, and perhaps what wine to have. Or we have a wine and have to decide what dinner to serve with the wine. These days, many people have lower wine budgets than in the past, and some are finding out that having wine in the cellar is a good thing, and now is the time to begin drinking it. Frugal, careful, thrifty--these adjectives apply today to many of us in our purchases of necessities and needs.

Because customers are cutting back on spending, many online wine retailers are offering excellent wines at greatly reduced prices. Also, some wineries with a backlog of unsold older wines are offering them at bargain prices. Several familiar local wineries which produce excellent wines have their wines at our local Costco and in grocery stores. Grocery Outlet has wines from out-of-state which normally sell for three times what they are selling for now.

At Costco we found:
Saint Laurent Merlot and Chardonnay $9.99.
Hedges CMS $7.99
Ryan Patrick Rock Island Red $12.99 and Naked Chardonnay $7.99
Vin du Lac Les Amis Riesling $8.89; 2007 Chardonnay $13.79
Chandler Reach (Prosser) NV Red Blend $8.99
Reininger 2005 Merlot Walla Walla $19.99 (WS 91)
Columbia Crest Walter Clore Reserve 2005 $19.99 (WS 92)
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc New Zealand $20.00 (WS 91) One of the best.

These are just a few of the examples to be found there as of January 10 . Local grocery stores regularly have some excellent buys, especially if you purchase several bottles:4 to 6, usually. Right now, until Jan. 12, Safeway and Food Pavilion are offering Chateau Ste. Michelle's 2008 Dry Riesling at $5.39 if you buy 6 or 4 bottles. This wine was just named Best of Class, Judges' Choice Riesling at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 2010.

Grocery Outlet: Just arrived are some new wines from Cameron Hughes, a California wine marketer similar to a French negociant. We have tried several and found them good, especially for the $5.99 price. For $10.99, a Chalk Hill Chardonnay, Imagine, is available, and good. And the G.O.'s in Monroe and in Moses Lake also have selections, if you get over that way.

As I've said before, "So many wines; so little time." Because we do this on a not-for-profit basis (in other words, we buy our wine and taste it; no one gives us any), we cannot try them all, so if anyone has a recommendation, let me know.

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...buy now or forever pay a higher price. Well, maybe not forever, but...< Anytime California growers choose to custom crush and store their own in the hope of making future bulk sales at a profit, well you have to know that the wine glut will likely be with us for at least the next two or three years. The pricing pressure will likely become so great in the next few years that many growers and vintners alike may not be able to recover. From Australia to California and factoring in this protracted recession, me thinks the entire wine industry is in deep trouble, very much like local cherry growers down the pike. It's all good news for consumers, though, at least until enough growers are forced out and balance is restored. When that happens prices will indeed go up because demand will have increased largely due to very cheap prices during the glut years.

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