In The Market For A Nice Bottle…
…I’ve blogged before about wine shopping in the grocery store, and if I came across as if I only like to purchase wine at exclusive wine shops and I frown upon buying wine at the market, let me clarify: NOT TRUE. While I do love the selection and expertise on hand at my favorite wine spots, I buy a fair share from the grocery store.
My favorite wine shops are not necessarily located down the street from my house. And if I’m putting together an impromptu menu for dinner, I don’t really have the time to run all over town just for a bottle of wine. And to be honest, there are plenty of good bottles to choose from at most grocery stores, and often times the deals are as good or better.
There are a few key steps to take to ensure that you’ll be happy with the bottle you bring home…
DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Since your grocery market probably doesn’t have a wine expert on hand to answer questions or steer you in the right direction, arm yourself with the info you need to make the right choice on your own. Become familiar with the bottles your store carries. If you have more than one market in your hood, compare and contrast; some stores have more choices.. or some have better Cabernet selections, but not very good Pinot sections, and so-on and so-forth. The best stuff will generally be on the top two shelves, but I’ve noticed that sometimes if a new bottle comes in, they’ll stick it wherever they have a hole rather than ripple the whole section to make room on the top shelf, so keep your eyes open.
Write down some of the ones that look good, and look them up online when you get home. Google the wine and see what you can find. There will invariably be online retailers that carry the wine or blogs and sites (like WineExpedition.com!) that have tasted the wine. There’s a good chance you’ll find scores from the wine magazines and critics, food pairing suggestions and reviews. You’ll also find tasting notes and food pairing info on the winery’s website. If you have a member ship to Wine Spectator, use it: chances are they’ve reviewed several of the wines you find on the grocer’s shelves. If you have a web-enabled cell phone or PDA you can do your homework right there in the wine aisle. There’s also apps, like Corkz for the iphone that give you remote access to user-generated reviews.
Eventually you’ll have a list of wines that you know you can count on should you be in the market when the need arises.
At that point you can use my next tip: READ THE PRICE TAGS.
Super markets love to put things on sale, and if you have a club card, chances are you’ll find a bargain every time you go down the aisle. The Vons in my area recently had the entire wine section on sale at 30% off, so I got a $30 bottle of wine for 21 bucks. Now sometimes the original prices at the grocery store are a tad high, so the deal may not be as good as it sounds, but still, if I can get a good bottle and save some money in the process, I will.
Finally, don’t be afraid to GO DEEP.
I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but in case ‘ya missed it… Oftentimes, markets will get a new case of wine in and stock the shelves with it, pushing the older vintage to the back of the shelf. Now the truth is, the newer vintage may be better than the old one, and the bottles have been standing straight up as long as they’ve been on the shelf (the preferred shelving method is sideways (thus the movie title) as it keeps the cork moist and lessens the chance of cork issues), but I still like the adventure of trying the older vintage.
If you apply these shopping tips, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a good wine experience, and you’ll learn a lot in the process. I’ve applied them twice in the last two weeks with positive results. I’ll blog about them later, but my two latest supermarket wine purchases were the 2006 David Bruce Petite Sirah and the 2006 Summerland Chardonnay. I’m happy to say that both worked out great and both were on sale!
Good luck; don’t forget your club card and if you have more than 15 items DO NOT get in the express lane.
