Wine Bargains Archives - Wine Country Getaways

Big Surprises at the Chilean Wine Tour

October 13, 2012 by Joe Becerra

With stops in Chicago and San Francisco to promote the wines of Chile, the Chilean Pro Wine Tour made a surprise announcement to those attending a seminar for the wine media. We attended this event in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 9, and learned that there is a new appellation law in Chile that divides the country’s wine regions vertically into three distinct viticultural areas. The law is so new that moderator Joshua Green, Editor of Wines & Spirits, stated, “Many in the wine community of Chile do not know about the new appellation law as yet.”

Costa, Entre Cordilleras, and Andes Appellations

The reason for the new appellations is that the old ones were too broad and did not benefit the consumer. The old wine appellations amounted to political areas, with little to do with the regions’ soil and climate conditions. As you can see on the Chilean wine map, the new appellations are divided from West to East. The Costa Appellation is influenced more by its marine climate of the Pacific Ocean and, in many areas of the coast, its limestone soils. The Entre Cordilleras zone is made up of the center valleys of Chile, where there are many microclimates and soil types. In general, the temperature range in this zone will be the highest of the three appellations. On the eastern edge of Chile, the Andes Appellation includes the vineyards that are on the slopes of the great Andes Mountain Range. In order for any bottle of wine to be labeled with one of these three appellations, 85% of the wine must be made from grapes from the new zones.

Chilean wine appellations, Costa, Entre Cordilleras, Andes Zone

The new wine map of Chile

BevMo 5 Cent Sale, Bargains Yes or No & Other Thoughts

June 12, 2010 by Joe Becerra

Here we are at yet another one of those BevMo 5 Cent sales, buy one bottle at the regular price and get the second bottle for a measly 5 cents. We did a little digging into the sale to see if the wines are a good bargain.

First off, you need to be in the BevMo’s “Club Bev” to take advantage of any BevMo sale. If you don’t belong you can enroll when you make your purchase, and magically the computer will recalculate your bill with the sale prices.

bevmo

BevMo vs. BevMo
Have you ever wondered if the BevMo 5 Cent Sale is a better deal than their regular everyday prices? I checked a few of their wines on sale to make a comparison. The Tapiz winery in Argentina makes very good everyday wines. BevMo has a huge contract with Tapiz and probably no other retailer gets as good a price as BevMo. The normal price of the Tapiz Merlot at BevMo is $17.99. If you are a Club Bev member (who is not if they shop at BevMo?) the price is $9.99. During the 5 Cent Sale, the Tapiz Merlot is $17.99 but the second bottle is 5 Cents. That works out to $9.02 a bottle, a savings of almost $1.00 from their everyday price. Not bad, but of course you do have to buy the wine in pairs to get the 5-Cent deal.

Here is another one: The Club Bev price for Zolo Gaucho Chardonnay is $9.99. During the 5 Cent sale the price is $15.99 and when you buy the wine in pairs the average price is $8.02. That is a big savings from the $9.99.

BevMo vs. Other Retailers
Now let’s try and compare these 5-Cent sale wines with the prices they are selling for elsewhere. I used Wine-Searcher.com, Snooth, and WineZap to compare the wine prices. For Tapiz Merlot, the average price at other wine shops is $15. The Zolo Gaucho Chardonnay average price is also $15 at other stores. I also plugged in Chalone Merlot 2005. At BevMo this wine is $29.99 for the first bottle and 5 cents for the second, average price gets down to $15. Elsewhere this wine is selling for $28 to $30. So bottom line, BevMo gives a great deal on these three wines.

BevMo and Obscure Labels
Many of the wines on sale are obscure labels. In other words, you don’t find many of these wines elsewhere. So it must be that BevMo has secured exclusive contracts with many of these unheard of wines. For example, I did search on the above three Websites for Sonoma Landing Merlot and Harding Estate Riesling. No results showed up on any of the three websites for these two wines. Nor did I find a Website for any of these two wineries. What I did discover is that Sonoma Landing label belongs to Bronco Wine Company of “Charles Shaw” fame. I’m not going to take a chance and buy any wine I can’t get information about.

BevMo wines not at bargain prices
When you shop at BevMo it is easy to get the idea that every wine is on sale or at a bargain price. There are plenty of big-name labels at BevMo that you are not going to get the best price on. For example; Sobon Rocky Top Zinfandel gets a lot of press about being a terrific value. At BevMo it sells for $14.99 but at K&L Wines it sells for $12.99. Robert Parker recently rated Louis Martini Sonoma Cabernet at 90 points. It is $15.99 at BevMo but it is $11.99 at Costco. Sequoia Grove 06 Cabernet is $36.99 at BevMo but $29.99 at K&L Wines. To get bargains, you need to know your prices and your wines.

Tips for the 5 Cent Sale
The best thing to do is comparison shop using the websites I mentioned above.
If you don’t know the wine, don’t take a risk on buying a shipload even if Wilfred Wong or Robert Parker say it’s 90 points. Buy one or two bottles to try.
BevMo has scheduled a tasting of their sale wines at several of their stores. This is a great opportunity to find out if you like the wines.
Get together with friends and buy different wines to try. If you love the wine go back for more. Warning: My friend and I once split a case of one of the wines at the BevMo 5 Cent Sale. He picked up the wine and when he delivered the wine he told me that he had kept all the five-cent wines for himself and I had all the $17.99 wines. What a friend!

What we like and do not like at BevMo’s 5 Cent Sale
These are the wines we tried that are included in the sale.
I like all the Tapiz wines from Argentina and all the Montgras wines from Chile. These all are terrific wines and most are part of the BevMo 5 Cent Sale.
The Powder Keg Syrah is a good deal at $10.02 for two bottles.
I tried the Wattle Creek Kristine’s Cuvee from Yorkville Highlands. It is a good wine but it is priced just right at about $10 a bottle.
The Martin Codax Albariño was disappointing. The wine is a little old, 2007. I found it had lost the refreshing flavors of what we immensely enjoy in an AlbariÃ±o wine.
Tell us if you have found any terrific bargains at the BevMo 5 Cent Sale.

Sleuthing for Wine Values & Bargains

January 10, 2010 by Joe Becerra

This year should provide a great opportunity for finding wine values and bargains. The word in the wine biz is that, with huge inventories building, wine distributors are being very selective of clients, and with many wineries on the brink of financial disaster we should see many a bargain wine out there. Good wine deals go quickly and the old adage “You snooze, you lose”could not be more true than when it comes to wine sales. If you want to take advantage of these coming wine deals, you need to become a wine sleuth.

How to Become a Wine Sleuth

Always peruse the wine shelves wherever you shop. Learn your wine prices. Last week Safeway stores had an amazing sale on Domain Chandon sparkling wine for $10 a bottle or $9 if you purchased a half case. I saw that same wine earlier in the week at Lunardi’s grocery store. The cases of Chandon were displayed like it was a huge sale. It was selling for $21.95 a bottle. Remarkable!

Start a Wine Tasting Club in 2010

November 25, 2009 by Joe Becerra

One of the best ways to learn about wine and to discover new wines is to be a member of a wine tasting club. Why not consider starting one and take the month of December to organize your club and set up a tasting for January 2010. A wine tasting club functions somewhat like the popular book clubs held in homes all over the world today. In this case, the purpose is not to read and discuss books, but to taste and discuss different wines. Which one of these clubs do you think is more fun?

Our Vintage Wine Tasting club consists of 7 members who meet every other month. We meet at noon, taste and judge our wines, and then the host serves us a fabulous lunch. We like to focus on wines that are in the bargain category, no more than $20 per bottle. Once a year we splurge and do a Cabernet Sauvignon tasting at $40. We each put an extra $5 in the kitty at our meeting to help fund this tasting. We also get together as a group with our spouses three or four times a year for a festive dinner and we each bring a special bottle of wine from our cellars. The idea of the wine tasting club has brought a whole new level of commodity and enjoyment beyond our expectations.

How to Check the Sale Price of Wine

November 18, 2009 by Joe Becerra

This is the time of the year for wine sales. This year more than any other, wineries are in need of selling a lot of wine and so wine sales should be plentiful. So how do you know if you are really getting a good deal or not on a bottle of wine? For example, you might see this sale: Edna Valley Chardonnay on sale for $11.99, regular price is $14.99. Ignore the regular price figure and compare the sale price to other wine retailers. The easiest way is to do this is use one of these three Websites to comparison shop.

I use the Wine-Searcher, WineZap, and Snooth. With each of these Websites you can simply enter the exact wine you are interested in comparing and you get a list of wine prices for various wine retailers. I usually do nothing more than compare prices. I rarely take the next step and click to go to the online retailer to buy the wine.

For a 2008 Edna Valley Chardonnay, I entered that exact Vintage into the three sites mentioned. I found the lowest price to be $8.49 and the highest price to be $15.99. I basically use these websites to compare wine prices and then shop locally to find the wine. There are two advantages to using Snooth. You can plug in your ZIP code and narrow the choices to local wine shops. Secondly, wine drinkers who have registered with Snooth can write their own reviews of the wine.

These three wine comparison sites do not always have the latest wine prices nor do they have prices from some of the biggest discounters of wine like Costco and Trader Joe’s.

wine-sales

Another way to keep up with bargain wines is to join Good Cheap Vino. This is a social Website that we began in order to search for the ultimate wine bargains. When a member finds a great deal, they post it on Good Cheap Vino for the other members to know about.

One last thing, a disclosure about Snooth. On the right column you will notice a Snooth Widget. Every time one uses the widget to search for wine, I get a couple of pennies put into my account.

Vintage Wine Club Red Wine Bargains for the Holidays

November 12, 2009 by Joe Becerra

In the last post, the Vintage Wine Club listed their favorite white wine bargains for the holidays so this post is all about our favorite bargain reds. As we described previously, the Vintage Wine Club members are daily wine drinkers and constantly span the wine departments and wine stores for bargain wines. We know our prices and our wines. When we find a great bargain we share it with others and post it on Good Cheap Vino.

Bargain White Wines for the Holidays

November 10, 2009 by Joe Becerra

Last Sunday’s S.F. Chronicle had an article devoted to good wines under $15. The buyers at Cost Plus, BevMo, and Spencer & Daniel’s touted their favorite bargain wines. That gave me the idea to post some of the favorite bargain wines of the Vintage Wine Club. This is a club of seven members who have been meeting regularly for years to discover the ultimate in wine bargains. Each of us is a daily wine drinker and we constantly scan the shelves for bargain wines. When we find something good we share it with each others. Here is our list of top white wines. Next post, the reds.