Great thread! I love red wine and drink it regularly, so many great wines out there and the truth is that you don't need to spend a lot of money in order to get a great wine. One of the biggest lies in the business is that really expensive wines taste better which can be false a lot of the time.
Here are some tips that I use when looking for wine.
1) If you give wine as a gift when going to an event like a birthday or someone's home, I always recommend looking for some good wine that you like and buying a case or two when it goes on LTO (limited time offer, its code in the booze business) It saves multiple trips to the liquor store and you can give a nicer bottle for less.
2) I really recommend Costco for wine and I really love their in house Kirkland label. Costco is the #1 wine purchaser in the world so when they go to a vineyard or a supplier and ask them to send them X amount of cases, you know you will get a great quality wine at a great price. The Kirkland signature series is the higher level wine and is excellent value and Costco never marks up their product more than 14%. A $30 Costco branded wine could easily be $50 at a regular liquor store for similar quality. If your having people over, educate them a bit. There should be no reason to have "label fear" At the end of the day it's a beverage made with grapes!
3) If you travel to the US frequently I always recommend bringing back wine, especially the higher priced stuff as the savings can be great when compared to Alberta prices.
Enjoy the vino everyone!
|