Blog Article
Insider Secrets of Buying Wine For The Holidays
Secrets of buying wine are often found by word of mouth
Let the buying begin.
Black Fridays. Cyber Mondays. Purple Tuesdays.
OK, I made that last one up.
But, it’s consumer time in the wine business. Stand back, those crowds toughen up during the holidays. Little old ladies are already ramming me from behind with their shopping carts and elbowing through the sock section at Macy’s.
Bleary eyed shoppers wrapped in the fever of the season are hunched over a hot internet connection buying wines for presents and gifts and dinner parties.
Restaurants are filling up again, although they may be slower to get to you this year, so patience is recommended. They can’t find enough waiters and cooks and people to bus the tables yet because the ones they fired last year are still hesitant to come back to work for $7.50/hour with Covid lurking in the mingling crowds.
For a winery, the excitement was back in September when the distributors were buying inventory for the season. After Thanksgiving, the harvest is in, crush has begun and most wineries get some rest finally.
But, these days consumers never sleep. And, they live all over the world so opening and closing times have no meaning any more.
Quick Tips for How to Buy
STORES
Wineries- Generally speaking, if you have the option, buy directly from the winery.
Wineries can’t usually compete on price because if they undercut their distributors and retailers they’ll get dropped. But, the wine is stored well, fresher and doesn’t usually go through the damage of shipping and storage that happens in the winery-to-distributor-to-retailer-to-you in the standard “three tier” system.
Labels- Most people buy wines based on what the label looks like. That’s like betting on the grey horse at the racetrack. Neither strategy will lead you to success.
Some labels have valuable information on them including origin of the grapes, alcohol levels and such but some list technical information about acidity levels and lab analysis that is unrelated to quality. Some just lie or mislead. Reading the label for quality indications is a skill worth developing.
Shelf Placement—Grocery stores, Costco, Target, independently owned local stores, even CVS, put what they want to sell the most on the eye level shelf. So, if you’re looking for social proof, that’s the place to go. Note, that means they are the most popular and probably reasonably good values but it has nothing to do with either quality or whether you will like it or not.
Case stacks or end aisle displays— stores stack cases for one of two reasons—they are selling something with very small markup to get you into the store or they got a deal by buying larger quantities of a particular wine. It’s a rule of thumb, not a law, but generally speaking look for the best values in the case stacks.
Discounts—Beware of anything discounted over 20%. Usually the wines with big discounts are cheaper because the store needs to get rid of them. They aren’t necessarily bad but they are probably getting old or have been damaged.
Age— 90% of wines sold in stores are consumed within 60 days. Beware of wines more than 2-3 years old. Especially, if they are discounted over 20%. The greatest wines age much longer than that of course, but stores aren’t in the aging business—they work on very small margins and high turnover. Buying wines to lay down is a different business and those wines are usually sourced directly from wineries or auctions.
RESTAURANTS
A lot of people just pick the second cheapest wine on the list. The restaurants are already onto this strategy. It’s perfectly fine to pick by price, just don’t think you’re fooling anybody.
By the Glass—Restaurants generally get their best markups in wine by the glass programs. They spend a lot of time looking for things you will buy more of, so wine by the glass is roughly the equivalent of eye level shelf position in stores. Generally speaking they markup the wine so when they have sold one glass it pays for their cost of the bottle it came from—if a glass is $14, then the restaurant generally pays about $14 for the bottle.
This can be a great way to find new wines or to satisfy people at the table who want different wines. I like these programs but if you’re looking for best value, buy the bottle.
By the bottle (wine list)— the biggest issues with buying from the list are storage and selection. Some restaurants buy all their wines from the same distributor and that distributor will print the wine list for them at no cost to them. Other restaurants take great pride in selecting the best wines they find and use that to build their reputation and attract wealthier clients. You really do need to know something about wines to buy from the list or else trust a sommelier or bartender.
Sommeliers and bartenders— there are great ones and terrible ones. Ask lots of questions that are relevant to what you want— price, region, grape of course, but also with the particular food you are ordering or how the wines are stored or what they specialize in (buying California wine at an Italian restaurant may not be the best choice). Let them know how adventurous you’re willing to be.
I know Sommeliers are held in very high esteem by some. Just remember they are not paid to help you, they are paid to help the restaurant. They may be pushing wines with high markups or wines the restaurant needs to get rid of because they are getting old.
Just remember, Sommeliers and Bartenders can be great but they are there to help the restaurant sell wine, not to help you find overlooked gems. There may be hidden motives for recommending a wine.
Wine Gifts
Maps of the Vineyards Around the World
You probably weren’t thinking about wine maps for gifts but most wine lovers really get into the geography of wine—appellations, regions, vineyards and all that. Plus, they can be colorful on the wall and inspire vineyard travels.
https://winefolly.com/lifestyle/updated-wine-maps-of-the-world/
https://vineyards.com/wine-map/united-states
https://www.winescholarguild.org/uncategorised/about-the-wine-scholar-guild.html
Top 3 Places to Buy Wine Online
These are from California Winery Advisor (https://californiawineryadvisor.com/best-place-buy-wine-online/). Don’t forget to check on what gift boxes or baskets and wooden cases are available.
What’s your wine worth?
This is the question that gets asked the most and the answer of course is what I’ve told you before. It’s worth what you can get somebody to pay you for it. It changes constantly so to get an idea of what somebody will pay you for it today check out these sites. Remember, different sites will usually have different prices so it can pay to shop around.
Once you know what’s going on, buying wine may not be as uplifting as having a glass on the veranda of a Tuscan winery at sunset, but it can still be exciting. It’s like figuring out a puzzle.
Not everybody is out to get you, but it can feel that way sometimes. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. If it’s important and you have something major riding on it, try to seek out someone who can guide you.
Now that you know what to look for, get out there and shop!
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