3 ways to check a supermarket bottle of wine...

WINE TALK
1

Usually I suggest to my client to buy wine directly from the producers or farms. Anyway, if you want to find a decent wine at supermarket, I suggest (I repeat, only suggest), these three short rules:

  1. The price: never under 5 $, why? Make a calculation: is almost impossible to find under one dollar/kilo (normal quantity to make a bottle) grapes grown with normal standard agronomical cares. Another Dollar for production costs (farm, machines, light, work, etc.); 50 cents for the glass of bottle, label, cork. We are arrived around 2,50 $. Some money for the producer/agent don’t want to give them? Finally, VAT, transport, and other.

  2. The sentence: bottled by , produced and bottled by , estate-bottled by the winery. Obviously these are very good things, better. Why? Because all the production chain is checked only by one figure.

  3. The origin: rely on DOC and DOCG ( PDO ) , to a lesser extent on IGT ( IGP ) , discard the wines without one of these three categories (different nation by nation).

2

I think those rules would have worked fine Viscardo…in 1977.

3

I respect your opinion, but why…in 1977?

4

[smileyvault-ban.gif]

5

I only get my wine from farms. I like to pick slightly underripe and then let the bottles mature in the kitchen window.

6

Viscardo
I would add a caveat to your DOC/DOCG recommendation, one to generally avoid cheap versions of the really famous DOCs and DOCGs. Some recognisable names are easy to sell, yet what is in the bottle bears little resemblance to the better wines of the same appellation.

Examples include Chateauneuf du Pape and Barolo. DOCGs like Chianti and Soave were appalling for many years, though both have showed what can be achieved, not by regulators granting the DOCG, but by enough quality producers, such that a groundswell of quality prompts others to improve. For a while some great chianti exited the appellation to put quality above regulation.

Conversely there are some lesser known DOCs / DOCGs where they can’t rely on a famous name, so have to produce decent / decent value to succeed - in which scenarios your advice can be very successful.

regards
Ian

7

  1. No puns.

  2. No cartoons.

  3. No animals (unless it’s a trio of ravens)

8

Times have changed Viscardo - for example, some of the greatest wines coming out of the South of France are nothing more than Vin de Pays today. A great winemaker will produce a superb wine from a lesser appellation and a mediocre winemaker will make a horrible wine from a highly regarded appellation. You will run into mediocre Chianti Classico and great Chianti Colli Senese - again because of the producer.

THERE ARE NO RULES ANYMORE. You follow producers and stay fresh with the lesser producers. The best advice you can give the consumers is to find a good wine merchant to steer you through the great frontier of wine.

And regarding your topic of Supermarket wines, there really are some superb supermarkets out there with sterling wine selections. Stick to those stores, and you will have no problem being adventurous. And just as big as ‘appellation’ is - freshness. Don’t purchase a Corbieres that’s been standing on the shelf for three years - stay young baby, stay young.

9

I don’t usually buy my wines in supermarkets, but sometimes, while I am traveling, that is the only option. For that situation these are not bad guidelines at all, Bob.

10

Dear Thomas,

I agree with you; for example, many of our greatest wines (Italy) have the simple appellation IGT, and I’m talking about bottles for 100 Euros and more. DOC and DOCG don’t mean nothing nowadays, because they were born in 1966 (Frascati bianco, and after Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello), it’s old. More, actually here, we love organic and biodynamic wines, and some of them are…outlaw, because don’t respect the disciplinary.

Supermarkets usually, don’t take so care about bottles maybe because they can’t, I don’t know: temperature, lights, storage, travel, exposition, etc. But it doesn’t mean that they have cheap wine. Anyway, more specialized is the store, better wine you will find. Supermarket sells almost everything. Winery sells only wine.

11

Thank you Daniel, those are only little tips.

12

I have the only absolute way to eliminate any worry over supermarket wine: don’t buy any. EVER. Voila!

13

Living in the peoples republic of Pennsylvania, buying wine in a supermarket is not an option!!!

14

You can sometimes find good wines and fair pricing in grocery stores. Just like restaurant lists, it comes down to your knowledge of what wines you like, what vintages are good, and what the pricing should be. The more you know, the better you’ll do.

If you’re willing to do the “buy six bottles and get 30% off” that some supermarkets offer, particularly if layered on top of the bottle being on sale as they often are at the supermarket, you can sometimes do well or even better.

One way to use the 30% off thing when you don’t necessarily want is to add in a few good QPR New Zealand sauv blancs to get to six. Say your grocery store sells a Napa cab you like for $50, and has it on sale for $40. You want the 30% discount, but don’t want to spend $240 either. Maybe you buy three of those, and add three bottles of Matua or Kim Crawford for cheap, then get 30% off of everything. For your $10 or whatever, the NZ bottles are good for some afternoon, picnics, to serve to company, as gifts, to smuggle into your plastic cup while watching the kids play sports, and so forth.

15

I have one very important rule:

If one must buy wine in a supermarket, make sure that supermarket is in France.

Tune in soon for my 6 rules for buying wines in a bowling alley pro shop.

16

I’m lucky that my main supermarket has a good wine selection, although tilted toward the local CA wines.

17

Direct and effective! [shock.gif]

18

Yes, I understand.

19

Yes Chris,

but I’m not saying to don’t buy wine at supermarket, of course; I have written only some short suggestions if you want to buy it there.

20

Yes David,

the point is between “must” and “want” to buy!