What’s your go to place for weekday, working class wines? (9-15 dollar range)
Never tried them, but looked at the BevMo site and I never heard of most of their wines at this price point.
BevMo = “No!!” {in horror}
Take a look at K&L Wines — their selection is solid from top to bottom.
Funny, both the Livermore BevMo and Costco have for some reason a significantly worse wine selection than those in the neighboring towns. Indeed, the variation is so great, I’d question whether any opinions you collect here will be meaningful outside the specific stores people refer to.
That said, reading a Wilford Wong tasting note puts me out of the mood to drink wine, so I guess I’d vote Costco.
I’ve also been finding some decent low cost (<$10) summer whites at Trader Joe’s, our Safeway is pretty decent, and our local family-owned shop sometimes has some good everyday wines as well.
We got a Total Wine here a few months ago and they tout their selection of thousands of wines. Unfortunately I have never heard of thousands of them including plenty of private labels.
Fortunately I have a great local shop that sells at basically Costco prices.
Basically the only good thing about being a Scottsdale wine consumer.
Bevmo has sort of jumped the shark as far as wine selection goes. Half of what they sell is stuff you’ve never heard of crap, and the other half is full retail stuff you have. Costco at least has some interesting variety and better pricing.
That said, k&l has a huge selection of daily drinkers if you’re willing to pay for shipping. Recently they have had several rosenblum zins at very good pricing. I happen to like that style so I ordered a mixed case.
Both Bevmo & Costco regularly have some great daily drinkers. The problem is knowing which ones they are. I have found that Bevmo often jacks prices then offers the second bottle for 5 cents and the price of the two bottles is at or above Costco and many retail prices.
Safeway usually has 10% or more off on 6 or 12 bottle purchases, so check there too. Trader Joe’s often picks up some great wines at great prices too.
A “Daily Drinker” thread would be ideal to share great finds. When Tex Landreth told us about the Educated Guess Cab, (17.99), we bought 10 cases and ran out in a couple weeks. Tex posted on the next vintage as being bad, so we didn’t buy and the vintage after that good again, which we bought plenty of. Not everybody has the same palate, so some notes are needed to guide others.
2009 Juan Gil – $11.49/btl @ Costco. The 08 sucked, but the 09 is terrific.
*edited for accuracy
I buy some low end Drouhin and some domestic sparklers from BevMo. Sometimes I will get a sparkler/chamagne from Costco but for the most part they have nothing to offer me.
Costco over Bevmo. Bevmo has more stuff, but most of it is high production stuff aiming for a price point. Costo has less selection, but at least has a few interesting options here and there above the $10-$15 range and occaisionally below it.
Just watch out for the $10 90-pointers at Costco. I’ve made the mistake of buying these because they fall into a category that interests me (aromatic white, fresh red) only to find out they’re crap. My rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t have a score, it’s probably good because it has to sell on flavor. If it does have a score, you aren’t getting the ringer served to Jay Miller while he was drunk and being served a 5 course dinner by an importer.
It completely depends on the Costco that is near you - stock varies store-to-store depending on customer demographics and buying habits. If you are in Marin County, stop at the Costco in Novato and have a look. It doesn’t get much better.
BevMo is a crap shoot, but by avoiding the private label stuff and checking out CT scores, I’ve found a couple of decent bargains there. Trader Joe’s is a similar story. Costco is very location-dependent…I find myself not buying that much at ours. I’ll mention Cost Plus World Market as a place to occasionally find good deals too, although I believe their selection varies a bit store to store.
I have bought from the “clearance corner” page at K+L in the past- at the $12-35 price range and have been disappointed; high percentage of flawed or corked bottles. Maybe that’s why they wind up there
What have been your experiences with their clearance corner?
I’ve bought a few things from K&L clearance with good success. I tend to avoid the name regions and go for lesser know stuff. The way I figure, if it can sell on its name (or score) and goes to clearance, then it must suck. The oddball wines might also suck, but there’s a better chance they are simply too under the radar. K&L does do a good job stocking geeky wines, and sometimes their “eyes are bigger than their stomach” so to speak with these.
One of my favorites was a Leithaberg (sp?) Blaufrankisch. $20 on closeout, but legitimately of $40-$50 quality.
I’ve never had a problem but I live nearby, buy almost entirely Italian and Spanish, and know what I’m buying is a previous vintage or a new wine that didn’t sell well getting blown out. I’m surprised they’d sell damaged goods though.
Do you not have a large wine shop nearby, Philip? The 3 here always have a good selection of inexpensive juice.
Try a local wine merchant and discuss what you are looking for. He/she should be able to find you something that will
meet your needs. A good one will have a full price range of everyday wines on up to the top of the line wines. If you
become a regular, the merchant can often phone you when something of interest shows up.
So-called Big Box Retailers ( BevMo, Total Wine, etc. ) are just that - large boxes and most will be directing you to the
brands (i.e. obscure producers ) where they likely make the best margins. Costco and Sam’s Club might have some
wines you would be happy with, but they might not, too.
Hank ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Edited for spelling error.
Hate to be a debbie downer…but Juan Gil is not the leftover juice from Clio and El Nido…
I stand corrected, that was the story I was told and don’t swim in the Spanish market. Mea culpa.
I’ve never purchased wine at BevMo, just kegs of beer.
Like a lot of things at Cost Co, it depends on what’s currently in stock. I’ve gotten some great deals in the past like a case of 2002 Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee for $16. When I go, the wine selection is always worth browsing since you might come across a great QPR.
But, I mostly buy from local wine shops like K&L, Wine House, Wine Expo, etc.
Most of those wines are bulked-out that TB then buys, names, and puts on the shelves with the different colored shelf talker.
BD