They say that the average human uses less than 10% of his or her brain-power. There is a similar saying that if you’re not drinking a variety of wines, you’re only using 10% of your palate.* Well, I’m content giving 90% of my brain a rest (as most of my readers have observed), but I really wanna mobilize and stimulate as many of my taste buds as possible. If wine can do that, count me in. Plus, a lot of my fellow food bloggers are into wine, and I’d like to be able to hold my own in a conversation when the topic comes up. Hopefully, they’ll chime in here and contribute to my education.
But, wait. There’s a catch. Wine is expensive. It’s a luxury of the bourgeois class. Or at least, that’s how it often appears when you add up all of the etiquette, paraphernalia, and affectations that go along with wine drinking. It seems like the rigmarole pursuit of flavor is such a bizarre contortion to put yourself through and it can take you into really irrational spending. Then there’s my real pet peeve: doubling the price of a meal just for a beverage. Wine drinking, as a hobby, has a lot of baggage to overcome if I’m going to get really involved in it. The truth is, I’ll willingly spend entirely too long with my nose in a glass, swirl it around vigorously, make aerating bubble sounds in my mouth, and then search for flavors and words to describe them, and I’ll love every minute of it all while enduring my wife’s sighs and eye-rolls. It’s mostly tongue in check for me, since I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just want to feel like I’m enjoying aristocratic flavors at proletarian prices. Is that too much to ask?
How I shop: In my heart of hearts, I want to spend every penny with my locally owned wine shops. They’re real people, accessible in their storefronts and on social media, and they’ll get to know your tastes for future reference. With that said, my compulsive pursuit of out of this world bargains is liable to take me to all manner of wine stores, including brick and mortar, web-based, and suburban big-box. The killer deals that I find may come up short in various ways, but I dig the trial and error of it all. What I’m looking for is a good “ quality price ratio” (QPR), preferably under $10. I’m just not willing to throw big bills at a single bottle when it’ll be gone in a heart beat. A sustainable wine coiffing hobby is what I want. Without further adieu, here’s a quick list that encapsulates some of…
My recent adventures in novice wine buying:
River City Cellars: Top billing goes to the most charming wine/cheese shop in Richmond, in my experience. Julia and company host weekly tastings, and do more with their small space in Carytown than most big retailers, regardless of the product. Also, they don’t make you go all the way to the back to find the clearance section. The bargain area at RCC is right out front. However, I’m no longer limiting myself to the $10 section. Why? Because there’s lots of wines near or under $10 all around the around the shop. After buying from RCC 2-3 times per year, since they opened, I actually just learned to look beyond the cheap section a couple weeks ago. Now, I’m gonna scour the whole shop and get opinions from the staff, because whatever I’ve gotten there, has tasted great. The expert advice and quality control is easily worth a buck or two. And the fact that the employees all have health insurance is a good justification for doing your wine shopping with the little local shop. Actually, River City Cellars isn’t going to be so little for long. Soon, they’ll be expanding into the neighboring spot, offering an education in wine at their wine bar, Secco. (ps: they sold me piment d’espelette. A really amazing seasoning that you gotta try)
Trader Joe’s: I asked my Twitter network what bargain wines people buy at TJs and wouldn’t you know it, I got plenty of recommendations. It turns out that even relative strangers want to be helpful, and with Twitter, if you get your advice in quickly, you can feel reasonably assured that your tips will be put to use. Since I feel like I’ve kinda outgrown Charles Shaw (two buck Chuck), I expanded my range to $4-$8 and brought five or six, almost all of which weren’t bad at all. There’s plenty of people blogging about Trader Joe’s wines, so I’ll be checking out those blogs ahead of time instead of picking randomly. The staff also seems to know a lot about the wine at TJs. Nonetheless, since I have the web thru my phone, I’ve put CellarTracker.com into my bookmarks so I can search the tasting notes on those bargain bottles before buying.
WineLibrary.com and CinderellaWine.com: Even though I’ve only caught a small percentage of Gary Vaynerchuk’s daily wine-tasting video blogs, I consider myself a fan. His brand of thoughtful but opinionated discussion, idiosyncrasies and enunciation bordering on facial tics, and bombastic motivational calls to action give Gary a unique and irresistible charm. Those WineLibraryTV shows have helped to make me much more curious about wine. After all of the advice I’ve heard from him, it’s no surprise that I would go ahead and buy some discounted bottles from his websites. So far, the wine has been tremendous (a case of Domaine de la Chesnay Cotes du Rhone was my first home run). Were the deep discounts really bargains? Mostly yes. Others, I’m not so sure. Often times, stuff is cheap for a reason, but for this frugal foodie, the discounts are still hard to pass up. It’s going to take a lot of wine education before I can really assess a wine’s QPR. My rule for now is: < $10 and near 90+ points and/or layers of interesting flavors = a steal. Every so often, I’ll probably want to throw in on a case with free shipping if any of you all wanna split it with me.
World Market: Like Trader Joe’s, this place has some dirt cheap wine (around $4) as well as a pretty wide variety of bottles, often not seen at other shops, and sometimes at discount prices. Plus, you get 10% off six bottles or more. The question is, does the stuff taste good? I bought 6 bottles and I’m not sure I’m ready to say yes. Mixed results. The $5 World Market brand cabernet was surprisingly tasty. And, I’ve got high hopes for a $7 carmenere that was advertised as the best bargain bottle around. Anyone have suggestions for shopping this place?
Kroger: Shopping for wine at the grocery store is the mainstream consumer thing to do. And, as such, the choices are probably dictated by big corporations and generally focus on mass produced swill that’s made with cheap short cuts that result in middle of the road, inoffensive and unspectacular flavors. This is what I’ve been led to believe. It may be true, or the mantra of snobs, or both. I’ve also been led to believe that merlot is a bastardized varietal that is manipulated to taste like candy and isn’t really wine. Pinot noir, on the other hand, is a profound grape that yields the most contemplative flavors through a hard wrought process that requires real care from the winemaker. Yes, folks. I’m talking about the influence of that fantastically fun Napa Valley set, film-noire buddy-comedy, Sideways. How do I know if Paul Giamatti’s soliloquy on wine that gets him the girl is oversimplified hype? I need simple instructions and generalizations at this point in my wine explorations. All of this is to preface the fact that I bought two bottles of Beringer Founders’ Estate. One merlot and one pinot noir. They were $8 each, down from $13. I reached for them while remembering a wine commentator on NPR (over 10 years ago) saying that Beringer may be ubiquitous, but also extremely competent at making pleasing wine. Therefore, I’m hoping these will have a high QPR and worthy of a merlot/pinot taste-off (if anyone wants to join me in that, my email addy is in the about page). A week later, I noticed the same bottles at Target, on sale for $7, down from $9. And the tasting notes on Cellar Tracker don’t look good either. Ugh.
BJ’s: In a warehouse of supposed discounts, of course I’m gonna buy something. Like Kroger, the under $10 wine here is mostly the kind with pictures of animals on the lable (yellow tail, something penguin, smoking loon, that monkey kind, llama thingamajig, etc). I grabbed one of the few affordable bottles that didn’t look like kids’ stuff, or overly stylized and cheap. It was a French bordeaux by Mouton Cadet. Not great, but not bad.
Some loose ends:
Terminology: I can recognize oaky flavors in wine. But what’s a mid-palate? Tannins? Fruit? Earthy? Maybe I’m drinking lots of cheap stuff, but many wines taste similar to me. Tastes hot? Huh? Flabby? What did you call me? Structure? So much jargon. Is it really necessary?
Stuff I don’t understand: When to drink it. I’m not talking about aging a wine in my basement. I don’t have that kind of restraint. I want wine that I can drink now, cuz it’s gonna get drunk now anyhow. My issue is how long to let a wine breathe and weather to decant it. Do all wines improve over the first hour or so, or do some get worse? Should I try to drink the whole bottle that night. How do I make sure it’s going to taste good the next day? If I have to learn this part through trial and error, I’m gonna waste a lot of money and think a bunch of good wines are bad. See why I’ve got so much trepidation about this? Seriously, hip me to fundamentals and I’ll love you forever. Whatever your wine buying/drinking practice is, I’m curious. So, drop a comment.
*Actually, I just made that wine colloquialism up. But, wine is a short cut to big flavors (no cooking/prep work) and it can really amplify the flavors of your food. So, definitely an enabler of palate exploration.
Welcome to a most excellent journey. Wine can be cheap and good or expensive and good or just plain crap. But it is so much fun and introduces your palate to another dimension. Check out Anything Wine blog. John works at The Wine Cellar and knows his stuff.
The best thing about the local shops are the free tastings!
River City Cellars – Friday
Once Upon a Vine – Fridays
The Wine Cellar – Fridays (sign up for email)
Vino Market – Fridays (sign up for email)
J. Emerson – Once a month on a week day (KICK ASS stuff) (sign up for email)
All of the various staffs are knowledgeable and passionate about wine. And with all of the free tastings, you can figure out what you like and don’t have to waste hard earned cash on the proverbial plonk.
Would be more than happy to continue the conversation at a later date.
“just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus”
Will follow with interest! Especially what you discover locally. We’re almost exclusively under $10 a bottle drinkers.
Total Wine belongs on your list, I have found their employees to be very helpful. Some of the prices are really good (versus Kroger) Plus they have coupons from time to time (get on email list)
Haven’t been overly impressed with BJ’s.
Wine rebates are my friend for making bottles more affordable, but usually only available for mainstream brands.
You left out Grape and Cheese, free wine tastings Fridays from 5-8pm. The owner is hilarious and won’t turn his nose up at giving advice on $8 bottles.
I can’t afford *really* good wine, and I don’t have the self-restraint to age wines either. That being said, I’m working on becoming a connoisseur of the $8-12 spectrum.
Lately (over the past year or two) I’ve been gravitating towards South American Malbecs. In general, the price fluctuates around the $10 mark, and the quality is far superior to wines in that price range from other appellations.
If you’re buying in my price range, I’d tend to avoid pinot noirs. They’re just not usually good unless they’re expensive. That being said I am not one of those pompous “cheap wines are never good and good wines are never cheap” assholes.
Ok, I’ll shuttup now. I’m learning too so this is all kind of exciting to me.
As for the decanter thing, only use one when a wine is too “tight”, or tannic. It will help it open up and breathe, but if you use one on a bottle that doesn’t need it, you risk irrevocably losing flavor and complexity.
I always finish a bottle the night I open it. Some people swear to drinkability over a 24 hour period, but I’ve never had a wine that stayed at its fullest expression for that long. Also, I like to drink a lot.
Don’t look at the trial and error thing as a waste. Buying a bottle of wine is always an adventure and a risk. Even a wine you’ve had before could produce an occasional bad bottle (corked, second fermentation, maturization are all random anomalies.
Also: Robert Parker and other professional wine journalists are good to check out, but are not the gospel. I love to disagree with them and do so as often as possible. I’ve learned more arguing with people over the qualities of a wine than reading about it.
the “I’ll shut up now” sentence was supposed to be at the end of that post….
Glad to see that I’m not the only one self-professing his amateur status and bringing a frugal approach. I’m also very likely to finish the bottle in front of the computer in to the wee hours. Good advice about decanting. I need to learn to identify a wine being too “tight” or tannic. That Chesnay from WineLibrary caused a lot of discussion on CellarTracker for being effervescent until it had been decanted for an hour. At that point, it really did impressive things. But I’m assuming that eventually the complexity fades, especially when decanted. Finding that window of opportunity seems like a lot of pressure – a really high maintenance hobby. Tequila on the other hand…
Grape and Cheese. I haven’t been since they opened. And Once Upon a Vine, isn’t that the guy from the old Prices on Strawberry? (I hearted that place) I need to visit those places too. And Total Wine. Again, I’m like 70% behind the local little guys (so my new hobby will benefit them), but I just love to pull from every corner of the marketplace.
I wish I could tell the difference between varietals better. I’ve liked Spanish riojas since I bought a case of Codice in 1999 at Strawberry St Vineyards (?). Very curious about carmenere (mostly from Chile, right?). And the heavy stuff like Shiraz has always been easy for me to like. But, I’m much more open minded when it comes to flavors now. So, any suggestions are welcome.
Once Upon a Vine is Bob from Price’s. He’s a good guy, but a bit crazy. I really like Henry at Strawberry Street Vineyards, too. He knows his stuff and knows his customers tastes. They also do a Friday tasting. We’ve been known to cruise several of the Friday tastings for fun, often ending at RCC and closing the place down with Julia and the crew. They also happen to keep one of the best beer selections in the city. Good stuff.
As for the wines, there is the potential for hits or misses in every price range. What I love about Trader Joe’s is that the wine guys there know their stuff and will talk to you about any bottle. The manager is even liable to open one for a quick taste if he thinks you’ll like it. There are lots of inexpensive, mediocre wines there, to be sure, but there are also surprising deals on expensive bottles that they’ve been able to buy in bulk for cost. That said, most of my daily drinking wines will come from Trader Joe’s since I shop there weekly, but most of my occasion wines will come from RCC or Strawberry Street where I may be looking for something specific or picking up a bottle on a whim.
I don’t have any specific types I’m really into lately. I’m more of an omnivore, curious about what each new vintage or blend tastes like. Having said that, however, I have been very curious about good blends lately — clarets and meritages, specifically — because I find them really versatile for food and conversation. In fact, just before Enoteca closed we stopped in for a glass of wine and ended up with the whole bottle because it was just so damn good. Should have gotten the name, but didn’t. Pity…
Oh, and when you get around to ordering that case, let me know. I’ll throw in if the money’s in the budget.
Hi Jason-
Thrilled to hear that you are concentrating on wine, there isn’t a better time to drink/think than now, when it is as cold outside as a witch’s you know.
I agree with all the commentors who suggested going to store tastings. If the store is taking the time to do a tasting, then they usually are knowledgeable and passionate about wine. And, you can try several before you buy.
My Richmond.com blog, Winestock, often lists store tastings, so you may find others on that site.
http://social.richmond.com/tags/richmond_wine_stock/
And, if you like, I can show you how to identify things like tannin, acidity, ML, oak and varietal characteristics in wine and how to hone your palate. Let’s touch base after the New Year if you are interested.
Cheers,
Genevelyn
Well, this unfolding conversation is really exciting for me. I’ll be pouring over these comments for a good long while to try and put all the tips to good use. I hope the rest of the readers/commenters get as much out of this. There’s no way I can respond to it all, so I won’t try.
Genevelyn: This post was intended, partially, to lure wine authorities like you in, so I can pick your brain and flaunt my cynical/naive approach to wine drinking. I can’t wait til we crack open a bottle. I’ve got one or two to contribute (and burning questions for a second opinion).
What I’m looking to do is get past that point where I’m drinking a wine, unsure if it’s good or not (well, do you like it? you’re probably asking). Seriously, I need a framework for evaluating the stuff. What am I looking for besides being turned on or off. I wanna be able to analyze the complexity.
Sure, I really do want to go to wine tastings, but they’ll just serve to make me jealous and act obtuse when I ask the price loudly and then slink away and out the door without buying anything. Who hosts the low-end tastings?
I think Paul touched on one of my inspirations for this post: creating categories of wines and/or places to buy them according to very practical criteria that make up “value”. I wanna have a bunch of good wine around to drink whenever I want, but I don’t wanna break the bank. So, a little TJ’s here, web-purchased case there, some deeply discounted big box store stuff, and from the little guy, that wine that pairs perfectly with the dish I’ve been planning to cook tonight for dinner.
Here’s the URL for that local wine blog that PJPink mentioned: http://anythingwine.wordpress.com/ I hope John stops my this post.
By the way, if you all go to Genevelyn’s Richmond.com stories and click on the piece about holiday gifts, you’ll find a free subscription to Virginia Wine Lovers mag.
if we are drinking with genevelyn and she is giving any advice AT ALL whether it be wine related or where to get a good chicken liver, i WANT in. (jason: i know where you live.)
Hey Jason
I think all of the local shops have been covered including mine (The Wine Cellar). When I was a consumer getting into wine, local shops staff and tastings were definitely where I gained most of my knowledge. This was before I started buying wine books by the dozens and my passion for wine became a true obsession and eventually got formal wine education.
Also, I am hoping to start a classroom series at my shop in February sometime – I’ll keep ya posted.
Glad to see you are diving into the wine world, it is a fun and exciting 5th dimension. haha
That being said, although local wine retailers were my main hangout, I did shop the web as it is a great place to find deals and some of the deals on Gary V’s Cinderalla wine are insane.
As far as terminology, it isn’t as hard as it seems and there are only a few that are TRULY necessary for basic discussions. As Genevelyn offered I had be happy to grab a glass of wine with ya and go over some of the basics with ya. Not that it needs to be a separate occasion, I like hanging out with Genevelyn.
With most of the wines in the 8-12 dollar range, they are crafted to be drank soon after they hit retail shelves. This is not to say these wines won’t taste good in a year, but they don’t need that time to get revved up. Also, experience will help you to know if a wine needs to breathe/open up or not. Both of these questions can be answered by a great store staff as we taste the wine all the time and know if it’s ready to go or not.
I think some of the best values come from Spain these days both Red and Whites. Lots of great stuff under 10 (and over 10 haha).
Taste and read and have fun, it’ll all come together and seriously if you wanna meetup or tweetup and taste some wine, let me know!
Probably not till after the holidays though.
Also, gotta give a plug for blogger Wednesdays at the Wine Cellar. If you have a blog (any blog) just prove it when you come in on Wednesdays and you’ll get 10% off your wine purchase!
Also in addition to ANything Wine, I write a blog for shop and have been doing an <a href”http://winecellarva.wordpress.com/?s=education+series”education series.
I think I touched on everything in your post, it’s still early and I have only had one cup of coffee. haha
Chat with ya soon
John
John: Great overview of your shop’s creative approach. It’s also really interesting to see a wine seller show excitement about online bargains, like CinderellaWine.com. I hope we get to meet sometime to talk about pairing vegetarian food with wine. I lean toward hearty food with rich flavors, so reds are my inclination. Too bad most tasting notes only mention meat proteins as potential pairings. Don’t these folks know how to cook?
Everybody: If you only had $10 to your name, what bottle of wine would you buy and where would you get it? (sellers: feel free to plug your best bargain bottle)
Here are the responses I got on Twitter:
@mrshazelwood:Charles Shaw White Sauvignon Cab from Trader Joe’s, because you can buy three bottles for $10.
@RIRInsider: Keep it #rva local: James River Winery!
@ladyPage: Williamsburg Winery has a really good chardonnay and its like 7 bucks at your local ABC store! (she works at an ABC store)
@libshitz: total wine….Clos du Bois Sauvignon blanc
@getloaded: Ménage à Trois Merlot!
@ladypaige: mmm Smoking Loon Cabernet from Strawberry St market!
@sharischaefer: smoking loon merlot at Kroger
What do you all think of these suggestions? They seems to be mostly bigger name brands. Does cheap equal mass produced? Does buying a bunch of it (a bulk buy like a case, or 3 two buck chucks for ten bucks) make cheap wine taste better? Wanna add to this under $10 wine list?
A lot of great comments, it seems like most of the good sources of quality low-price wine have been named. I might strongly suggest J. Emerson, though they’re in the west end and the store may look pricey, they actually have a lot of well-chosen low end wines. Get on their email list, they offer a monthly mixed case deal that is deeply discounted (usually 25%) and contains twelve different inexpensive wines. It’s a good way to try a wide variety of good wine at the lowest possible price.
I also might suggest a little trick I’ve learned from working in the biz: check the importer information on the back of the wine. There are several companies direct importing and then distributing in VA. With these guys you’ll get wines that would often be 25-33% more outside of VA. Especially look for:
Kysela Pere et Fils
Siema Wines
Potomac Selections
Michael Downey Imports
If you see these on the back of an inexpensive wine, then give the bottle a try. These playas don’t import no junk.
I drink almost entirely local wines, and they are hard to get for $10 (the Blenheim meritage they’re trying to move being an exception – not a great meritage, but a great local generic blend at that price).
When I do buy non-VA wines, however, I try to buy from smaller producers from locally-owned shops. I like wines that vary from year to year; they are an agricultural product after all.
The smaller stores (no Wegman’s, Trader Joe’s, etc.) often have some great deals and tend to know their stock well. They also tend to do a lot of tastings so you can get to know their offerings as well as your own taste. By tasting and talking with the staff, you can also find places where your taste intersects with theirs (or not) so that they can help you find the wines you’ll most enjoy.
One of the best things about these smaller places is their willingness to offer some creative deals. For instance, Kybecca, in Fredericksburg, has a long history of offering a 6 for $60 mix and match deal with wines that rotate out every few weeks. Some are good, some aren’t (my opinion only), but it’s a great way to try wines. Other small shops are starting to adop this model as well (e.g., The Frenchman’s Corner in Culpeper).
In the end, just have fun with it. Sometimes you’ll have a bad wine. Compost it and try again. We try nearly every wine before we buy it, and we still have times when we open a bottle and wonder what they hell we were thinking that day. It’s an adventure; enjoy they journey!
since I can never seem to get all my ideas out at once….
it’s true that most places don’t do a lot of $10 or less tastings, but, if you start tasting somewhere semi-regularly, the staff can help you find those budget wines you’ll like.
over time, you can tell them which ones you like/don’t like. with more experience, you’ll also start to develop a vocabulary for describing what you do and don’t like, which will help them make even better recommendations. also, don’t worry about specific vocab words; describe what’s good and bad about wines in whatever terms work for you. they’ll be able to work with what you say if they know their wines…if they can’t, find a new store.
Wow, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the chatter in the comments here. Great post, Jason, lots of resources here and your own opinions too. I love wine and also enjoy learning more about it, tasting different varietals, and identifying flavors. Let’s have a wine tasting sometime, yes? And then we can blog about it! As a barista, I find wine notes are not all that different from coffee notes.