Stretching Your Wine Dollars

These days as we all look for ways to stretch our dollars and while gas prices continue to cut into our expendable income, we wine lovers don’t have to sacrifice quality. These 4 easy steps will go a long way in stretching your wine dollars.

Step 1:

Look for great wines in your price range, also known as “value.”

James Laube, Wine Spectator’s Napa-based senior editor, often criticizes Napa for not competing in the value market. Of course, the high cost of Napa real estate and the overhead of running palatial tasting rooms means that more money goes into marketing than production. But today, wine lovers want to pay for what’s in the bottle. Thanks to John Lynch’s vision of turning living rooms around the country into Napa tasting rooms, WineShop At Home's cost goes into the bottle. “I don’t believe that wine is a lifestyle reserved for the rich and famous. My job is simply to create wines that real people fall in love with…”

Step 2:

Taste before you buy.

Many shoppers stand in front of the great wall of wine at their grocery or box store and choose a wine based on affordability and an attractive label. Even if a salesperson has recommended their favorite to you, you have no way of knowing if you will like it until you get it home. Sometimes we get home and are delighted and sometimes not. Remember, life is too short to drink bad wine, and monies are too precious to waste on so-so bottles. With WineShop At Home, we let you taste, discover and shop for wines all in the comfort of your home and you never have to waste your wine dollars again.

Step 3:

Start a collection.

Think of that bottom of your closet or pantry with 20 or more bottles tucked away as “building liquid assets.” Did you know that most wine purchased in the United States is consumed within 2 hours of purchase? Wine lovers often miss out on the grand adventure of drinking great wines after they have grown and matured in the bottle. Many of WineShop At Home's wonderful reds will continue to surprise and delight wine lovers 3-6 years after purchase. So the wonderful Pied Violet Merlot or McKenna Trilogy, so drinkable and complex today, will be even more amazing next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. These affordable wines will easily rival their $100 cousins 2-3 years from now. How many bottles do you have tucked away?

Step 4:

Take your own wine with you when you dine out.

Wine is a major source of markup for restaurants, especially wines by the glass. A recent trend for many restaurants, even those who market themselves as “Wine Bars,” are charging outrageous prices for their wines by the glass. They may have 1 or 2 really nice wines at $20 a glass and the rest are undrinkable. Recently, I took 2 bottles of WineShop At Home's Sangiovese, both under $20, to an upscale Italian restaurant to meet 2 other couples. The least expensive Chianti on the menu was $43 a bottle and not a great one at that. We paid $15 a bottle in corkage fees. The money we saved more than paid for coffee and dessert!

Corkage fees range from $0-$20 at most restaurants. Inquire before you go and always bring a bottle that is worthy of their wine list. Offer your server or sommelier a taste and spend some time discussing the wine’s characteristics with him or her. If by chance the corkage fee disappears from the bill, thank them by adding it into the tip.

Cheers!

LOVE WINE? FIND OUT HOW TO START YOUR OWN HOME BASED BUSINESS AS A WINE CONSULTANT AT WineLifeAtHome.com.