What wines are "fairly priced" in your market?

CdP
Zinfandel
OR Pinot Gris
Sauvignon Blanc from US or New Zealand

Chateau Budweiser is tops in Tennessee and you can get it at a good price! Otherwise, sol!

quote:

Originally posted by Baird:
In Ontario, we get screwed more often than not by our government run LCBO, but we do get fair pricing on the following:

Aussie Reds
Rhone (mainly CDP, although prices have been creeping up)
Some Italians (Barolo, Amarone, Some BdM and a few others)
French Burgundies
Argentina
German Riesling
Ontario Icewines (for obvious reasons)

We get absolutely boned on:

Bordeaux (incl. Sauternes)
Napa Cabs and Chards
Champagne

I'm sure I am forgetting a few which my TWC friends will remind me of, but what is your market like?

We seem to get no great deals except for the occasional mispricing. I did find some deals on the other side of the river at the LCBO on BDM. Bought one for US$45 when is was US$60-$65 (occasionally $75 for those willing to pay it). Caveat Emptor I guess. I am finding my best deals online now that some places will ship here.
in Detroit area.

I saw a 2001 Harlan Estate the other day for $369. For retail, I thought that was pretty "fairly priced".

Hard to answer. The wines that are good values here are probably good values almost everywhere in the US.

CdP stands out with reds.
Many Zins
NZSB for whites
Australian dessert wines

On the other side: Napa Cabs, Piedmont, Burgundy, and most Bordeaux are probably expensive almost everywhere. They sure are in NY. I need to dig hard for good deals with these.

With its monopololistic distributor system, it's tough to find good deals in Maryland. Just about everything you can find in Maryland is usually 15-25% cheaper if you cross over into Washington, DC, and 25-50% on Winesearcher.com. Thank heavens for my out of state enablers!

Oregon wines in FL are still usually a spot-on deal considering shipping all the way here, as are most of the Washington wines (although sometimes selection is limited--you have to be quick).

French wines are primarily non-existent, at least as far as the more highly regarded ones, and all the others are a bit over-priced. Take into consideration that French wines are my weakest point as far as knowledge about them is concerned.

Italian wines can be found, usually at fair market, sometimes at a much lower price than other places (bought a 2000 Barolo for $15 less than most everyone else locally a few weeks ago).

Cali wines are expensive, usually overpriced, except for the mass producers.

To be fair, these are just my casual observations...usually I don't pay much attention to the national market, and just buy what seems right around here.

CdP is fairly reasonable here... although the selection fluctuates.

NZ Sauv Blanc, Cali Zin, some Italian and some Loire are alright.

Bordeaux - aweful, Cali Cab - aweful, Burgundy - so-so, but selection variable, Champagne - aweful, don't care about Aussie, Spain or Chile.

LJ

california cabernet and zinfandel
97' bordeaux

no one like and buy them over here, so the market is full of them, and prices... well i also don't really care

Some great deals in missoula

coudoulet beaucastel '01 12.00

chateau beaucastel '01 55.00

we seem to get good deals on about everything

and by the way NO SALES TAX!

GO GRIZ!

Anything that didn't get a good rating from WS or Parker is "fairly" priced. I am finding that I am getting my best deals online, not from SoCal retailers. Supply and demand, I guess, but I could almost throw up over what I've paid for Pinot this week.

I don't want to turn this into an LCBO rant (it doesn't take much to provoke me ), but there's a fundamental difference between getting ripped off in our market, Baird, and getting ripped off in most US markets. The difference is that our market is effectively closed to personal imports. If I live in, say, California and my local retailers are offering a wine at above-market prices, then I can simply go on-line and order it at the market price from somewhere in, say, New York, for delivery to my home.

We are pretty fortunate over here in Bay Area. With shops like WineClub, PremierCru, K&L and others, and competitive nature of market, the variety is good and prices are excellent. I don't always find exact bottling that I want but I can always find something that I like. The only wishes would be to have WineClub carry more Loire wines, both red and white, and expand their $20 range of Chianti and other food friendly country wines from Italy. Otherwise, I'm good.

quote:

Originally posted by Slan:
I don't want to turn this into an LCBO rant (it doesn't take much to provoke me ), but there's a fundamental difference between getting ripped off in our market, Baird, and getting ripped off in most US markets. The difference is that our market is effectively closed to personal imports. If I live in, say, California and my local retailers are offering a wine at above-market prices, then I can simply go on-line and order it at the market price from somewhere in, say, New York, for delivery to my home.

...providing of course you live in a state that allows intra-state shipping...

I was in Chicago last week and bought a bottle of Alter Ego de Palmer for USD55. I got back to Indonesia this weekend and went to my local wineshop yesterday and saw the same wine for USD92. Talk about getting screwed!

For high price, high demand (or low production) wines I can generally find good deals in Ohio. The state has a rather small customer base for wines in the > $200 or so category. For those who do regularly buy them, the lack of quantity sometimes forces these people to look out of state i.e. you just can't get, for instance, a case of Petrus. The lack of in-state liquidity tends to keep the price on some of these wines reasonably low relative to the national market. I don't have much problem finding several bottles or more of any SQN release at mailing list prices, I recently found a '98 Chave Cathelin for $300, and I just ordered a half case of '98 DRC Romanee St. Vivant at about half the market price. I still know where I can get '98 Grange for $180 and '00 Petrus for $1200 (or the '98 for $850); unfortunately, these are either not of interest to me, out of my price range, or priced with just too small of a margin to flip.

Ohio has state minimum pricing requirements (a required 50% markup over wholesale) and retailers rarely mark wines up more than required by law regardless of ratings or demand. In the < $100 or so range this usually results in our getting screwed; however, with high demand wines we can often find good deals (if, of course, the wine is available).

arizona if awful for wine prices. IF (a big if) i can find anything it is always 20% higher than I can find it listed for as a retai price is ws, and much higher than I see others getting it for elsewhere.
Borolos(which I love) are almost non existant here. I found some 2001 Conterno Fantino Barolo Sori Ginestra for $125 prior to the 99 ws gave it- I can only imagine what it would cost now.
In order to buy wine here you have to be in restarant mode, and forget about the prices, concentrating only on avalibility.

Absolutely nothing. I can save 30 to 40 per cent just by crossing the Red River into Texas. Another 10 to 15 per cent by using Costco or Sam's Club. I more man pays for my gas even at these prices.

Cliff
Will work for wine

I live in an area where I can get wine from LCBO and SAQ.
At the LCBO they do in fact screw you with the Bordeaux, but at this moment, the SAQ has released tons of Bordeaux at futures price that are disapearing at an amazing speed-
but for LCBO I'll mostly buy BDM that are greatly priced.

In South Florida, I would say German wines in general and if you get down to Dade county, wines from South America. Everything else is hit or miss with more misses than hits!