Daily Vino? Yes, please! (But WHEN to buy?)

Consumer guru Clark Howard had a short article on WHEN to purchase wine. It turns out that some number crunchers determined the best day(s) to buy wine! Interesting read, click HERE to read the article. I definitely concur that Sam's Club or Costco are great places to purchase wine. They always have an interesting selection; some 'common' wines at great prices, but also some 'different' selections as well. Give it a shot! Of course, the best time to drink wine is daily, as red wine is great for your 'good' cholesterol (as with anything, in moderation!). Cheers! Bo

Money talks... or does it?

Remember all the fuss about the 'cult wines' like Screaming Eagle? I can't quote true dollar figures but it seems like several years ago each bottle was worth several thousand dollars (worth? the proper word is 'cost'). I honestly believe they cost over $10,000 for each bottle, so at 4 glasses, it's $2,500 per glass, or at 24.5 ounces per bottle, that's $408 per ounce. OUCH. I read about some researchers at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology who asked people to try some wines marked with prices from $5, $10, $35, 445 and $90. Care to guess the results? Yep, the $90 wine was 'the best'. In fact, (since they were scientist types) brain scans confirmed that when these people tried the expensive wine their "pleasure" sector of their brains lit up; when they tried the cheaper wines, the pleasure readings were lower. What can we conclude from this? Their expectation (based on price) was that a higher priced wine equated to a higher quality wine. That can be the same with any 'luxury' product that can be seen as a commodity such as a car--a Yugo can get you from point A to point B just like a Rolls Royce (okay, bad choice as the Yugo may or may not run) or a Timex tells time just as well as a Rolex (i.e. they all perform the same function. What is the punchline to this study? The $90 wine was the SAME as the $10 wine; the $45 wine was the SAME as the $5 wine. Who knew??? While I'd rather drive (or ride) in that Rolls vs. the Yugo for many other factors than just the price, remember to focus on the quality of the wine, not merely the price (or the silly label--check out this blog posting from AJC writer Gil Kulers on "Critter Wines" for some fun). Have a great weekend!

Brown Bagging, wine style!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a great article today about bringing your own wine to a restaurant. I TOTALLY approve of this! There are several ways to look at this. As an example, restaurant Au Rendez-Vous (near Brookhaven) only has a few wines on the list and they actually encourage you to bring your own for $4 corkage fee per person. They (and other restaurants that don't have beer/wine licenses) are able to pull in a few more dollars based on their limited wines, etc. An example of another restaurant "mindset", Susie and I were regulars at one restaurant in Kennesaw but for a while their wine list was very limited. We discovered that they would only charge $15 for corkage fee (translation: a charge for the restaurant for opening your bottle (yep, even if it's a screwtop!) and providing glassware, service, etc.) so we started taking our own which a) saved us money b) kept us happy (better wines than they provided) and c) actually kept us COMING as we would most likely not have returned due to their old list). So corkage could be seen as a supplement to a wine list.

People, I know restaurants are in business to make money. I know that they normally 'make up' their margins on wine. However, the third mindset covers GREED. I get SO angry when I see ridiculous markups! Keep an eye out for some of your common restaurant wines--Take La Crema Pinot Noir as an example. It's currently $15.97 at Total Wine & More. Well, we recently have seen it go for $55 at an East Cobb restaurant, $60 in Buckhead and a CRAZY $70 at a well-known luxury resort/hotel about an hour East of Atlanta. It really annoys me to see that (another common one is Ravenswood's entry Zinfandel ("Vintners Blend, $5.97 at Bullocks) for $30 or more???). One notable restaurant chain going against this trend is Houstons. I have bought some amazing wines for what appeared to barely be over cost! I remember one dinner at the now-closed Dunwoody location--we had Nickel & Nickel Merlot (or Cab Franc?) for under $50, which was astounding knowing that the store price (IF you could find it) was around $40.

As the article notes, DON'T abuse this by bringing your cheap wine (2 Buck Chuck?) or some super-common wine that can be found anywhere or even on their menu (Kendall-Jackson chardonnay for example). I would bring wines that I knew they wouldn't have (like ATP Wines from Ridge) or a rare single-vineyard designate Ravenswood (usu. over $35) versus their Vintners Blend (under $7, unless you're crazy enough to pay more at the grocery). How about thinking of a bringing a wine with a minimum price point of $20 or more? Likewise, Chops allowed us to bring a special bottle to dinner when my parents came to town (caveat-I THINK they would have limited us to only 1 or 2 bottles at their corkage fee, somewhere around $20). We still bought a follow-up bottle from their list, but we were able to decant and enjoy a rare Sonoma Cabernet from 1997 which was a special wine for my family.

Moral of the story? Reward the restaurants whose prices are in-line or simply never return. But as the article said, tip as if you bought it from them (though I would venture a thought that I would tip an amount based on the retail price, not what they'd rape me for if I bought it there!) Cheap? Okay, I'll admit it... But at the same time, I will pay for good food and good service. I just hate paying too much for something that is just as important as the food--the wine itself! Cheers, Bo