Where can I buy phenomenal wine for the best value?!
Where can I buy phenomenal wine for the best value?
I'd like to find some good First Growths and possibly Champagne, such as Cristal but not pay too much for it.
I found 96 Cristal for $183 about 3 years ago, but haven't since then.
Also does anyone know of some great Sangiovesses from the US?
Answers:
If you want wine at budgeted price, you will have to shop and do your homeworks.
First place I would look is the website www.winezap.com. It is a wonderful website that compares the prices of various vendors, and it gives you an idea of what the price of the wine is.
Then, I would go to discount stores such as Sam's Club or Costco. They offer the lower prices for limited selection, and it is hit-or-miss. However, you can get some bargain price there.
If you know someone in the wine industry or restaurant industry, try a wine or liquor distributor. Sometimes they will be able to obtain rare to find wine at very nice prices.
Also try internet online wine store. Stores such as www.winestreet.com or www.dukeofbourbon.com are reliable places where I can find wines. In addition, wine auction sites such as www.winecommune.com is also great.
You can try local liquor stores as well as grocery stores. Don't expect to find any bargain price at liquor stores; they know what they got. On the other hand, grocery stores sometimes do not know the value of wine, and they can mistakenly label the price severely.
Going to vineyards is fine, but for French Bordeaux or Champagne, not a practical suggestion.
For Sangiovese from US, there are threeI like. One is from Pride ($50/500cc), which is very hard to get - takes me years of waiting list to get my annual alotment of 2 bottles. The others are Flora Spring, which makes a pretty good Sangiovese ($25) and V. Sattui ($30), which is a mail order winery from Napa.