Originally Posted By: mdrew
Chess – you must have access to some pretty killer deals then.


Funny thing about Manitobans (not that i'm a native but starting to pick it up), they are chintzy, deal searching, buck saving people that will haggle even at the Dollar Store (where everything costs only a buck or less).
I actually have one friend who haggles with the big box stores. No i'm not talking about Future Shop kids who always have something extra to toss in, but places like Sears, Walmart, etc. where the prices are usually fixed except when something is on sale. He actually asks to see managers and haggles them about price.
As you can imagine then, when it comes to wine, and he is a fan, he shops in NOTHING but the sales bins at the liquor stores and wine shops.
Now, he's obviously found some decent wines doing this. As bin ends get down to the last bottle or two, the shops have a clearance of the last few bottles to make room on the shelves for new full cases of wines. If they did not reorder that particular wine, then you can always pick up the last few bottles for 10-15% off the usual price. Sometimes even cheaper.
This friend bought a $75 French chardonnay for $45 in the bin box. [there is a further story to this wine and a chardonnay tasting we did, but i may have already told that one some time back]
It certainly goes to show that the markup on prices in the stores can be huge although the prices are set here in Manitoba by the liquor commission so Store A cannot sell a wine cheaper than Store B down the road.


 Originally Posted By: mdrew
Either that or you just don’t dabble in Napa wines much.
 Quote:

Actually it is more about availability than anything. The choices we have here for 'premium' Napa wines is rather limited IMO. They either sell the usual brand names for up to $30/bottle (e.g. Mondavi), or you get the odd, still large name like Cakebread, for $80+ per bottle.
There is nothing in between.

[quote=mdrew]Napa has caught up with France, and exceeded it in price point. And unfortunately for me, I tend to favor wines from Napa or Bordeaux.

I know it.
Anyone holding vintage Napa wines from 10 years ago could sell them for 300% or more on their original value. But like any market, once the prices get to high, sales drop, the system falls back to earlier days of cheaper wines.
Less volume sales at the 'high' end means smaller margin of profit.
Thankfully for me i have little interest in French wines. I've found very few that i like.

[quote=mdrew]I figured I’d pass on a good place to buy wine. Either by phone, or now on-line. The crowd I hang out with has been buying wine from these guys for years. They always hook us up with killer wine at great prices.


Again the problem here is borders. Unless they somehow ship to Canada, which i doubt, i'm stuck with local fair. Wineries, much like in the States, cannot just ship across provincial/state borders. Liquor must be 'imported' by the provincial liquor commissions or you fly it back yourself on a plane as luggage, which i've done in the past. Some wineries have in the past shipped us wines anyway through the mail which was nice of them to do. Small quantities so really, what's the big deal?
We're not sales vendors. Just consumers.

 Originally Posted By: mdrew
I spent a few hours with them my last trip to Napa and found them to be way cool and just flat out fun to hang with. If a $100 bottle of wine is swill, they’ll say it. If a $20 bottle of wine is good, you’ll hear that too. They currently have some wines on sale that I have, or have bought before and can’t believe how cheap they are selling them for.
http://groezingers.com/

I've been thinking more about this Napa trip thing. I'm starting to think that maybe i should be planning a trip when you're heading down there. A guide would be a useful thing for someone who would be overwhelmed by all the options to try in a trip.

"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."