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Wine Blog

A True Local Bargain

Posted by: Trudy and Rob

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 3:54 PM

Everybody likes a bargain. I know that we do, particularly when it invoves wine! I remember some years back accidently finding a highly sought after reserve cabernet on the shelves at the local IGA. I had to look twice to confirm what I was actually seeing. Apparently, the local wine sales folks had accidently shipped the reserve cab to IGA instead of the regular bottling and it ended up on the shelves locally at an unbelievably low price. I had been looking for this wine everywhere and couldn't believe it when I saw it on the shelf. I bought all they had and all that they could get until the mistake was discovered. Since then, I've occasionally seen similar instances at other local places. It's kind of like finding a $10 bill on the street. It keeps you looking for more.

Recently, we dined at the local Cheddars. While not a usual haunt, it satisfied the desires of most of the diners that particular evening. The wine list at Cheddars is, shall we say, less than inspiring. Not a lot of people necessarily drop in for wine with dinner. The waitress said we were the first people in her 1 plus years of experience to actually order a bottle of wine. When I looked at their "list", the offerings weren't exactly exciting. I tried a taste of an oxidized, funky pinot noir and decided not to have that one. We did order a bottle of reliable Kendall-Jackson syrah. It was their low end offering, Vintner's Reserve I think, although there's nothing remotely reserve about it. Still, it was very drinkable and fit the bill for the evening. The true surprise came when I inquired about pricing. The answer came back as 12 dollars. I asked if that were for a glass (way too high a glass price for this wine). I was pleasantly surprised, shocked really, when she insisted that it was the bottle price. Pretty pleased too, actually. The store price for this stuff probably runs around $14 a bottle, give or take. The restaurant's cost might have been 8 or 9 bucks a bottle. It was the ultimate in extremely fair (and beyond) restaurant pricing. Would that I could find instances like this more often!

When I looked at the label, I noticed that this was a 2001 vintage. I figured that this wine might have been sitting around at the distributor for awhile and that maybe Cheddars got a great price. It was either that or it was bought years ago and they are just now getting around to putting out the stock. Either way, it was a pleasant find. If you happen to go there, give the wine a try. Let me know if you get the same price. The wine is quite decent and the price is even better. As I said, we love bargains.