Wine on the Cheap: Area Shops Adjust to Leaner Times
Posted 05/03/2008 at 11:04 PM by Cathy
Shelf-talkers that describe various wines aren't the only signs you'll see these days in the wine section at Shubie's Marketplace in Marblehead.
There's also this one:
Wines for the Weakening Dollar: As the dollar weakens, wine prices on imports will be creeping higher and higher. Now's the time to tuck a few of your favorite wines from abroad away for a rainy day.
?That rainy day, my friends, is here. You know it, I know it, and so do the people who sell us wine.
"The rising price of wine changes your buying strategy," George Shube told me earlier today. He led me to a display of Castel del Remei wines from Spain, which he had long considered an extraordinary wine for is price. The price for the 2004 vintage was $11.99, but the price for the 2005 vintage was $14.99, a full 25% increase over the course of just one year.
In response to such dramatic increases, Shubie's has started running ongoing wine specials that appeal to cost-conscious consumers. About four months ago, for example, they opened a display near the cash registers that features two bottles of wines for $15. The selection isn't Shubie's finest, obviously, but in terms of cases sold it's one of the most successful.
Other area shops are also fine-tuning their sales tactics. Kurt Reming of the Beverly Wine & Beer Co., for example, said he is consciously bringing in wines that go on the shelf at a lower price point. "We're getting the same number of customers," Reming said, "they're just buying less expensive wine."
Diane Manahan of Pamplemousse in Salem agrees. After she organized the bottles last Saturday for her weekly tasting, she noticed she had essentially organized a "recession tasting." Every bottle she pulled for the tasting cost on average between $12 and $15.
"People are being very conscious about how much they spend on wine," she said. "They're looking for a lot of bang for their buck."
What's the silver lining of this dip in per-bottle spending? Customers and retailers are both becoming more familiar with good-value wines that also taste good.
Manahan, for example, has seen a significant increase in sales of wines from Argentina, Chile, and South Africa. "Those wines are just flying off the shelf," she said. Shube thinks there are still good values to be found in wines from Portugal, because Portuguese wines don't seem to have taken as big of a price increase as wines from France or Italy.
So now may just be the time to try that new Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, or a Pinotage from South Africa. Your taste buds – and your wallet – may very well thank you for it.
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