Facing relentless competition and stubbornly sluggish sales, many wineries are continuing to offer excess inventory under “secret labels”. That way, big names can keep prices higher on their well-known labels and blow out extra wine inventory on a heavily discounted, little known, brand.
But many times they blend in wine from elsewhere, making the quality suffer. This practice also creates a huge number of strangely labeled wines to pick from at our Phoenix outlet stores, especially BevMo and Total Wine. These days there are way too many to keep track of, much less sample!
Of course, some wineries show the source right on the label, but without the huge price cut. Then there are others who really want to keep their “liquidation bottling run” a secret and discount the price by more than half. Either way, it’s the quality of the wine and the pricing that make all the difference when getting a good buy. That’s where the fun begins.
The trick is to find brands that take high quality wine, bottle, and sell it cheap. Then we both win, the winery blows out inventory and the shopper pockets the savings on really good wines.
One of these, a 2012 Maxwell Creek Sauvignon Blanc is available right now at Phoenix area Cost Plus World Market stores for $8.99. This price is part of their “Explorer Member” offer. So if you don’t have a World Market card, the price is $10.99, still pretty much a steal either way. A definite summer stock up
There are quite a few people following wine who believe that Maxwell Creek’s white wines actually come from St. Supéry, a big quality house in Napa. It sure tastes like this is correct. “Max” sports a nice bouquet of red grapefruit, a slight stoniness, with hints of orange, character way above the selling price. In the mouth it starts with soft peach then a delayed citrus acidity on a nice finish. There are many in the $20 range like this.
This Sauvignon Blanc based wine is an exception regarding serving with food. This one can be a solo act, especially when served just before the appetizers. Like most Sauv Blancs, it’s really a seafood must have. Serve chilled from the fridge after about an hour (50-55 degrees).
Article by Tom Peiffer, Phoenix Wine Shopping Examiner at Examiner.com
View more of Tom’s articles on Examiner.com by visiting his writer’s page.
