November 15 2006
The other day I wrote about Cameron Hughes wine and my revisited quest to find an every day drinker and get off a six month bender of expensive wine.
This quest actually started at Kroger’s a week or so ago. I browsed the wine section, a place I haven’t haunted for many months simply because the labels staring back at me were saying “penguin plonk” and the like.
But, necessity is the mother of invention and my wine buying habits have got to start getting closer to $10 - $15 a bottle and away from the $35 - $40 bottles.
Mind you, there are two types of people in this world—those that love finding a bargain, a deal, clipping coupons, saving a buck (like my wife) and then there are people that prefer to work hard because they are certain that green pastures are in front of them, forsaking a dollar today for what will surely be $10 tomorrow (me).
My local grocer, Kroger’s, (the one on Keystone north of 62nd if you’re in Indianapolis), happened to have some Heitz Cellars Cabernet tucked in next to some $12.99 bottles. This struck me as very odd. I haven’t had the Heitz Cellars before and really didn’t even know much about it except that the price for a 1999 Cabernet from Martha’s Vineyard seemed off, low perhaps. Napa Cabernet, especially a vineyard designate usually is at least $50 a bottle.
I made mental note, took a business trip, came back to Indianapolis and took a trip back to the store, still not sure about this wine. Sitting as lonely and unattended as it had 10 days before, I bought a bottle for $39.99 deciding that I’d Google it when I got home and get the skinny.
Well, all I can is sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I’ll be damned if I didn’t search for this wine and everywhere on the Internet it came up for sale for at least $110 a bottle and usually $130 + plus!
Hot damn! What’s a guy to do? I went back and bought the other four bottles, cleaning them out.
Now I know why my wife is such a bargain hunter … what a thrill to get a deal. Under current Internet pricing, it’s like buying two bottles and getting two for free. Ah, the lure of the deal, like shoes for my wife. Like the “Buy two get the third for free,” come-on when you were actually only browsing for one pair.
Indulgently, I opened a bottle tonight, let it air for a ½ hour and I’m drinking it as we speak.
It’s a beauty, too, from the wine rags:
The Wine Enthusiast: Opens with powerful aromas of cedar, toasty oak and vanilla perfume framing ripe black currant and mocha. Turns wonderfully smooth in the mouth. Plump and ripe in cherry and currant fruit, it’s beautiful now, but has the tannins and balance to last forever. Score: 94. —Steve Heimoff, November 15, 2004.
The Wine Spectator “Spicy mint and bay leaf aromas mingle with ripe currant and black cherry fruit, turning smooth and elegant on the palate while displaying richness, depth and concentration; finishes with a full chorus of ripe fruit flavors and firm yet supple tannins. Drink now through 2012.” Score: 92. April 06, 2006.
Of course, now I’m conflicted … what to do about the hypocrisy of trying to get back into $10 bottles? Well, I saved myself $300 bucks over retail with my purchases, so I’ll give myself a little reprieve. Now, I have to go back to Kroger’s after doing some more research … there was a 2001 Mondavi Cabernet sitting next to the Heitz Cellars … hmm … I wonder if it’s the Stag’s leap district for $40 or the Reserve for $100 … if it’s the Reserve, then I can save another $70 bucks a bottle … this bargain shopping is kind of fun … and don’t you know my wife has made the comparison to my wine shopping and her acquisition of shoes.
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