How to Search for High-QPR Wines

"One of the most gratifying aspects of being a wine critic is discovering those under-the-radar, superb wine bargains ...  The myth is that wines that cost $25 or less are worth just what you pay for them and are never terribly interesting.  This is totally untrue, and with work, one can unearth these small treasures that deliver seriously good wine at remarkably fair prices."  [Robert Parker, "Parker's Wine Bargains"]

As mentioned in the first post, it appears that a sea change has occurred in the wine industry.  As a result of the economic recession and other factors, high-end wines are on the wane.  Many persons are searching for value-priced wines that taste good and where quality is high.  If you can find wines that you think are excellent and that are priced reasonably, so much the better.

In general, the prices of wines reflect their overall quality and how well they represent varietal characteristics.  For many expensive wines, both the quality and price are high.  Similarly, the taste and quality of most cheap wines is usually average or poor.

While high-QPR wines tend to be rare, especially wines under $25, it is possible to discover those outstanding wine bargains that taste as if they should cost two or three times their price.  Here are seven strategies to find value-priced, high-QPR wines:

1.  Low-end wineries - Some wineries focus on value-priced wines.  In many cases, the wines are good or very good.  For California wineries, check out Angeline, Avalon, Bogle, and Clos du Bois, among many others.  For wines that look interesting from these wineries (and for all potential high-QPR candidates), you need to buy a bottle and do your own tasting.  Every person's taste is unique, and you need to do your own due diligence to find the lower-priced wines that you find very good or excellent.  Many wineries offer 10-20% discounts on case purchases.

2.  Discounts or special offers from wine shops - Some wine shops offer case discounts; some don't (they feel their offered prices are already discounted).  Most wine shops purchase large lots of selected wines and offer big discounts on these wines.  I've mentioned K&L Wines several times.  K&L has stores in San Francisco, Redwood City, and Hollywood.  In addition, K&L is perhaps the premier on-line wine store.  If you don't live in San Francisco or Los Angeles, check them out on the Internet.  If you sign-up and establish an account (no purchase necessary), you receive their emails automatically.  Occasionally, they offer what I think are incredible deals.  In response to their email on January 8, 2010 offering 2006 Havens Napa Valley Merlot for $6.99 a bottle, they were overwhelmed with orders and sold more than 3,000 bottles in one day.  Many of the best offers sell out fast, however, so you have to check out the wines and make decisions quickly.

3.  Discounts at retailers - Most Costco, BevMo, Total Wine, and Trader's Joe stores offer large selections of wines at good prices.  Even Safeway and other food stores may have large wine departments (Safeway offers an extra 10% discount if you purchase six bottles).  The big problem is determining which wines are the best high-QPR wines, among the 100's of different wines that are for sale.  One problem is that, many times, the wine has a "list price" and a "sale price" listed on the shelf.  Beware of accepting the store's version of the list price.  I have frequently come across wines where the list price is inflated 20-30% or more above what I know I can purchase the wine for at an alternative source.

4.  Special situations - Many special situations arise that you can take advantage of to purchase high-QPR wines at substantial discounts.  For example, every year around November, Kenwood Winery (Sonoma, California) has a half-price sale.  You can purchase a case of good Zinfandel, Merlot or other wines for less than $100 (less than $9 a bottle).  Many wineries have "end-of-season" wine sales to clear out their inventory of last year's wines to make room for the new vintage.  If you find wines you like that are very good (or excellent) but are priced somewhat above what you want to pay, contact the winery and ask if they have any special sales coming up or if they have an "end-of-season" sale.

5.  Get to know the strengths of your local wine shop - My local wine shop is Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, California (bottlebarn.com).  They have a great selection of California wines, and they specialize in wines produced by Sonoma County wineries.  Every October, they offer 20% to 30% discounts on 20 or so of the "gold-medal winners" from Sonoma County's Harvest Fair's expert wine judging.  Bottle Barn also has special arrangements with many of the Sonoma County wineries that gives them access to many limited-production wines.  It definitely pays to get to know the strengths of your local wine shop, especially their pattern of special sales.

6.  Take advantage of exceptional vintages - Many wine critics like Robert Parker assess the overall quality of every vintage for every location and style of wine.  For example, for Bordeaux in France, Parker lists all of the major appellations (Margaux, St. Julien, St. Emilion, Haut-Medoc, Pessac-Leognan, etc.), and his assessment of each year for each appellation.  During the past 30 years, the high-point vintages were 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005.  The major advantage of focusing on the high-point vintages is that quality tends to be higher among all wineries from top to bottom.  Thus, it's possible to identify high-QPR wines that are reasonably-priced in the best vintages.  For 2005 Bordeaux, K&L offered a couple hundred different wines ranging in price from $10 to more than $500.  I tasted a number of wines in the $10 to $12 price range and did not find any high-QPR wines IMO.  However, when I increased the price range to $13-20, I did find several wines that I considered to be very high-QPR wines.  The best deal IMO was when the 2005 Mille Roses was offered for $14.99 a bottle (normal price $28-$33).  For Rhone Valley wines, 2007 was an exceptional vintage.  As discussed in other posts, I've loaded up my wine locker with several 2007 Cotes-du-Rhones that range in price from $6 to $17.  The 2007 vintage was also an especially good year for many California red wines.

7.  Research, investigate, study, taste many wines, and make some wise decisions - I enjoy reading about wine.  If I could recommend two books, they would be "Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide" by Robert M. Parker, and "The Wine Bible" by Karen MacNeil.  If you have a limited wine budget, I think it pays to invest some time and effort so that you can make wise decisions and stretch your dollars as far as possible.  You can shorten the process and obtain ideas and summarized information from various blogs like "Good Wine under $20," among many others.  Also see "Parker's Wine Bargains:  The World's Best Wine Values under $25" (Robert Parker, 2009).  But you can't rely on assessments or ratings made by other people -- the quality of a wine and how much it is worth to you depends primarily on your own personal taste.

Summary - It takes time and effort to identify wines you really like that are priced at a level where you believe they are solid, high-QPR wines.  But I think it's definitely worth the effort -- you can easily double the number of bottles you purchase (with little or no degradation in taste or quality) for the same, fixed wine budget.