The time comes in every young wineaux’s life when they see the “juice at the end of the barrel” so to speak.
In the beginning, you may have been a bit timid, and perhaps feeling unworthy to even fathom buying anything above the $5/bottle price range, you really liked that Charles Shaw Chardonnay you had at that wedding or the YellowTail Merlot at that one party you went to. I mean, it would probably just be a waste of wine on you, since you figure you can’t tell the difference. And heck, we all like the comfort zone from time to time. So you start upping the number of bottles a week, maybe buying 3-5 of the under $5 brand. Feeling all virgin like in the wine world, but proud of yourself for ‘crossing-over’. Now, I am still to this day very proud of myself for my under $5 miracle finds that taste like they should be worth $15 but let me tell you they taste nothing like Yellow Tail. Let us not be too snobby either! Many of us owe gratitude to those ‘easy-on-the-wallet’ wines as they were probably the beginning of your wine journey. But after time, for those of us who begin to see wine as a necessity and a hobby =), the appeal to move up the wine ladder is just too tempting. Usually this happens after your first wine epiphany. Do you remember that? How the wine smelt? How it just lit up thousands of taste buds in your mouth? The way the ambiance was? Who you were with? Which wine it was? (If you are still a Two Buck Chuck devotee, have no fear! Your wine epiphany will come!) And then you will be hooked! The appeal to drinking the ‘beginners’ wine just sort of slips away just like deciding to stop chewing the whole 6ft of Bubble Tape at one time and to stop eating PB&J for lunch everyday. Now it is big boy/girl time!!
So you go revisit the ole budget and decide, “Okay, how about I buy a couple of bottles a week at $10 a bottle.” Now you say, “This is more like it!” But for those of you who are a bit more advanced in the wine ladder, heck you may even have an extension on your ladder… you don’t stop there, no sir.
Recently my boyfriend and I saw the “juice at the end of the wine barrel” and switched our weekly wine budget around to include two nicer bottles of wine $15-$20 a bottle and two average price wine $7-$10 a bottle per week instead of buying six $7 bottles per week. We were beginning to notice that we only drank half a bottle together on weeknights and on weekends we shared a full bottle. We decided, even on a tight budget, it would be much better to splurge on the two bottles for week nights/have 4 nights of amazing wine then have the more ‘average’ wines for weekends, when we consume more.
Also we noticed that when we went out to wine bars we were okay to pay $7 a glass each or $30 a bottle, but when we were wine shopping we would steer away from the $15-$20….it is amazing how buyer’s psychology works when the lowest price you are offered is actually a “high” price. We had decided that if we invested that much in a wine store bottle, it would actually equal $60+ wine bottle in a restaurant or wine bar! Mark ups can be a bit insane. So this is where we are at.
So far I have been beyond happy with our new wine buying decision. Don’t get me wrong, once I become a successful business wineaux woman…I will not be so shy with the wine buying, but living on a student budget you must make sacrifices. From now on I will post pics and details here on my blog of these ‘nicer’ wines we have so you, my wonderful fan base, can share in the experience. Please do keep in mind the vast majority of them will be french wines as I am living in France at the moment and it is rather difficult to find foreign wines. Also being that I am living in the Burgundy region, this will more than likely be the majority. But hey, when in Burgundy! And they do produce some rather delicious wines!
*Just a side note, please under no circumstance think that I am falling into the price=quality group. I am not stranger to amazing cheap finds. But we can all agree that you have more of a chance at finding a better quality range when you move up a price range. Also, if you are a die hard Yellow Tail fan, or the like, it is your palate and you should always drink what you like! Don’t be offended that I refer to it as beginner wine, just roll with the punches and I will too! Peace Love & Wine!!!
In Vino Veritas (and a jump up in the wine budget!)
May your glass always be full of wine that tickles your fancy! &
May your spirit be full of passion to keep discovering all that is wine!
Cheers! Salud! Sante!
Hope to hear your feedback! Until the next post!
Ceci to the Americans & Veronique to the French