Price Check: 2006 Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc, California
Pomelo, Price Check, Sauvignon Blanc, Whole Foods
The 2006 Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc wine is a really nice quaffer for its price. As the name would imply, the wine has a nose and even a palate that brings grapefruit to mind. It’s concocted by winemaker Randy Mason, and we think it makes a fantastic white for dinner parties, among other occasions. This is definitely buy-it-by-the-case stuff…well, at least if it’s priced right.
We happened upon this today at a particular supermarket, and were somewhat baffled by the price tag of $12.99. When we took a peek at Wine-Searcher, our suspicions of higher than normal mark-ups were confirmed. So here’s a rundown of where you can find the very delicious and drinkable 2006 Pomelo, and the corresponding prices:
Amazing Grapes Wine Store, Santa Margherita, CA: $7.98/bottle
The Wine Country, Signal Hill, CA: $8.99/bottle
Varietal Wines & Spirits, Manhasset, NY: $9.59/bottle
Spiritus Wines, Hartford, CT: $10.99/bottle
The Corkscrew Wine Emporium, Springfield, IL: $12.99/bottle
Whole Foods Market, 3rd and Fairfax, Los Angeles, CA: $12.99/bottle
We’ll give any retailer on the East Coast or Midwest a pass on the pricing here, since the local nature of the product helps keeps prices on the lower end in California. We’ll give some major props to Varietal Wines and Spirits in Manhasset for offering the wine at a more than reasonable tariff. Again, with a full pallet of the stuff on the floor, likely quantity discounts from the vendor, and a reasonable wholesale cost to begin with, we have to ask Whole Foods how they can justify such a high mark-up.
This is a wine worth drinking. We encourage all of you to buy a case for your next party. Just not from a price-gouger like Whole Paycheck (we give The Corkscrew Wine Emporium a pass for geographic circumstances, and for being the sole Illinois retailer –with an internet presence, at least– stocking the product).
By the way, Whole Foods still has that Dehesa Gago Toro “on sale” for $12.99, so it looks like there’s been a bit of trouble moving the wine. Maybe if they’d priced it correctly from the outset their luck would have been better?
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get your wine on
2005 Amavi Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla: #42 Wine Spectator in the Top 100 of 2008!
OK, don’t screw the WS top 100! This came in at #42 and it deserves at least that. It’s the only reasonably priced domestic cab on their list, and we love it. It’s deep and rich and generous with the oaky vanilla — but not cloyingly so. Yay for #42 - just $28.
2007 Pierre-Marie Chermette Domaine du Vissoux Cuvée Traditionelle Beaujolais Vieilles Vignes
Screw the Wine Spectator Top Ten! This is our top pick for November wine. It’s perfect for the Thanksgiving table, and we don’t care of Beaujolais for the holiday is somewhat of a cliché. This is so balanced, great acidity and a fantastic bright color and red fruit core to it. It screams cranberries! And did we mention it’s just $19? Buy some Beaujolais!
2005 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape
We stocked this long before it received the #8 spot on the Spectator Top Ten Wines of the Year rankings. Beaucastel is among our favorite Rhone producers, and its sister winery, Tablas Creek in Paso Robles, is a domestic favorite. Buy some Beaucastel
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freshly pressed
More Thanksgiving Wine Posts:
I have a running tally below from the first part of this week. Here are more wine-related Thanksgiving posts from around the web. I particularly like the Tofurky post, so thanks to John Witherspoon for that one! Oh, and the San Francisco Chronicle apparently thinks as highly of the Pierre-Marie Chermette Domaine du Vissoux Vieilles Vignes Beaujolais as I do. Yay!
Merlot as a match for Thanskgiving fare? Lynne Char Bennett of the San Francisco Chronicle thinks so…
The San Francisco Chronicle’s “Can’t Fail Guide to Thanksgiving Wines”
Drink Cru Beaujolais with your holiday meal, says Jon Bonné of the SF Chronicle.
Perfect pairings for Tofurky from John Witherspoon’s Anything Wine.
Catie’s “Obligatory Wine Pairing” post, a companion piece to our “Obligatory Thanksgiving Wine Post” of earlier this week!
What conclusions can we draw from these Thanksgiving posts? Well, Beaujolais tends to be somewhat of a theme, but as much for the rejection of it as the embracing of it. And the San Francisco Chronicle seems to like Thanksgiving…a lot!
Please comment with any posts we may have missed. I’m sure there are plenty more.
More Thanksgiving Wine Posts
The Obligatory Thanksgiving Wine Post - UPDATES!
Wine Spectator Wine of the Year Top Ten: It’s Time For Number One!
wine jargon
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
grapewise
Fabulous & Frugal!
Our friends launched a new site and domaine547 is a featured wine columnist in their premiere edition! Go check out Fabulous & Frugal for some fantastic lifestyle tips for living the good life during what, for most of us, is an economically challenging time. There’s much more than wine there, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of the start of what will surely be a successful venture. Congrats to Brandi & Steph for their achievement!
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
Check out this blog post where they actually refer to somebody from d547 as a “wine expert.” Shocking! In any case, the Imbibe blog offers a nice recipe to go along with one of our wine recommendations. Enjoy!
Fabulous & Frugal!
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
The 89 Project
February 7th, 2008 at 8:19 am
This is my huge party pick for spring and summer–every year for 4 years. Having a big Q and need sipping wine? Can’t do better than this, although I’m going to TRY to branch out this year and get something different.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I *love, love, love* Pomelo! We used to carry it until the distributor jacked the price prohibitively - we could not justify a $3/bottle increase for our customers. It’s too bad because the wine had a huge following. Just to put it into perspective from a small East Coast retailer standpoint: If we sold the wine and priced it off of front line (which we would obviously do), we’d have to sell it for $14.99. If we were able to buy it at the 4 case discount and price it off of the discount price (something a large store might do, but not a small retailer), the price would be $11.99. So stores aren’t necessarily marking it way up. If we sold it for $14.99, we’d just be making the standard mark-up, and nothing more.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Dr. Debs and Carol, thanks for your comments. Carol, that’s interesting…the pricing really varies tremendously based on geographic location. In California, the frontline with full mark-up puts the wine at $11 a bottle. With a discount (on 5 cases) it goes down to $10. Considering Whole Paycheck had at least 30 cases stacked in one store alone, $12.99 seems unreasonable.
As a small retailer myself, I’m far too familiar with having to price things slightly higher than the larger outlets. As you had to with the Pomelo, sometimes it results in not being able to carry a product you really like.