Oenophiles on beer budgets have never had it better. In California, which produces about 80% of US wine, some vintners stuck with more than people want to drink are offloading their surplus, much of it high quality. That means premium wines are increasingly within affordable reach on shelves at retailers including Costco, Kroger and Aldi. A bottle that can command $150 as a winery brand may be going for less than $30 under a private or exclusive label.
At Kroger Co., the largest US grocer, the trajectory has been significant. Curtis Mann, the company’s vice president of wine, beer and spirits, said, "We went from having no wines with 90-plus scores in our portfolio from respectable reviewers to 20 in the last two months." Steve Beckner, direct import and private label wine buyer for Grocery Outlet Inc., said he has never encountered anything like it in his nearly 30 years in the business.
A Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon that Beckner said could fetch from $45 to $85 under a winemaker’s name is priced as low as $9.99 as a private label. While the industry has taken "drastic, necessary actions" to fix the imbalance, residual overproduction from prior years still must be worked through. Taylor Case, president of Navigator Wine Collection, said he recently tasted a Napa Valley cabernet that retails for $149 but will sell for $29.99.
Whatever the reason, this is "probably one of the best times I’ve seen in my near 30-year history in the industry for the consumer," said Peter Baedeker. Andrew Cullen, who runs a blog from Atlanta that reviews wines sold at Costco stores, said, "the quality has been going up and the price has been staying the same — or going down."
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing