Inflation? What inflation? 10 bottles of wine for $114

Inflation, shortages, and supply chain woes may be showing up in the rest of the economy, but they don’t seem to have hurt cheap wine yet

Gas prices may be close to $4 a gallon in parts of the country, and the cyber-ether is full of hand-wringing about the U.S. economy and the ravages of inflation, the supply chain kerfuffle, socio-political unrest, and all of the the rest of the specters haunting our post-(hopefully) pandemic world.

But wine prices going up? So far, I haven’t seen it.

Yes, there are still shortages and empty shelves. My local Aldi has moved on from the cheap imported wine that made me a regular customer, and is instead stocking not so cheap (and very ordinary) California wine. Which, no doubt, is because of all those supply chain problems. And it’s still difficult finding certain wines, be they Italian and Spanish reds or the $10 roses I drink year round. My kingdom for a Zestos rose!

But there is still plenty of value. The wine business, for whatever reason (and no, I have no idea what they may be) is holding the line on prices. During a recent shopping expedition, I bought 10 bottles for $114, or about what I usually pay. The wines included:

• South Africa’s Ken Forrester petit chenin blanc, one of my all-time favorite wines and difficult to find even in the pre-pandemic world.

• A couple of Spanish viuras including the 1-liter Spanish Azul y Garanza. The Azul, which is always a value, has been in short supply for the past 18 months.

• An $11 cremant from the Loire, a sparkling wine from Cote Mas. The Mas wines can be uneven, but this was a steal (and more on it later).

• A $15 Australian riesling, the Pewsey Vale. Aussie riesling is another great value around $15, and again has been difficult to find in Dallas for years.

• A $10 red Bordeaux, the Chateau La Freynelle. The white has always been fine $10 wine; have not seen the red for a very long time, as well.

More about buying cheap wine:
• Suck on this, premiumization: 14 bottles of wine for $148
• Premiumization be damned: $139.36 for 14 ½ bottles of cheap wine
• Panic wine buying