Comments on: Trading down in wine 2009 – did you do it? [poll]

By: Erwin Dink

Erwin Dink — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:45:08 +0000

You missed one:

Drank less wine overall but more higher priced wine.

By: dasmueller

dasmueller — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:23:11 +0000

I would say that our wine consumption pricewise was up a bit from last year. I believe it is related to the fact that I semi-retired this fall. Life is too short to drink what one perceives as lower quality wine. I would add that I believ I have been less likely to grab a bunch of different bottles just to experiment. Instead I relied on the advice of a knowledgable person at the the store where much of our wine is purchased. Quakity/value seem to be more important this year.
Did make another trip to Sonoma the highlight of which was a private tasting at a vineyard whose wine we had purchased about 5 yrs earlier at a co-op tasting rm. There we were happy to purchase several cases of wine we really enjoy. We still are involved in two vineyard wine clubs and enjoy them both.

By: Oscar

Oscar — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:47:18 +0000

I’ve spent the last year trying to keep the budget almost the same but trying to find wines from less known producers. I have found that this way both the quality is higher and more importantly the tastes are more unique with these small scale producers. Just cant find them everywhere. Best to visit the vineyards themselves or their local tastings.

By: 1WineDude

1WineDude — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:36:44 +0000

It’s the restaurants who are feeling the pinch of my penny. Ie., when I go out, it’s usually to a BYO restaurant where I’m taking my own wine (no trading down in my personal buying) unstead of paying the markup at a non-BYO joint. Cheers!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:15:02 +0000

I now find it difficult to pay the wine list markup. I’m finding it more enjoyable to pick up good bottles from wineries with little or no distribution and pay the corkage fee. So, I’m paying less for my wine, but I don’t think I would say I’m drinking cheaper wine.

By: Hector Arbane

Hector Arbane — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:42:28 +0000

Like Paul, the more I drink, the more I find myself willing to spend on a very good bottle of wine and champagne.

The 2009 recession didn’t directly change much in my life of passionate. Now I buy my wine differently, because the market is changing faster than me!

Happy new year for 2010 ! best!

Hector from France

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:07:02 +0000

Bob W – said with an enviable degree of precision! You haven’t already finished your 09 taxes yet, have you? Quicken/CellarTracker combo?

By: Russ Winton

Russ Winton — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:22:01 +0000

I write a wine column for a local paper which has a “What’s On Our Table” selection. The wine must be under $15.00, readily available and a good value to price. When I leave out this section, readers revolt. In 2009 everyone was looking for a good deal. But even in good times, aren’t we all looking for solid well balanced wines at fair prices? Now, if we could only convince restaurants into fair mark-ups…sorry, just dreaming…

By: Austin Robertson

Austin Robertson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:43:09 +0000

I have to say that I have far too much temptation to keep buying the wines that I like to trade down.

By: Bob W.

Bob W. — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:16:24 +0000

According to Cellar Tracker (Thanks Eric!!), I drank 15% less bottles in 2009 compared to 2008 but the average bottle cost about 5% more in 2009.

I purchased almost the same bottle quantity in 2009 as I did in 2008 but I spent 12% less in 2009.

Looks like I was drinking more expensive bottles from my cellar in 2009…and there were some good ones!!

That said, I didn’t really think too much financially about my buying habits in 2009. It was more about buying wine to drink than to collect and that’s why I spent less.

Cheers to 2010!

Bob

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:30:46 +0000

My buying habits switched over during the springtime of 2009 but not necessarily. I worked in a wine shop (still do) and thus ended up chasing prestige. I ended up buying at around $25 or more a good chunk of the time (mostly CdPs and Ribera del Duero).

During the spring, though, I ended up getting deep into low-intervention wines after tasting some Puzelat (ended up buying almost a case of Dressner’s stuff even though I’m a man of little means) and started searching out more subtlety than blockbusters. My range has lowered down to between $15 to $20 now and I buy less but I attribute it more to my aesthetics changing rather than the economy.

As a bottle shop worker, though, I’ve definitely noticed some people trading down to more value buys than name brands. Malbec in particular seems to have benefited.

By: Eric B

Eric B — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:02:16 +0000

I own a wine store and from my perspective people definitely bought more, less-expensive wine. My revenue was about flat (OK, down ~1%) but unit sales were up almost 4%!

I found that about mid-year I was being offered more real value oriented wines from distributors that had been trying to push high-end bottles up until that time. There has been a real change in the buying patterns of customers and it will be interesting to see how long it will take for them to reverse the trend. I’m not holding my breath…

By: Katherine Jarvis

Katherine Jarvis — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:35:30 +0000

With all of the good deals on wine out there, any wine lover would be foolish not to take advantage and trade up quality! I probably have not spent more $$, but quality has gone up.

By: Cathy H

Cathy H — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:34:54 +0000

Where I seriously cut back was on restaurant dining. Meanwhile, a mid-tier or even the occasional splurge-level bottle of wine seem like a comparatively inexpensive way to travel, have new experiences, learn new things. It makes bad times seem better.

By: rdjtulsa

rdjtulsa — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:11:11 +0000

I was in the process of moving…so I drank all reserved wines (about two cases) in a matter of a week or two…

Once they were gone I went on the prowl of finding great wines for under $20…you would be surprised!!