As the holidays approach, WineEnabler.com is making every effort to keep you up to date on the best wine values available in Austin. In a previous post, we listed wine suggestions from the Austin-area experts from The Austin Wine Merchant, Grapevine Market, and Central Market.

This week we have wine selections from Molly Sheehan at Twin Liquors on Balcones and Jen Powell from Whole Foods on Lamar. Molly offers three white and red wine suggestions, and Jen offers three red. [click to continue…]

With the election capturing everyone’s attention, it is hard to believe that the holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa is only a month and a half away.

If you are like me, you have not bought a single Christmas present, and you’re going to be pressed for time. Making matters worse is the current economic situation. If I wait until the last minute, I spend more on presents than I do if I plan ahead. Fortunately, many of the people on my Christmas list are wine drinkers, and I have some gift ideas.

Here are a few holiday gifts that I am considering as presents. If you are buying holiday gifts for a wine lover, this list is a great place to start looking. [click to continue…]

I keep a close eye on my wine prices. That doesn’t mean that I won’t pay for good wine, but I want to be sure that I know a bargain or a rip-off when I see one. Unfortunately, these days, bargains are harder to find. It seems that all the wine that was ordered when the Euro was worth more than $1.50 is making its way to America just in time for the Holidays.

My shopping survey suggests that the price increases are steepest for Italian and Spanish wines. From Spain for example, Constano’s 2004 Hecula is a good drink that was $9.99 this summer but is now $12.50 or more. Another Spanish wine that has been under $10 forever that is taking a big jump is Marques de Caceres 2004 Rioja Crianza Red, which is now $12.50 or more. From Italy, I bought Tomaresca’s 2006 Puglia for $9.99 about one month ago, and this weekend it was $12.99. And Inama’s 2007 Vin Soave Classico has increased from $14.25 to $16.25. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. [click to continue…]

As someone who is against the large-scale corporate take over of anything, in particular wine, I find myself on thin ice. I have been to CostCo three times. The first two were part business – I wanted to see what they charged for wine, and part personal – I wanted to save money on my food bill. I didn’t notice their house brand wine on my first visit, and I intentionally overlooked it on my second trip.

On my third visit, however, I decided to give one a try. The placard beside the wine said that the Wine Enthusiast Magazine had scored the wine a 90. I normally have reservations about the reliability of most mass-produced wine review services and mass-produced wines, but curiosity was guiding my hand. [click to continue…]

Probably like yourself, I’ve been feeling like my money just isn’t going as far as it used to. With a weak dollar and high oil prices, I’ve been looking for wines that I can afford to buy and still enjoy. This has been a necessary quest for me, because let’s just be honest, I don’t have any intention of not drinking wine.

We’ve reviewed a fair number of cheap but tasty wines in our Wine Reviews section, but I thought I’d list out some of our favorites for easy reading. If you have your own list of go-to value wines, please tell us about them in the comments section – we’re always looking for more. [click to continue…]

We Texans pay more for our alcohol than folks in some other states. Historically, I blamed the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) for our elevated prices. I assumed that a state-imposed excise tax was responsible.

However, I recently visited a site that lists the excise tax imposed by each state on wine. It turns out that Texas has one of the lowest excise taxes in the US, at $0.20 per gallon. Only New York ($0.19/gal) and Louisiana ($0.11/gal) have lower wine taxes. So what gives? [click to continue…]

As a part of our ongoing effort to find the best wine at the best price, I recently purchased a CostCo membership to check out their wine prices. This weekend, I stopped by and, I must say, these are amazing stores.

If you are not familiar with CostCo, they are kind of like a high-end Sam’s Club. They sell big lots and overstocked items they buy in bulk. They also have a house label, Kirkland Signature. [click to continue…]

I recently made a trip to San Francisco, and I had the good fortune to eat out at several fine dining establishments. When the wine list appeared at the first restaurant, I noticed that the wine prices were much less than I would pay in Austin, TX. At first, I thought it was just for Californian wines, but prices for imports were also lower then I had seen in Austin.

So I dropped by K & L Wine Merchants in San Francisco and got the local retail prices for several bottles of wine and took the information with me when I went out to eat. [click to continue…]

About a month ago, I posted a bit of a rant about Masi wine prices. You see, they had increased their prices by about 25% across the board for vintages that were already on the shelf.

It sure struck me the wrong way. I thought it was insulting to their current customers, and they put the wine shops that sell their wine in a bad spot. If the merchants increased their retail price, folks like me might not buy the wine. If merchants keep the price the same, they do not make any money on the vintage on their shelves.

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I have been preparing myself for import wine sticker shock. Like every other American, I have watched as the dollar has dropped and dropped. I have read how food prices surged more than 20% last year. So I knew eventually it would happen to my favorite wines – and it has.

(Update on June 9, 2008: Masi prices are coming back down!)

Usually, the price jump came with the release of the new vintage. Somehow this made things a little easier. The last several vintages from Europe have been good, so I could take solace in the fact that the newer wine was good – maybe even great – and therefore should cost more.

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