With flash deals, shoppers can scoop up severely discounted merchandise by acting quickly. Generally, deals are good only on the day they’re posted, and sometimes they can sell out in hours, or even mere minutes. Over the last few years, wine makers and sellers have gotten hooked on flash deals as a means to unload vintages that aren’t selling well at full price, and nowadays these big-discount, limited-time-only deals account for about one-quarter of all online wine sales. In a NY Times story about flash wine deals, it’s explained that the idea here is simply that: flash sales have allowed wineries, particularly at the middle and higher end, to unload huge numbers of bottles in staggeringly short times, albeit at drastically reduced prices. So do the wineries make money this way? Buyers are essentially snagging bottles at cost. But wineries still find that flash deals works to their advantage, for the time being at least: The profits on such sales may be small or nonexistent, but at least they give the wineries cash to pay for the next vintage’s barrels and grapes.

Will flash deals continue to be part of wineries’ business model down the line? That’s hard to say. Wineries, obviously, would rather sell all of their products on a non-discounted basis. They’re trying to make profits, of course. So after the current recession-related glut of inventory is sold off to the masses—much of it on the cheap—we may see far fewer of these flash deals. Or, perhaps, we’ll see a rise of dubious flash deals, in which merchandise is listed at inflated original prices no one ever pays solely for the purpose of making the discounts seem all the more impressive. Either way, these deals be “limited-time only” in more ways than one. We all know they disappear in the short-term, but they could vanish in the long run as well. Right now, there are plenty of opportunities to buy high-quality deeply discounted wine online. Here are a few sites that regularly sell high or higher-end wine on the cheap, rounded up from the Times and other sources: Wines Til Sold Out

Which flash sites are best for consumers? On that subject, the Times is silent. best wine gadgetsBut a recent Wine & Vines post reviewed the leading flash sites specializing in wine.cost of wine in india How to Buy a $75 Bottle of Wine for $25: Just Remove the Labelbest light italian red wine ‘Expert’ Wine Sippers Take Us All for Suckersbest red italian wine 2015 Trader Joe’s Two-Buck Chuck Taste Testbest wine for mac os xAt Wine on the Way we realize that selecting the best wine can be a confusing process. best wines to help you sleep

Our goal is to demystify and simplify the wine buying process by only offering wines rated 90 points or higher by the most respected industry experts. 2010 Castiglion del Bosco 2012 Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona 2013 Chateau St. Jean 2014 Chateau De Saint Cosme Wine Spectator's 2017 Tasting Events Sample hundreds of the world's best wines at our annual tasting events! Grand Tour tickets are on sale now for Las Vegas, Chicago and Miami. Plus, register early for the New York Wine Experience Oct. 19-21. What should I do with a collection of wine labels? A bright South African white with honeysuckle notes ($10) A ripe, juicy Italian white with creamy tannins ($20) This finely balanced Italian red has a spicy finish ($41) 2015 Bordeaux: 250+ Reviews Top Values / Easy Finds Newest 95- to 100-Point Wines Top 100 of 2016 (free-access) Latest: News, Views & More Frost, Hail Damage Vineyards in France and Italy Vintners from Champagne to Piedmont are fighting freezing temperatures

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