Everything I’ve Learned About Costco Wine in Seven Years of Running This SiteA lot of people I know refer to Whole Foods as "Whole Wallet" because of its relatively high prices on produce and other food items. I shop there regularly for health supplements and specialty foods I can't find elsewhere. I am finding, though, that their wine department, stocked with many relatively obscure organic and sustainably grown wines sourced by their buyers from around the world, does contain some relative bargains. When Whole Foods--the 30th largest retailer in the U.S., with over 400 stores around the country, as well as in Canada and the U.K.--recently offered to send me their "Summer Top 10 Wines," currently on sale and highlighted with large display posters at local stores, I said I would be happy to receive and evaluate them. What arrived was a diverse group of wines--four whites, five reds and one sparkler--from literally all over the globe. A few came from producers I am very familiar with, but most are from makers I've never heard of.

The price range runs from $7 to $20. After tasting through this collection, which I scored from 86 to 91 points, I decided to apply a new QPR algorithm I've been working on for awhile. I'm calling it the RJ Quadruple P Scale, which stands for Price Per Premium Point. My current scale is still very much a working model. I've tried to base the values and increments between the values on a rough notion of the market value of wines at various point scores. good rich red wineI've aimed for a PPPP averaging $2 as representing a reasonable price for wine at different price points. best wine to have on a dietFor example, a price of $22 is not unreasonable for a wine rated 90 points, so I've assigned a value of 11 to a 90-point score, yielding a price per premium point of $2 for a wine priced at $22. best wine for period

For wines of much lower quality, where the incremental price difference between a wine scoring, say, 81 points and 83 points is not that significant, the steps per half rating point are only .2. For very highly rated wines, the increments between half rating points go up dramatically starting at the 92 point level, so that is reflected in the value per point. In the case of the Whole Foods Summer Top 10, the #1 wine after I apply the PPPP scale is a tasty, varietally correct New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, with bright balancing acidity and complex flavors. buy rose wine onlineIt would be a refreshing accompaniment to a variety of summer fare, especially seafood and white cheeses, and at a price of only $12, and therefore a PPPP of only $1.09, it represents a very significant value.whats a cheap dry red wine My #2 wine on this list is a $7 Tempranillo from Spain's Castilla-La Mancha region, which resembles a decent Rioja with some bottle age on it. 19 crimes wine contest

Its 87-point score at that price point results in a PPPP of $1.27. This would be a very drinkable and affordable pairing for everything from grilled veggies to lighter meats. My third place wine on this list is a decent Vinho Verde from an importer I have gotten to know well over the years, from having been on panels and at tasting dinners with him. Bartholomew Broadbent knows how to source good quality, well priced wine. Vinho Verde is a perfect summer wine for its bright citrus flavors and vibrant acidity. This one is priced at $9--which is reasonable for a Vinho Verde, although there are many others that generally run under $15. It will serve well as an aperitif or with salads and light cheeses of all kinds, as well as lighter seafood dishes. Number four gets my highest rating--91 points--and also has an excellent PPPP of $1.31. It's a flavorful old vine Zin with good balancing acidity--Valravn. This is a small project by the owners of Banshee Wines, based on dry-farmed bush vines ranging from 50 to over 100 years old.

I've seen this wine priced elsewhere at $20, which is still a good price, but Whole Foods currently has it for only $17. This is a wine that should age well for at least five years, so would not only complement this summer's barbecues and grilled meats, but could be lovely to open in cooler months over the coming years as well. The Chardonnay on the list--Andover Estate Arroyo Seco--comes in fifth for me based on its 89-point rating and excellent price, for good California Chardonnay, of $13. Whole Foods claims to have bought the entire production of this wine, so you're not going to find it elsewhere. It will be a crowd pleaser, and a versatile wine to pair with summer afternoons by the pool and a host of summer foods. All in all, I applaud Whole Foods for this diverse summer line up and the relatively bargain prices overall. Here's to a fun summer full of food friendly, balanced wines that don't burn a hole in our wallets. For my complete tasting notes, scoring and pricing on each of these wines, see the complete post on my blog here.

I agree to Influenster's Term of Use and Privacy Policy We just sent you a confirmation mail ! You are almost done! Please confirm your email address Look like you deactivated your account. Ready to Jump back on board? Heya, this Facebook account is not currentlyIf you have an Influenster account, try logging in with your email address. If you are new to Influenster, would you like to make a new account by registering now? Please reconnect the following networks to maintain your Social Impact. The connection may have expired. You must grant Influenster the requested permissions in order to connect your social media account. We will not post on your behalf without permission, nor share your personal information with any 3rd party companies.The label for La Moneda Malbec Reserva 2015 from Chile looks like nothing special, until you notice the small decal on the side touting 95 points and a platinum medal from Decanter magazine. Even if you don’t know that Decanter is Britain’s leading wine journal, 95 points is an impressive score for any wine, especially a cheap one.

Last June, when it won best single-variety red costing under 15 pounds in Decanter’s annual World Wine Awards, consumer demand crashed the website of Asda supermarkets, La Moneda’s exclusive retail outlet. Demand spiked so high that Asda’s parent company, Walmart, decided to sell the wine in the United States. So last fall, Walmart introduced the La Moneda Malbec into 577 of its 4,600 or so U.S. stores, priced at $6.96 a bottle. Having tasted a sample, I can tell you it is really good, and it was still delicious and lively three or four days after opening, my unscientific way of assessing wine quality. 5 wines to try this week Unfortunately, it is not available in Washington-area Walmart stores — or possibly in any Walmart. A company spokesman says the initial U.S. allotment “sold through” over the holidays. Furthermore, it’s unclear whether U.S. customers will ever be able to buy La Moneda. The supplier is already selling Walmart the 2016 vintage, but only for the U.K. market, and the spokesman would say only that the company is always looking for “new opportunities” to offer similar values for its American customers.

Nonetheless, the La Moneda story gives us a glimpse into how many good, inexpensive wines reach the shelves of chain stores such as Walmart, Costco, Total Wine & More and BevMo. It’s not the romantic tale of artisan vintners lovingly coddling their expensive oak barrels to produce a few hundred cases of mind-blowing vino. Most wine is an industrial agricultural product, made at large wineries sometimes derisively called “tank farms” for the huge stainless-steel tanks that hold thousands of gallons waiting to be bottled on demand. Economy of scale helps make wine inexpensive enough to be our daily tipple. Exclusive private-label wines are one way retailers vie for a competitive edge. The La Moneda malbec is one of 60 such “distinctive labels” Walmart sells, including $3 table wines and more premium proseccos and other bubblies, according to Kurt Carlson, a wine buyer with Walmart’s adult beverage team. Walmart leverages its corporate buying power to partner with large wineries around the world and with importers and distributors here in the United States.

Exclusivity is not so much a legal arrangement as a fact of life. “Any retailer can ask a distributor for some La Moneda,” Carlson told me in a telephone interview from Walmart headquarters in Arkansas. “But the truth is, we’ve already bought it all.” He declined to say exactly how much of the malbec Walmart has acquired. The label says La Moneda is produced by Ranco Wines, bottled by Viña Luis Felipe Edwards Nancagua in Chile, and imported by Prestige Wine & Spirits Group in Princeton, Minn. Ranco’s general manager, Raimundo Valenzuela, told me in an email exchange that the wine was made by RR Bulk Wine, Ranco’s main company, founded in 1993. Valenzuela described RR as Chile’s largest wine exporter, with about 2,500 acres of vineyards, shipping more than 80 million liters a year to more than 25 countries. That’s a whopping 107 million bottles, or nearly 9 million cases. Ranco sells mainly to European supermarket chains and large U.S. companies with numerous brands, such as the Wine Group, Constellation, and E&J Gallo, he said.

The wine that wowed Decanter’s tasters was shipped in bulk to Britain and bottled there, which helps reduce costs, Valenzuela said. For the U.S. market, Ranco enlisted Viña Luis Felipe Edwards to bottle the wine in Chile. According to the certificate of label approval filed with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Prestige Wine & Spirits Group is United States Distilled Products, one of the nation’s largest producers of private-label liquors. So here’s the story of La Moneda (and similar private-label wines): Ranco produces a lot of wine inexpensively. Carlson and other buyers from Walmart taste the malbec. Recognizing its quality, they use Walmart’s market power to buy all of it at a good price. They could call it anything — Chateau This or Domaine That, even though there is no such idyllic property associated with the wine. (La Moneda is Spanish for “the coin,” appropriately enough. It is also the name of the Chilean presidential palace, shown on the label.)

They bring it into the United States through their importer to various distributors, who speed the product through the three-tier distribution network at minimal cost. Because the wine is going exclusively to one store’s various outlets, there’s no marketing cost to build the brand and fight for shelf space. (Though someone at Walmart was smart enough to enter the malbec into the Decanter competition and then market its triumph for all it was worth.) Once in the store, the wine receives prime placement on the shelf — at eye level, or a coveted end-of-aisle display — alongside California chardonnays and merlots that also don’t have the store name on the label but are available nowhere else. National brands are often relegated to less-visible, harder-to-reach shelves. That preference for the store-owned product sometimes leads distributors to chafe about an unfair disadvantage for their own brands. For consumers, of course, what matters is the wine, not the label. And we don’t want to have to rummage around looking for the La Moneda Malbec.