How’s your summer going?
Mine’s been pretty awesome. From teaming up with Wines of Bordeaux to host a Twitter Q&A about summer food and wine pairings to touring vineyards in Friuli Venezia Giulia in northeastern Italy (more on that to come) to simply enjoying a chilled glass of white in my East London back garden at the end of a surprisingly sultry day – this season has been one filled with great wine.
The nice thing is though as much as I’ve been loving the wines I’ve been drinking I haven’t had to splash out a fortune for them.
For example, all the wines I discussed and sampled for my Twitter Q&A were priced under £20 with most at or under £10. During my trip to FVG I was actually shocked to discover how inexpensive most of the wines I tried actually were. My faves never cost more than £10, usually they were more along the lines of a fiver. As for my own at home summer sips, I’ve found it easy enough to score good wines at great prices without having to work too hard at it.
Some ideas on buying wine without paying too much for it including the following tips. First of all keep in mind that cheap wine deals abound online. Click around, do some price comparisons, and purchase what looks best to you. Online and in the shops, when you see something you like at a particularly nice price, stock up on it. When browsing a shop, be sure to check out whatever promos and special offers are on display in shop as well. If it’s a shop worth its salt, it won’t have anything yucky prominently placed. Enquire about affordable alternatives to popular fine wines and always ask what the shopkeeper likes to drink.
In general, the best advice I can give is to veer from always buying popular varietals from well-known regions and take a chance on something different every once in a while. For me what’s really fun about drinking wine is the chance to discover and learn about different parts of the world and how delicious wines come from sorts of unique and remarkable places.
