Grocery Store Wines Have Come a Long Way. These Bottles Prove it.

One of my favorite pastimes is perusing big box grocery stores, neighborhood bodegas, discount stores and anywhere that sells wine to see what they have and how much it costs. 

I’ve been buying wine for high-end Northern California restaurants for the past three decades. The last 18 of which, I’ve been the wine director of San Francisco special occasion mainstay One Market Restaurant, where I’ve worked hard to create a list that speaks to everyone who walks through the doors. I feel it’s important to know: What do my customers have access to and is it the same as in the restaurant?  

Some of this comes down to business. A restaurant can’t compete with big stores because we don’t purchase nearly as much wine, which means each bottle tends to cost us more to buy.  

The rest comes down to enjoyment. I also love to see what respected brands end up on supermarket shelves—a movement that’s been growing astronomically in recent years. It’s now easier than ever to score a great bottle without a special trip to a wine shop.  I have seen fantastic selections—my favorites are listed below—in my local California big box stores and many are available in similar outlets all around the country (though liquor sale laws obviously vary state to state).

Yet Another Pandemic Shift

There was a time when you would never think to pop six bottles of wine from your local grocery into your shopping cart. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought better access to high-quality wines at competitive prices. 

Starting around mid-2020, I would go into my local Bay Area Grocery Outlet, Lucky Foods, Cosco, Trader Joes and Safeway stores to wade through the wine aisles because I did not want to open prized wines from my cellar to drink alone or possibly not finish. 

On one trip to Lucky’s Grocery, an Alberton’s subsidiary, I spotted a 2019 Bodega Garzon Tannat from Uruguay for $19.99. I felt a surge of immense joy. I had only had opportunities to sample it during wine-trade tastings and it’s usually only available in select restaurants. How in the world did that wine end up at my local supermarket? 

In my excitement, I initiated a conversation with another customer browsing the aisle, who also bought a bottle. (Yeah, I am the person who will help anyone pick out a wine anywhere I go. I can’t help it, especially if I see you looking quizzically at what’s on the shelf.) 

While these premium offerings are surging in availability, the quality of lesser-priced mass-market brands has also improved. Following in the footsteps of the Old World business model, where wineries sell off completed wines to big brands, American grape growers are increasingly doing the same.This growing trend includes private label wines for retailers (which hit a record-breaking $271 billion in sales last year), control brands (which are owned, developed and produced by a supplier and sold exclusively to certain stores) and brands that buy completed wine from wineries and sell it under their own labels (like e-commerce Cameron Hughes Wine Club, for example).

Higher Quality for Less Money

While there are so many more options for wine-buyers on a budget due to the shifting market, most of the big name brands you see on supermarket shelves were specifically created with everyday drinking in mind. 

It’s a highly competitive category. To increase market share, brands have been upping the ante, producing better wines for less money. 

A number of factors have made this possible. 

One of the biggest has been the West Coast grape glut—there currently are more wine grapes planted than wineries need—which has decreased the value of the fruit. Mass brands have been able to buy better quality grapes for less money.

Another aspect of production that lowers cost is packaging. And the growing array of alternative packaging has been a boon to wine lovers who are trying to save money.