Why Supermarket Wine Sucks

Maybe you shouldn't buy your wine at Kroger or Safeway or any other chain grocery store. Here's why:

A Safeway's wine aisle. Lots of wine from lots of wine corporations

The majority of wine is purchased while buying groceries. That wine will be consumed on that night or maybe the next.

The majority of wine purchased this way is under ten dollars. The math here will tell you that inexpensive wine cost about $2.50 to make. This can only be done with industrial-style wine making at very large wineries.

The majority of this wine is soft, lush (meaning low acid) with a bit of sugar in it because marketing studies say that's what the people want. Note that the acid in wine is a necessary component for food pairing. The people are being screwed because this wine, at best, is uninteresting.

So you aren't about to spend $30 on a bottle of wine you know nothing about just because you've heard it might be better. You're just fine with spending half of that or less. At least try to wine shop at Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or your local specialty grocery. That is, somewhere that takes some pride in the wines they sell. Give it a try for a couple months and see what you think.