California Wine at California Prices by Philip S. Kampe

My two week journey through southern California's vast array of wine shops has been a true education for me, the east coast wine consumer. Like everyone else, purchasing wine from a respectable wine merchant has always been my objective.


Both New Jersey (Wine Library) and western Massachusetts (Spirited Wines and Nejaime's) have met my needs with quality service, weekly tastings and educated wine consultants.

It seems like California is much the same, a little bit more laid back, as the wine merchants expect that the consumer knows about wine--since they live in California.

Taking that in account, I chose to visit numerous wine outlets that had little to no staff to sell the goods. The money saved by not paying the staff to hand sell was reflected in the price of wine.

The infamous 'Ralphs' supermarket was the best answer to 'Who sells middle to top quality wines at discount prices'?


                       

              

Philip S. Kampe
philip.kampe@thewinehub.com