Bulk buying wine

PaulStat

PaulStat

PaulStat

Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
Just popped along to www.thebristolwinecompany.co.uk, to ask about bulk buying wine for my wedding in August and they'll give me a 15% discount per bottle, and deliver it chilled. Now they're really really friendly and offer some great advice.

But considering their cheaper bottles are around the £5 mark, and Sainsburys do 3 bottles of wine for £10 it's the kind of saving you can't ignore.

I'd love to buy from them rather than faceless supermarkets.

What would you guys do, save a fair bit of cash by going to the supermarket or get excellent advice and service from a small retailer?
 
Well either way I am assuming you are going to be charged corkage for bring wine in so get the Sainsbury's wine and ask the place you are having the celebration to put them in their chiller for you.
 
Wiggins said:
Well either way I am assuming you are going to be charged corkage for bring wine in so get the Sainsbury's wine and ask the place you are having the celebration to put them in their chiller for you.
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Yup £5 a bottle corkage I think it was :(

Expensive business weddings
 
I buy glugging wine from the supermarket (generally kiwi and SA whites and beaujolais / burgandy reds) and I buy good wine from a wine merchant.

As far as wedding wine goes, you don't need anything fantastic because you need it to appeal to as many people as possible. I think the most important thing is to check if you can do 'sale or return' so that you only get charged for what gets used.
 
I always buy wine in bulk but rarely from independents unless they have outstanding offers on but even then they can rarely match the likes of Tesco's prices.
Tesco had a Wine Festival on a couple of weeks ago (might still be on) and I bought 24 x NZ Sauv Blanc, 24 x Aus Chardonnay & 24 x It Pinot Grigio and it all averaged just over £3 per bottle.
The list price for the SB alone was £9.99 and all 3 were on 3 for £10 minus 5% if you buy over 6 bottles, I'd love to be able to get it all from smaller stores but when prices are like that you can't ignore it:)
 
I buy from alcohol shops where possible, don't like supermarkets, avoid buying from them unless completely neccesary. Especially for food, half of it's not worth eating.
I always buy a crate of decent pinot noir at christmas from majestic. And i buy a lot of spirits, beer and single bottles from the magnum wine shop (awesome shop).
 
cheets64 said:
Wait, they charge £5 to open a bottle of wine at the venue?

I am in the wrong business. Weddings are a rip off.
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Yep - I grew to hate anyone I dealt with when we were organising our wedding. People just hear the word and immediately hike the prices up, some places have separate price lists just for weddings. Why... tell you what just claw our ******* eyes out as well why don't you.

That's why we chose to get married in France.
 
Look at laithwaites, either the mail order or try out their shops. I have found the staff to be truly excellent compared to most.

Those offering three for two aren't too bad, but I never use them since I prefer to buy single bottles and it annoyed me intensely when they whacked up all their prices massively so they could embark on their 3 for 2 marketing farce.

If buying in quantity - ie 12 or more bottles you should always get a 15% case discount - if you don't then just go elsewhere. (3 for 2 excepted - its built into the price).

I avoid supermarkets. In general they are marketing wine in a cynical and confusing way. Supermarkets are EXPENSIVE for wine unless you really are careful and pick it up at the right price - that is to say "special offers" like wine festivals when the supermarkets reduce the wine down from grossly inflated artificial prices to what they should be.

The trouble is that people don't know what they should be paying for wine and since practically everyone is playing games with the marketing and pricing, Joe Public is starting to accept hideous inflated prices as normal.

Also beware of mail order and high street suppliers who own their own vineyards selling their own vitually unknown brands at a high mark up. Don't get me wrong it's good, often very good, stuff - but generally you can get similar quality wine for less money elsewhere.
 
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I've looked at some of the online wine places but it never seems quite worth it. There is almost always something half decent for £4 in a supermarket if you don't mind trying different types. And the 5% discount for 6 bottles is sometimes increased to 20 or 25%. The supermarkets seem to go through phases of being good and then not so good on wine prices so if you visit different ones, sainsbury's, tesco etc then you always get a good deal. Asda seem to be very hit and miss for this. They won't have any good offers for a while but then seem to have genuine £5.99 bottles in the 3 for £10 offer.

Also, learn to spot the fake priced wine. Example: Ernest & Julio Gallo Sycamore Canyon (red) It's supposedly £8.99 and it's horrible stuff. BUT a lot of the time/most of the time it's half price to make it look like a bargain.
 
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Cambridge Wine Merchants are pretty good, in terms of stock, but I do feel they are generally overpriced. Try joining a wine club / society. I'm a member of The Wine Society (http://www.thewinesociety.com/) Good service / advice / decent bottles of wine and reasonably priced. By joining a club, you'll often get free bottles on a regular basis and decent bulk buy offers.
 
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