Direct Imports: A Wine Geek’s Best Friend
France is still it for value. You just have to know where to look, or who to ask, but I have a cellar stocking weapon. Direct imports (ah, my favorite words). These wines are different than other cheap wines, because they aren’t cheap. I am consistently awed by selections of character-driven French and Spanish country wines for $8 or $10, and usually more like $6.
So what does "direct import" mean to you?
Every time someone touches a wine, the price goes up. The importer gets his cut, more than one distributor might take a piece, then it gets its final retail mark up of at least another 25%. That’s why there are so many schlocky bottles of $15 wine that should only cost half that, too many goddamn people had their hand in the pie. And that’s before you figure in those marketing bitches.
When distributors bring wine from France, Spain, and Italy directly to their warehouse and then to me–that’s one mark up. That also means they don’t have to get dicked around by importers. (Some importers can really turn the screws, shipping you all sorts of turds just to get one or two good wines)
That means these direct imports end up costing up to 60% less than wines of similar quality. Every market should have their share of fine wine importers that direct import to some extent. Ask your friendly neighborhood wine retailer.
But for you west coasters, try anything French or Spanish and under 9 bucks that says "Imported by Grape Expectations" on the back label. I don’t know how they do it, but whoever picks these wines has a nose for rustic elegance. Also look for wines from Vin di Vino and Charles Neil. (Don’t confuse these two, because you don’t want wine from Vince Neil. Oh, you didn’t know Vince Neil made wine? Well, now you do. You can go on living your life.)
July 2nd, 2005 at 7:03 am
Man, I’m glad you have pleasant associations with DI wines. I work at a wine department in a large food-lovers grocery store and DI is the bane of our existance. You see, DI wines are only as good as the Procurement manager who buys them. Ours seems to be getting kickbacks from a number of French plonkmasters. And, truly, I love a good cheap bottle as much as anyone, and I’m not the most experienced taster on the planet, but I know stemmy, rough juice when I taste it. To be fair, there have been several wines we’ve gotten that were quite decent for the price. But more often than not, we’ll get BURIED in palates of overpriced shite we can’t get rid of fast enough to make room for the good stuff. Wine comes in at a price we’re already laughing at, and when we taste it…our hearts sink as we realize that it’s gonna have to take up valuable real estate until corporate realizes they’ll have to drop the price.
You have inspired me, though, just by mentioning it, to list some of the better bottles on my own site. Cheap French vin de pays is a beautiful thing indeed.
Clinkies.