Wine as a Frugal Gift

If it’s one thing that I’ve learned, you never know when a bargain is going to fall into your lap. You must keep an eye out at all times. This past weekend, we went to Santa Cruz to check out meh about it). Along the way we found that the Santa Cruz boardwalk was quite a lot of fun. So where was the bargain?

When we were driving down the Pacific Coast Highway for the scenic view, Energi Gal spotted the Bonny Doon Vineyard. As “happenstance” would have it, it’s one of Energi’s Gal’s favorite vineyards – something that she drank back in Rhode Island on her 21st birthday. I put “happenstance” in quotes, because she had planned to stop there long before we left for the Mystery Spot. Neither of us are ones to turn down a wine tasting, and there was no was I was going to convince her not to go.

As soon as we pulled up the car, a gentleman in a Red Sox hat noticed the Hanscom Air Force base sticker, which lead to a great bonding experience. He was a tennis instructor at Hanscom for 15 years. It turns out that he lived less than a mile from where I grew up. I’m not a big believer in karma, but if I were, this would be it.

After talking with the gentleman for a bit, we went inside. Margaret of Bonny Doon vineyards gave us the tasting and she was phenomenal, showing us all the different wines. When we found out that the Pacific Rim Riesling wasn’t on the tasting, Energi Gal was obviously dejected. This was the signature wine that she has loved for 10 years. She casually mentioned this and they produced a bottle for us. They did this with a couple of bottles actually. By the time we were done, we had sampled more wine than 3 vineyards in Napa would give you.

During the sampling we noticed an oddity. One of their desert wines was on sale. Their Bouteille Call typically runs about $12 for a 500ml bottle. However, for whatever reason there was a sale. The Bouteille Call was only $25 for a case of 12. That’s a little more than $2 a bottle. I suggested that we picked up a case. I didn’t have any solid reasoning, but that I knew a good deal when I saw one.

It was Energi Gal that thought of the immediate use of the wine (remember we had tasted quite a bit wine at this point). It would be the perfect gift for when we show up at get-togethers – contrary to what George Costanza might say. So now instead of spending $10-12 on a nice bottle of wine to give as a gift, we’ll only pay $2. Margaret said that Bonny Doon has those deals every so often on different types of wine.

I don’t know if it’s possible to duplicate this specific opportunity in your town, but it’s worth keeping an eye open.