Among those who drink wine, there is a common misconception that in order to enjoy good wine, one has to pay a high price. But this is not exactly true. Wines that cost more are usually higher-quality than those that you can buy for $4 or $5 a bottle. However, discounted wine is not bad wine. If you find a good bottle of wine on the discount rack or on sale, you can absolutely feel comfortable buying it. Here's a closer look at how good wines often end up on the discount rack (and it's not because they're bad wines).
A winery is clearing out the old vintage
Some years, a winery might be able to make 1,000 bottles of a certain variety. Other years, they may make 3,000 bottles. It depends on the growing conditions, when they're able to harvest the grapes, and so many other factors. If a winery has a really productive year, they may still have a lot of that year's wine left to sell when the next year's wine is being produced. They may then need to clear out some of the earlier year's wine in order to make space for and create demand for the next year's wine. They discount the wine so that it sells faster, allowing them to clear out the space more quickly.
The labels weren't quite right
The label on a bottle of wine is really important for the winery's marketing efforts. However, it does not affect the flavor of the wine. Sometimes, label makers make mistakes. The label might have a misspelling, or the name might be crooked. If these mistakes are not caught before the labels are put on the bottles of wine, then the winery might discount the wine rather than spending the time to pull off and replace the labels. This can be a great chance to get a great bottle of wine for less!
The wine has too much competition
It might be that a particular winery made a good pinot noir, but so did 30 other wineries that year. As such, there is a lot of competition, and the wine is not moving at the rate the winery wanted it to. They may then discount the wine in order to better compete with other wineries making similar products.
You should never feel bad about saving money on wine! Wine on the discount rack is often delicious, high-quality wine. Look into discount wine at a store near you.