OK, it's time to let the Wine Buzz faithful in on a secret. Well, maybe it's not such a secret to some of you, but from local sommeliers to savvy wine shoppers, Grocery Outlet remains a go-to place to score interesting wines at often unbelievable prices.
From d'Arenberg Australian dessert wines to early 1990s vintages of California cabernet sauvignon, these kinds of bottles and beyond have been found at Grocery Outlet.
But there's a caveat. The selection between stores can vary widely, and once a wine sells out, it's pretty much gone forever. Grocery Outlet essentially carries overstocked and outdated goods from distributors and importers.
So if a distributor is sitting on cases of outdated vintages, Grocery Outlet might pick up that stock. Wine Buzz even knows of a couple local wine professionals who like to hit up the Grocery Outlet in Berkeley, in search of choice deals on bottles from older vintages.
And now, there's even bigger savings. From today through Sunday, Grocery Outlet stores are holding a biannual 20-percent-off wine sale. Past sales have featured $45 bottles of Napa cabernet sauvignon selling for about $10, and mid-2000 vintages of Kunde syrah from Sonoma at about 75 percent off their regular retail price.
For information and a list of locations: www.groceryoutlet.com.
Beer redux
Sacramento Beer Week 2012 may officially be in the books, but we've still got some beer on the brain. That said, if you love some suds, consider registering for "Cheese Loves Beer IV: Global Marries Local."
This event held at UC Davis' Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science will pair eight cheeses from around the world with eight beers. Your hosts include Charlie Bamforth, a.k.a. "Professor Suds" and UC Davis' Anheuser-Busch endowed professor of brewing science, and UC Davis dairy science expert Moshe Rosenberg.
The event will be 2 to 6:45 p.m. April 14. Tickets are $65 general admission, $50 for UC Davis faculty, students and Friends of the RMI. For other information, call (530) 752-5171 or www.robertmondavi institute.ucdavis.edu.
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