That moment when you’re looking around in a wine shop or the booze aisle and think, wow, surely there’s been some kind of pricing cock-up here…? Do they really want to sell it for that? And then you snaffle them all up.
To kick off, here’s mine, although I’m sure there are better stories out there. Back when I was commuting between Yeovil and Bath, I’d often pop into the massive Co-op in Radstock, as it had a pretty good selection. And one day, on the top shelf, was the '08 Potensac with a reduced to clear sticker under it: about £7½. Say what? It was definitely well over £20 the week before. Needless to say, I bought all five. There are two left in the rack, and I still get the smugness whenever I see them.
Share your best accidental bargains here and make everyone else jealous.
I definitely can’t top your fine example(!) - let alone make anyone jealous, but I’ve been eyeing the Château Filhot Sauternes 1998 for ages in M&S. I knew it was probably close to end of its life, and that there are far better ones around, but even at £24 a bottle it seemed like a good deal. Procrastinated for ages, as we have quite a lot of dessert wine at home anyway, and forgot all about it eventually. Then a month ago, shopping for something else, I saw that they sold all the bottles - bar one. And it had my name on it, what with a new price of £9… so I got it.
All gone now…
I clearly need to pay more attention in supermarkets!!
The only similar thing I can recall is that a couple of years back my husband noticed Tesco were accidentally selling vintage Champagne (I think it was Veuve Clicquot…) from the price of the NV in Tesco by mistake. I wouldn’t let him buy any (we were on a real budget at the time, saving for our wedding) and he’s never forgiven me…
EDIT: Turns out it wasn’t Veuve… it was Bollinger! WHY didn’t I let him buy a bottle?!
Not a supermarket but years ago Bottoms up were good for a bargain or two - Ornellaia for £7 and Matanzas Creek for about the same spring to mind. Sadly only one bottle of the first wine.
Lidl were selling their Haut-Bergey off for a tenner a year or two ago.
I love the combo of a reduced bottle with a 25% off 6 offer. Picked up 08 Veuve and Bollinger at £24 a bottle over Christmas at Tesco
Have had Brocard Valmur Chablis for under £20 and Chapoutier Cornas for £12 a bottle under similar circumstances from Sainsburys and Zenato Amarone for £13 at Waitrose
I know. It was about 25 years ago and before decent central databases for stock and the Internet. No one knew where it had come from and it wasn’t on the system. The cashier went and asked the manager for a price and he came up with the £7. I pretend to hesitate for a second and then said ‘Ok I suppose I can give it a go’.
Personally I think the Internet has virtually killed this off as anyone can simply check it.
I had a similar experience to @Herbster with Co-op discounting pretty good wines to a ridiculous extent. I’d seen them drop the price of this wine to £13 a couple of weeks earlier, and then walked in to find 4 bottles tagged with a ‘Clearance’ sticker priced at £7. Bought all 4. Red Wines : 2007 Château Le Boscq, Cru Bourgeois, St. Estephe
If I’m near any of the Co-op supermarkets in town (London Road and St James Street do clearance sales from time to time) I always pop in on the off chance of finding something massively underpriced. Nothing to compare with the Chateau Le Boscq yet
Yeah, I’m still ever-hopeful that I’ll be able to repeat my Potensac triumph.
I remember seeing the Le Boscq in the Radstock Co-op as well, but I’m sure it was like £25 or something and never shifted, in units or in price. Quite a coup for £7!
Musar at waitrose reduced to £18 a bottle with a voucher bringing it down to just under £15 is the best i’ve managed recently.
Stacking discounts at the supermarkets on grand marque Champagne is probably the most dependable way to save.
When we were in Italy a little while back we brought back some great deals we found in little wine bars and shops, but that’s mostly comparing to UK prices and you have less ability to judge how well they’ve been kept and no ability to return/exchange.
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