Whine? No!

The other night I bought 6 bottles of wine for $7.92.  I am now and have been for quite some time, a coupon/deal freak.  I love going to the store and not paying full price for anything that I bought.  On this particular night, the only item I paid full price for were the popsicles that sent me to the store in the first place.

You're probably more interested in the wine though.  Most places will give you a discount if you buy enough bottles of wine.  Albertsons normally gives you a 10% discount if you buy 6 bottles, plus you get the free wine bottle tote bag.  However, on this particular occasion, the 6 bottle discount was raised to 20%.  A discount of 10% is good, a discount of 20% is phenomenal.  It has the power to turn a $20 bottle of wine into a $16 bottle of wine (or if you're rather like me, it turns a $10 bottle into an $8 bottle).

20% was too great to pass up so I set about looking for 6 bottles I would like to go home with.  My standards aren't THAT low but I confess it's easy to entertain my inner wino for less than $10 per bottle. My default bottle of "cheap and good" wine is Robert Mondavi's merlot.  It tastes smooth and nothing like rotting cabbage or vinegar.  It's a very drinkable wine with nothing that curls your toes, eyebrows etc.  You should be aware that this is the extent of my wine review abilities.  (ex. Does it taste like something that has sat in a horses stall for a month?  Is it sour, too sweet?  Does it make your face contort?)  Robert Mondavi's wine is mellow and tastes good.  One friend told us over a bottle of Mondavi's merlot, "I'm enjoying the shit out of this wine."  There you have it.  Don't give me reviews about the fruity overtones, I have no idea what that's REALLY supposed to mean.  I taste wine when wine is what is in a glass.

My bottle of Mondavi had one of those super irritating tags on the neck of the bottle.  I regard those like I do advertisements on windshields, assinine and not worth the effort to remove it intentionally.  If you look closely at those silly attachments sometimes they are an advertisement touting the benefits of a particular wine (fruity overtones etc).  In the last year, with the coming out of many fellow cheapwads, these around the neck pieces of paper have evolved into rebate coupons.  Robert Mondavi's merlot had a tag around the neck telling me that if I bought 1 bottle of their wine or any other pictures on the tag, then sent in my original receipt and the UPC code from the wine, they would send me $3.  If I bought 2 bottles of wine, they would send me $6.  This whole offer taps out at, coincidentally, 6 bottles of wine.  If you buy 6 bottles of Mondavi and associates wine, fill out this tag from around the neck of the wine bottle and send that in with the original receipt, these people will send you $18!

Okay, so now we have wine discounted 20% with a rebate coupon for $18.  I used this opportunity to try other wines in the Mondavi family that were approved for the rebate.  Low and behold most of the wines were on sale with a Preferred Discount card.

This is about how it went (the receipt is long gone on its way to claim my rebate already), I bought 6 bottles with an average price of $5.40.  Yes, ordinarily that would be unrealistic to buy any wine for $5.40 that doesn't make you cringe when swallowing but once again, most were on sale.  6 bottles for $5.40 comes out to $32.40.  Take off the 20% discount and you have a price tag of $25.92.  Turn in your rebate for $18 and your final price is $7.92 for 6 bottles of wine for a SAVINGS of $24.48.

A better example might be if your average bottle cost $7.  That's $42.00 for all 6 bottles.  With 20% off it comes to $33.60.  With the $18 rebate it comes in at a grand total of $15.60 for six bottles of wine, a SAVINGS of $26.40.

It's not just the Mondavi family of wines with this $18 rebate offer.  I found several different wineries with the same rebate offer of $3 per bottle.  There are some higher end wines with $4 per bottle rebates.  Albertsons will also special order a brand if they don't have it.  One of my favorite bottles right now when I'm feeling flush with money or horribly depressed, is Girasole from Mendocino, California.  It's an organic winery and it's difficult to find but at $12 per bottle it leaves me without family friendly words to describe how much I enjoy it.

Now for the best part?  Albertsons has extended their 20% off sale until 4/12/09.  Now go out and stock up your wine rack!

Cheers,

Nik