Hypermarket wine fairs now going on

[Dave Hatfield]

All of the big Hypermarkets chains in France are currently having their fall wine fairs. Hundreds of wines at 'bargin' prices. Lots of flyers in the mail and guides in the papers & some magazines.

Here are just a couple of links: strategy

wine fairs

My question is are they selling any of your favorite wines at good prices? Have you spotted any real bargins? (that you're willing to share that is.)

I'm also going to post this in the wine forum in the hope that some of the experts there will give some tips even though if they're not in France they probably can't take advantage of the fairs.

[bleudauvergne]

My neighbor swears by these wine fairs. It is rarely hit or miss because the tasting has been done for you in advance. Apparently people go and line up outside the doors of the hypermarches with their list of what they plan to buy in advance (based on circulars available in advance), and the stock is virtually eliminated within the first few hours that they run this special sales. It is true, you can get some serious good buys at these fairs.

[Felice]

Apparently people go and line up outside the doors of the hypermarches with their list of what they plan to buy in advance (based on circulars available in advance), and the stock is virtually eliminated within the first few hours that they run this special sales. 

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I recently asked a friend in the wine business about these sales as well and he said the same thing, that the "best" wines are snatched up fairly quickly. He also said that buyers from the hyper-marchés will buy wine from small shops to sell at the "foires". They don't care if they lose money on these bottles because it gets people into the stores.

[John Talbott]

I would simply add that I have not "digested" all the many articles on the "wine fairs" in the various venues this Fall because they do seem so idiosyncratic and frankly beyond my ability to ascertain what is truly a "buy." If this sounds like a plea for a French Forum wine maven who would not cross boundaries with our Wine Forum experts, you have received the message.

[pierre45]

here is the list of the ones i attend as they offer degustations.

Le savour club

caves de la transaat. special tasing today after 17.o0 hr. 36 ave emile zola (15e)

Monoprix

galerie lafayette.gourmet section

le grd marche(6e)

Indeed the best disapear fast,specially if th're reasonable and good value.

In a week's time i'll be able to tell as to what's the best.

By the way dave where do you live?

[Dave Hatfield]

By the way dave where do you live?

Drat! Don't live in Paris so can't take advantage of the tastings.

We live near Parisot (82160). Our closest Hyper markets are in Montauban which has most of the big chains. I'm going to study the flyer lists tonight & go down to try my luck tomorrow.

Sounds, however, that I need to do more advance planning to get the real bargins.

There's always next year.

Edited September 21, 2006 by Dave Hatfield (log)

[Dave Hatfield]

OK, just to complete this topic for now here's what happened.

We asked around & managed to get an invitation to the pre-fair tasting at HyperU last night. HyperU had rolled out the red carpet for the evening; free shopping baskets! Unheard of.

It was fun, lots of nice simple nibbles, not too many people (the fair opens today to the general public) and lots & lots of wine with staff around to help out..

There were about a dozen or so wines open for tasting; as one would expect these were the wines on 'promotion'. There were some nice wines included. There were well over a 100 different wines on offer ranging from some very nice Bordeau's to some really inexpensive stuff. In most cases there was a plentiful stock of everything on offer.

We ended up buying a pretty good stock for the winter. I had studied the flyer & the special wine section in "Le Point", but didn't buy any of those.

Our best buy was a 2002 Corbiers, oak aged from Domaine Chris Limouzi. It was 4.65 Euros/ bottle in the flyer, but on the shelf it was marked as 16,10 Euros. I asked the HyperU clerk what was going on; he checked & said the 16,10 Euro price was for a case of 6 bottles! Whoopee! (We did our old Trader Joe's trick I have to admit. We bought a case, took it to the car, opened a bottle, tasted, liked it, then went back & bought a lot more. Fortunately, none of our French acquaintences saw us.)

We had a really nice time doing this & chatting to the local 'experts' I'd recommend the experience to anyone.

The kicker was that after we'd paid for our wine we were directed to the information booth where were given a voucher for what amounted to 15% of what we'd bought. We can spend it on anything in the store, but I think I'll use it to buy more wine.

[John Talbott]

I've not been, but this AM's Figaroscope has an ad for Lavinia's Fair saying they're giving -30% on more than 100 items. Free delivery for 12 bottles or more.