Wine On Sale... or at last, a market correction we can enjoy. I have an almost allergic reaction to "crazy mark-down" pricing schemes. You know, where there's two price stickers on each bottle, one white and then another red sale price tag showing the discounted price. If a retailer can consistently offer improbably large discounts on their inventory, doesn't it imply that the regular retail was inflated to begin with? With this in mind we opened 3CUPS intending to price the wine fairly to begin with, and talk to you about the wine we selected and our excitement, not discounts.

But 2009 has thrown everyone a curveball. The market for wine is soft, even for quality wines from estates we are proud to support. When a top-tier importer like Kermit Lynch, who represents small grower French and Italian wines with a reputation for high standards built over three decades as a wine merchant, offers us wines we really like at half the regular cost, the only logical thing to do is pass the savings on to you, and indicate the discrepancy from what you may have paid in the past (and sadly will have pay again in the future) with a sign indicating the sale price.

At the entrance of 3CUPS you'll see case stacks of these "insane 2009 deals" on wines from small estates that many wine savvy shoppers will be familiar with. I ask you to put incredulity aside and accept that these are the real deal, wines that meet every standard of quality we've established for our store. These wines are top-drawer items that importers owned too much of in the fiscal tumult of 2009, and the next vintage is ready to ship. This is a sweet reality for you, a short-term correction in supply and demand that probably will not be replicated in 2010 or 2011. So come feast on the one minor silver lining of global recession: the good stuff, for cheap.