My favorite places to shop for wine...

Being in Southern California (heck being almost anywhere in California), there's plenty of wine around. The key, for me anyway, is finding the wines that I want at the prices I want to pay.

Interestingly, wine shopping is one of the only times I'll actually 'shop'. I'm not into clothes, shoes, or just browsing stores until I find something that interests me... unless it's wine. Most, if not all other purchases, I know in advance what I want, I go straight to it, buy it, and get the hell out of dodge. But wine....

Just looking at the labels is fun. So, whether I'm at Ralph's, Albertson's, Cost Plus World Market, Rite Aid, Bevmo, or one of the big wine warehouses, I can just look at wine bottles. This is not, however, without some ulterior motive: I'm also making notes of prices so that when I do my buying, or need a bottle in a pinch, I know who's selling what at the best price at that moment.

Okay... here's the places I shop most:

Wine Exchange - www.winex.com
The Wine Club - www.thewineclub.com
KL Wines - www.klwines.com
NapaCabs - www.napacabs.com
Beverages and More - www.bevmo.com
Cost Plus World Market - www.worldmarket.com (cool website, but I shop in store)
Trader Joe's - www.traderjoes.com

If you shop at the major markets, look for discounted wines with 6-pack discounts... this is a great way to buy wines like those from Columbia Crest on the cheap!

Got other places you recommend? I'd like to hear from you.

Cheers!