Wine is plentiful this year. Which is, to anyone paying attention, no big news. The "Wine Glut" in Europe is so big that wine producing countries such as France, Italy and Germany are turning wine into fuel additives. This is what European trades, such as http://beveragedaily.com are saying:

"Prices for both quality Appellation d'Origine Controlée (AOC) wines and lower-end table wines have generally struggled to recover from a collapse in 2005. And this year's wine harvest is expected to yield the same as last year, around 53m hectolitres (5.3bn litres), according to government wine agency Viniflhor. The news will bring grimaces in Brussels, where the European Commission is pondering how to drain Europe's 1.5bn-litre wine lake.
To make matters worse, the wine glut has spread to the New World this year too, casting a cloud over the global wine industry. Australian wineries have seen prices tumble over the last few months, and some lower-end wines have become cheaper than bottled water. "

The effect of such an over abundance is, at least short term, a boon to the slacker. We entered our neighborhood Ralphs recently, and were taken aback [I say aback!] by the islands of well known, mid-price wines like Clos du Bois, spread around the store. Further, venturing into the wine section, that used to be dominated by Gallo and huge jugs of red, white and pink wines, we now find some of the best grape juice offered anywhere, from everywhere, including Bordeaux and Tuscany. Much of which is available at steep discount, if you have one of those ubiquitous plastic key chain tags from Ralphs marketing department.

During a long search for the best price on Jordan Cab. 2002, Alexander Valley, for my friend, Mark, we had seen prices as high as +$50 a bottle. We were able to corral Jordan for Mark at Ralphs for $41.99 PLUS a 10% discount for 6 bottles or more for a bargain price of just less than $246.00 for%