HEB is usually the last place I would expect sticker shock but I did a double take when I saw a couple wine bottles with prices near $400. This is at the North Hills store (Braker Lane between Research and Jollyville Road). Went to the Tech Ridge store later that night and they didn’t have the same case selection.
I could tell you about high priced tequilas and whiskeys but wine is not my forte. Anyone know much about these premium grocery store varieties?
Last year I saw $75 bottles on clearance for half-price and thought, wow, I never knew HEB had wines that cost that much The wine game is changing fast! The Opus One is $405 on the HEB website, I guess it’s on sale in-store. 💰
by BarStar787
24 Comments
Opus is overpriced wine produced by a Napa winery that’s conglomerate owned. It’s decent wine but generally not worth the price, a lot of winos don’t like the CA cabs because they’re more fruit forward and can lack the complexity of French Bordeaux wine. I don’t know much about Shafer.
Oh damn, you have to buy SIX bottles to get the discount!
Opus one is expensive more so for its branding and reputation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great wine but there are much better Napa Cabernets for cheaper. But yes, HEB’s in nicer areas usually carry high end wine.
If you want to splurge on a great wine there, get the Sassicaia. It’s a “super Tuscan” wine out of Italy that uses French varietal bordeaux grapes.
The best Balsamic Vinegar a Central Market is $147 for 100mil—
That $1470 a liter!
I barely know anything about wine and I also don’t drink anymore but if you aren’t a dedicated wine aficionado, the $15-$40 range is pretty fantastic unless you are hunting down a favorite bottle.
That’s actually one of the cheaper ones I’ve seen at my HEB!! I saw one for 1799.98! It’s crazy!
I just had that one last night! The 2019 is good but still far too young for what that wine can taste like.
“Oh damn, must have missed that one while using the self checkout.”
Central Market regularly carries more expensive bottles. I am assume some trickle down to some HEBs in areas they think might buy them.
Opus One is a very hyped up Napa wine (you can get much better wine for less), and Napa might have just set the record for the highest average price per bottle of any wine region in the world (certainly in America).
Prices for wines are always due first and foremost to cost of production. This wine comes from some of the most expensive vineyard land in the world. They likely intentionally limit how many bunches of grapes they get per acre of land because fewer bunches per plant = better grapes, but that means they get fewer bottles of wine and thus have to spread that land cost across fewer bottles. Maybe they pick the grapes by hand rather than using machines, which costs more in time and labor. They probably use brand new Oak barrels every single year, which are insanely expensive. And look at that fancy packaging. Heavy bottles. Nice labels. Tissue paper (cue eye roll). That all costs money. They have a fancy winery in Napa that cost a lot to build that they use to woo people who visit. All of that means that they need to charge a lot just to break even on this wine.
Then, based on demand/hype, they can further raise the price well beyond the cost of production to “what the market will support”. Napa has been the darling of American win drinkers for decades so there is a lot of demand/hype. Wineries there have been raising prices steadily for years because people will pay it even before we get to the inflation of the past 2-3. Bottles of Screaming Eagle are sold on secondary markets for thousands of dollars per bottle. Opus One is definitely a beneficiary of all that hype so they raise prices
And that’s how you get a $400 bottle of wine.
Opus One is a designer bag wine
>The Opus One is $405 on the HEB website, I guess it’s on sale in-store.
Online prices are higher because you’re paying for curbside. In-store price is the real price without the curbside markup.
MD 20/20 y’all!
To be fair, Opus One is the shit
Randals in Bee Caves has $500-$1000 bottles of wine and bubbly. Been like this for many years
Price doesn’t necessarily correlate with quality. Rule of thumb I’ve heard is that after $100 or so theres diminishing returns on quality and you’re paying more for a limited run or marketing.
Someone should tell that guy from Spain who was complaining about the shitty wine he bought at HEB to impress someone
Buy 5 get one half price
I know this ain’t at the H‑E‑B on East Riverside
Central Market North Lamar has a $1200 bottle in the locked fridge between wine and bulk foods (upper left corner). HEB Fredericksburg has some stupid huge format wines (like jeroboam and Methuselah) that are also like $1200. I assume because there’s big time money out there now. There’s a Lambo dealership across the street from CM (used to be Ferrari), so for sure a customer base to support that kind of product.
But when you buy 6 it’s a steal!
That’s not a bad price for an opus one ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Stop Central-Marketing my HEB!
The west lake hebs have $700+ bottles of wine.
This thread has been up for a day and no one has asked:
Is the wine _FAKE_?!?