Hypermarket Wine Sale Season

If you happen to be in France in September/early October then you are in luck – most of the big supermarkets hold their annual Foire à Vins (Wine Fair) offering wines at heavy discounts from top Bordeaux chateau through to good local appellations. It is a tradition in France that domaines, chateaux and negociants offload surplus stock direct to the major hypermarket chains – generating cash and liberating warehouse space for the next vintage. You can get some real bargains, but it is worth getting hold of their leaflets and doing a little research – especially look out for the vintages, as it will tend to be the poorer vintages which have not sold so well. For 2008 the dates are:-

Casino 9 – 24 September

Carrefour, Intermarché, Monoprix 10 – 20 September

Auchan from 17 September

Leclerc from 24 September

Super U and Hyper U from 23 September

Champion from 1 October .