Pros' guide to bargain shopping, Chez Panisse
Pros' guide to bargain shopping - link Jonathan Waters Wine Director, Chez Pan isse Strategy: Great values from sustainable, small producers The hits: 2006 Targovishte Traminer , NV Dibon Cava The miss: 2007 Calina Carmenere First, a bit of disclosure on Jonathan Waters' hand up. For his quest, I directed him to the Berkeley Bowl Marketplace, where it turned out he already knew wine buyer Simon Ball and scored recommendations before we went shopping. This actually bolstered his first bargain-hunting tip: Get to know your wine buyer. With more Bay Area supermarkets hiring wine stewards and individual buyers, personal recommendations should be ever easier to get. "If you go home and you don't like any of the wines, then the strategy hasn't worked," Waters said. "But at least it's a good place to start." To convert our $70 into eight wines and pocket change, Waters employed other tricks up his sleeve, which to be fair is precisely what you need when...