So Very Late. Sorry.

Here’s the deal – these last few days leading up to Christmas are beyond frantic around the Cheap Chick Empire.  What with the roasting of the Roast Beast and the wrapping of the Oompadah Doomps and the Fliggity-flogs, and the coddling of Cindy Lou Who (why won’t she JUST STAY IN BED?), it’s a wonder I can get anything posted around here.

Ergo, therefore, and SO – I am posting my companion piece for my Fox 9 Morning Buzz segment tonight.  Read it first, and then watch it tomorrow morning at 9:15 am.  Or don’t, I know you’re all busy.  Tomorrow I’ll post my Spending Recap… once I get my receipts corralled and under control.

Frugal Tips On Tippling:

1.  At your holiday party or dinner, don’t go broke buying stuff for a full bar.  Instead, serve one feature drink – you can also make it a theme drink to fit your festivities.  Here’s a champagne drink idea from event planner, Laura Mullen.  For the daring party-goers who want some spice, try a Pear and Pepper Proseccos – pear juice & Prosecco topped with some fresh ground black pepper.  Shopping Tip: Trader Joe’s Prosecco runs from $4.99 to 6.99. 

2.  Champagne.  Only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France can/should be called Champagne.  Everything else is just sparkling wine – and the stuff from France and California can get expensive.  The sparkling wines from Italy, called Prosecco, and Spain, called Cava are just as tasty and cost a lot less.

Trader Joe’s has Cava ranging in price from $7.99 to $9.99.  If you DO want real French champagne, Surdyk’s has a great deal on an artisanal bottle called Chartogne-Taillet for just $37.99 – more than $20 cheaper than that usual bottle of Veuve Cliquot.

3.  White wine.  White wine is generally cheaper than red.  One reason is because the production process for white wine is easier.  Another?  Reds are considered fashionable and manly – and men will pay more for high end bottles as a status symbol, whereas women simply buy what tastes good.  (It’s a men are from Mars thing.)  Trader Joe has many tasty whites available from Charles Shaw, aka Two Buck Chuck, now $2.99 a bottle.  Another great price on white wines is…

4.  Black Box Wines, where you get four bottles for the price of two – Surdyk’s has them for $23.79.  Black Box has 6 regular varieties and two Reserves – I prefer their Sav. Blanc (I have a box to show):

“By forgoing expensive bottles in favor of bag-in-a-box packaging, European vintners were providing their customers with better wines at better prices.

In 2003, Black Box became the first U.S. vintner to offer super-premium, appellation-specific, vintage-dated wines in a box – wines whose last sip is reliably as good as the first.”  This boxed wine is portable, non-breakable, better for the environment, and best of all – available at most liquor stores.

5.  Red wine.  Make any red wine taste better by decanting it.  You can buy a simple glass decanter from a department store, or get a portable aerator from Target for around $6.99.  And speaking of better for the environment, here’s a red wine recommendation from Roger at Surdyk’s: Sustainable Red by Parducci, the first US carbon neutral winery.  Available for $9.99 a bottle at Surdyk’s.

Roger also recommends blended reds from California, like Menage a Trois Red, on sale for just $8.49 a bottle.  Great taste at a great price!  And for a slightly higher end red, I recommend Francis Ford Coppola’s Claret, available for $18.99 a bottle – aka the most slammable red wine on Earth.

 6.  Dining out tip.  Call the restaurant you’ll be dining at and see if they allow you to BYOB (bring your own bottle, not beat your own booty.  Or something).  Bringing your own wine and paying a corkage fee is still less expensive, and you’ll get a better vintage wine that you know you’ll enjoy.

These are a few of my favorite wine tips – now share yours.  How/where/with what do you like to get your drink on?