Grocery Outlet Ethical Bargains

The much anticipated semi-annual Grocery Outlet wine sale is around the corner – it runs from November 1 to 7, 2023. As usual, all wines are discounted an additional 20%. The Grocery Outlet is a well-known destination for wine finds, year-round. The sale provides a good opportunity to pick up some favorites, with an extra 20% off, ahead of the holidays.

My wine picks for the Fall 2023 Grocery Outlet wine sale:

Shale Oak wines

Shale Oak produces wines in Paso Robles – one of my favorite wine regions in California (and a lovely region in general!). About 6 month ago, I bought their Cabernet Sauvignon for $8 and after trying it I made sure to buy a few more on my next visit. Last week I found a new Shale Oak wine at the Grocery Outlet – a zinfandel, also $8  – and I’m about to try it (I’ll update this post shortly). Both wines are $35 when purchased directly from Shale Oak Winery. During the Grocery Outlet wine sale they will be an extra 20% off the GO price, so only $6.40. That’s over 80% off the retail price!

Update: I also loved the zinfandel. But when I opened it, a tiny amount of wine spurted out from the bottle. This actually also happened with the cab that I tried about 6 months ago, and I think it’s the main reason these wines are so cheap. Some people may be put off by this spurting wine and the little bit of sediment in the neck of the bottle, but it’s actually a fairly common occurrence in older wine. It appears to be due to a little bit of fermentation that takes place in the bottle, and perhaps a precursor to the sediment that sinks to the bottom of the bottle as wines age. The zinfandel is from 2014, so it’s almost a decade old at this point. A bargain to be able to pick them up at 80% off just because of a minor aesthetic issue.

Sustainability at Shale Oak Winery

Shale Oak winery has two major certifications – LEED Gold and SIP certified. LEED certification pertains mostly to the winery buildings – for example, the materials used to construct the tasting room and the conservation of resources. Here’s a guide to LEED certification – Shale Oak’s gold certification is the second highest LEED standard.

I wasn’t actually aware of the CIP certification scheme – it stands for sustainability in practice, and it’s specifically for wineries. As you’d expect, it has requirements for sustainable pest management, water use, energy use, and habitat preservation. It also has a social aspect, requiring competitive wages and benefits for employees. You can read more about CIP here and find CIP-certified wines here.

I highly recommend trying out the Shale Oak wines during the Grocery Outlet sale. The Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel wines received high scores on Vivino – 4.0 and 4.1, respectively. I’ll plan to pay Shale Oak a visit next time I’m passing through the Paso Robles – it’s pet-friendly and you can bring your own food, if you wish.

As you may know, this blog is all about ethical consumerism. I specifically feature products bought at the Grocery Outlet (not affiliated) to demonstrate how we can find ethical products on a budget. Like its sister site, the Green Stars Project, it explores topics related to ethical consumerism: climate change, equality, sustainable agriculture, etc.

In previous posts on the GO wine sale, I’ve focused on different aspects of sustainability of wines. For example:

Wine: Distance traveled versus sustainability.

In the post on French winemaker Gérard Bertrand I pondered whether it’s good to support a sustainable winery if it’s located on a different continent. It turns out that the carbon cost of transporting items by ship without refrigeration – like bananas, or wine – usually constitutes a small portion of a product’s overall carbon footprint.

Wine: Irrigation.

Then, in the post on Cardella Winery, I learned that vines for good estate vines often get less water (1 to 1.5 acre feet of water annually instead of 2.5 to 2.75). I also learned that irrigation is illegal in some of the world’s best wine regions, particularly in Europe. That includes the five B’s: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Brunello.

Good luck with your wine shopping and pick up some plant-based food to go with it. Check out my other posts here on Ethical Bargains for some tips! Suggestions to go with your Shale Oak wine: Beyond Chicken Tenders and Sophie’s plant-based breaded shrimp!

Until next time – stay safe!