The spring 2025 Grocery Outlet wine sale is almost here – and just in time for folk who may be feeling a wee bit stressed, this year. With tariff wars looming, it’s not a bad time to stock up on wine. But enough of all that stuff – it’s time to put on your wine goggles and chill out a bit. I’m going to cover two things in this post:
- My top wine picks for the sale
- The water footprint of wine
Details of the Grocery Outlet wine sale:
During the wine sale, which runs from Apr 2-8, 2025, you’ll score an extra 20% off wine. This year, however, those who have the (free) Grocery Outlet app will have a whole week of early access to the sale: Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2025. The Grocery Outlet is already a good place to pick up wine bargains, especially for those who like the adventure of treasure hunting. Check out the What’s New page on the GrossOutWine blog to get some ideas beyond what I’ll list here. (Neither this blog nor the GOW blog are affiliated with the Grocery Outlet.)
Top picks for the spring 2025 Grocery Outlet wine sale
Below is a list of my favorite wines to look out for at the spring 2025 Grocery Outlet sale. I’ve bought all of them fairly recently so many of them should still be in stock during the sale, depending on which store you go to.
- Auburn James 1001 red blend, Napa Valley, California ($15)
- Waypoint zinfandel, Amador County, California ($7.99)
- Renwood Estate zinfandel, Amador County, California ($6.99)
- Flinch Lot No. 202 reserve zinfandel, Sonoma County, California ($9.99)
- Three Finger Jack old vine zinfandel, Lodi, California ($6.99)
- Vieux Clocher Côtes du Rhône, France ($7.99)
- Domaine de Beaumefort (Massif d’Uchaux) Côtes du Rhône Villages, France ($8.99)
The Auburn James winery has closed down and many of its wines have been available at the Grocery Outlet this year. They are a little pricier, for Grocery Outlet wines, at $15 ($12 during the sale) but that compares to original prices around the $90 mark. Two of them – the Artist and Speedster – did not make my list, but weren’t terrible by any means. The Auburn James 1001 red blends are the best ones to try, in my opinion – Napa 2018 or 2014. But the Auburn James 1001 Coombsville Cabernet Sauvignon (2016) is also very good.
I’ve started buying zinfandels again, lately – this grape variety seems to have a higher hit-to-miss ratio at the Grocery Outlet. So the Waypoint and Renwood (both from Amador County) are good picks for $8 and $7, respectively (and an extra 20% off during the sale). I think the Waypoint might be my top pick of the four zins on the list. Then there are two Côtes du Rhône blends that have been around since the last Grocery Outlet sale – Vieux Clocher ($8) and Domaine de Beaumefort ($9). Both are good picks for Rhone wine fans on a budget.
The water footprint of wine
Back in spring 2021 (ah, Spring 2021!) I wrote something about water use for wine production, but it was mostly focused on comparisons of water use between wine regions. For example, some of the classic regions in Europe rely only on rainfall, prohibiting irrigation of the vines. But I never zoomed out to consider the water footprint of wine in comparison to other consumables. So that what I’ll do now!
Back in January, on the Green Stars Project, I wrote about the environmental footprints of various foods, based on a seminal paper on the topic (Poore and Nemecek, 2018). In that post, I focused on protein-rich foods as some of these foods have the biggest footprints (meat, especially beef) while others (legumes such as soy or peas) have very small footprints. Therefore your choice of protein is one of the biggest changes you can make in your life. But I never mentioned wine in that post.
Poore and Nemecek examined the blue water footprint (that’s piped water, rather than rainwater) of wine and also the scarcity-weighted blue water footprint. In both cases, wine has a very low footprint compared to most other foods. In fact, wine scored well across all five environmental metrics examined by this team – greenhouse gas emissions, land use, acidification, eutrophication, and water scarcity.
To take another view, let’s look at data from the late Prof. Arjen Hoekstra, who pioneered the concept of the water footprint. Hoekstra considered both blue water (irrigation) and green water (rainfall) in his footprint data. Even here, the water footprint of wine is moderate compared to most other drinks (or foods).
So this is good news for wine drinkers! Still, I would say that wines from mega-wineries in areas threatened by drought are best avoided. In my post for the last GO wine sale, I came across indications that some of the big Australian wineries that are owned by the US-based Carlyle Group may not be great for water security in Australia’s Barossa valley.
Unfortunately the two Australian wineries provide no information on environmental impacts such as water use, but we know that the Barossa valley is one of the most arid regions in the winemaking world. Coupled with that, their ownership by the massive US-based multinational Carlyle Group means that we are not even really supporting Australian businesses.
Having said that, wine looks like an overall pretty low-impact way to get your kicks. And the Grocery Outlet wine sale is a pretty good time to go get some wine – it’s a long way to 2028!
While shopping for your wine, here are some other items that I’ve reviewed here recently:
Gardein vegan products (which I rated 4/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact)
Boursin vegan cheese (also rated 4/5 Green Stars)
This blog, Ethical Bargains, features products that I’ve bought on discount at the Grocery Outlet, rating them for social and environmental impact. It is a nonprofit project, based on independent research that is not sponsored in any way.
Join the Green Stars Project!
Join the Green Stars Project (GSP) movement by including a Green Stars rating whenever you write a review. I believe this is one of the best ways to hold corporations accountable while sharing our knowledge on ethical issues.
Simply post a review anywhere online, as normal, but state your Green Stars rating in the title of your review and explain why you decided on that score in the body of the review. Check out other posts here on Ethical Bargains to see some more examples of Green Stars reviews or take a look at these GSP posts:
Why we need crowdsourced ethical ratings
How to decide on an ethical rating, taking the example of a café
Grocery Outlet Ethical Bargains 
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