I went to Albertsons today & the clerk asked me if I found everything. I told her I couldn’t find a bottle of wine because the wines aren’t in any specific order other than red/white; they put the reds in one area, the whites in another.
But they aren’t in alphabetical order or anything & it seems the same at a lot of other stores. So what’s the system for how they organize wines in stores?
As far as I can tell, the LCBO just organizes them by country/province/state. They tend to keep all the bottles of a particular vinyard together, red and white, but as for the order of the vinyards, I don’t know.
At my local liquor store, the wines are arranged by region. French wines are together, Australians, American, etc. Within those categories, the whites and reds are separated into varieties, i.e. merlots, zinfandels, etc.
If you are shopping in a grocery store (is that what an Albertson’s is?), they may be divided into whites and reds and then subdivided by variety, with the region ignored, assuming they have a much smaller stock.
Did you have a particular bottle in mind, or a particular variety?
They’re organized according to the tone produced when the bottle is tapped lightly with the finger. Just hold it up to your ear and give it a … oh, never mind. 
[sub]I’m going straight to Hell, aren’t I?[/sub]
In my experience, it depends on the type of store. A liquor store that fancies themselves as being “upscale” that stocks more wines will divide them by region (Californias, French, Spanish/Portuguese, etc.), then by varietal (Cab Sauv, Pinot Noir, etc.). Someplace like a supermarket, that sells less wine, and where the employees have other things to worry about than where the grapes came from don’t bother to sort them by anything but color.
Albertsons sells wine - you should ask them or if not download it.
LOL, Dooku! You rock! I know the backstory behind it from the other thread. 
What robinh said, but with the final ordering (within a given variety + location) determined by price.
I don’t think there really is a system. Each store seems to do it their own way. There is a general tendency to keep regions together, though lots of places keep colors together. Some places keep the pricey stuff away from the cheap stuff.
Basically, I just wander around until I see something that draws my eye.
Supermarkets, as opposed to liquor stores or wine shops, tend to follow similar retail-type schemes – however, each store owner or manager has a choice about what scheme to follow. In every supermarket wine section I’ve seen, wines are first broken out by color, then variety; i.e., reds are separated into zinfandels, merlots, pinot noirs, cabernets, etc., and whites are separated into chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, rieslings, etc. Within each variety you’re likely to find wines grouped by price, although some might group by country and region first, and then by price. Some of these distinctions may be lost in a small selection, but supermarkets in California tend to have quite a lot of wine.
Probably because he linked to it. Seeing as how this thread was 2 years old when you bumped it. To add no content. Hmm, posting to add no content, that sounds familiar…?
Two Buck Chuck, one of my favs, is always in the same place stacked up 8 feet high. They put it in back of the store, I guess that way people might buy stuff on the way to getting it.
In my experience they’re arranged close to the beer.
As mentioned earlier, all stores are different, but there seems to be 2 major schemes of arrangement- by varietal and by region (country).
The first- by varietal- would group all merlots together (regardless of where produced), all cabernets together, all ports together, etc. The downfall of this method is most foreign wines (Non-US) are labeled by region produced. For example, Chateau Mouton Rothschild (from Bordeaux, France) may have Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. Where do you put this wine? With the Cabs? With the Merlots? Where do you put a wine like Pallazzo Della Torre made with Corvino Veronese, Rondinella, and Sangiovese? Are there any other wines with Rondinella in them? You get the point.
The second method, by country, makes more sense to me. All Italian wines together, all Australians, etc. These are usually broken down even further as follows- US wines are then grouped by state, grape, and appelation (region where produced, ie Napa) and price. Foreign wines are grouped by regions as well- All Loire Valley wines are together, all Brunellos, etc.
Finally, you will notice, more times than not, wines are grouped by price. The more expensive wines are at eye level with the least expensive wines towards the bottom. Studies have shown that, in retail envoronments, the most desirable placement of items is at eye level and slightly above.
Hope that helps…
I think it’s made from grapes (dooku!!)
This is an old thread but I was totally snubbed looking for Pinot Grigio at QFC today. So they have Spanish, French, and “European” wines, then you go over PAST Australia to get to Italy. When I said, “it is so far from its neighbors” he (wine guy) said they were organized by region then by variety. So does that mean that Italy produces fundamentally different varieties than are produced in France, Europe, Spain, and Australia? Like, no Australian winery does Italian-based varieties?
I shop for wine at Fred Meyer which I thought was at least as upscale as QFC and they don’t do it that way at all.
Or is it just the Pinot Grigio? Maybe it’s not a classy wine. Like asking for sangria or something. I don’t care. It’s better than Pinot Gris, IMO.
You know, for the past ten years I never knew you could download wine!
People laughed at Ted Stevens, but his vision of the internet did have some advantages.
In New York – where wine is not sold in supermarkets – the individual liquor store owner makes the decision. In general, they’re grouped by region, with each winemaker’s wines grouped together. The location of each winemaker is wherever it fits on the shelves.