Sommeliers drink supermarket wine, too. Many enjoy Hot Pockets for dinner, and—yes—there are cheap, cheery wines they truly love on Aisle 12.
“I call them house wines,” says Cassandra Felix, an advanced sommelier who relocated to California this year after a decade of work at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. “When you cellar a bottle, you don’t want to open it on a random Tuesday, so I make sure I always have a bottle that’s easy to drink.”
As Americans make fewer trips to the grocery store and eat more meals at home, it’s hard to beat a chance to stock up on olive oil, tortilla chips and $13 Albariño all in one place.