The wine selection at QFC grocery stores
QFC (or “Quality F Center,” as I like to call it) is another one of the large supermarket chains with tons of stores in Seattle. On Capitol Hill alone, there are 3 QFC stores, not including the empty shell of a QFC one block from the new QFC on Broadway. Weird.
So QFC is big around here. The aforementioned Broadway Market QFC has a fabulous wine section, as I’ve mentioned before. That might be due to Steve, the talkative and highly information wine expert there, who has been to Paracombe. I’m pretty damn jealous of that.
Clearly, though, somebody at QFC is making smart wine buying decisions at the top of the local food chain…bad pun, sorry. Here are a few choice finds from about 20 minutes spent examining the wine section at the U-Village QFC (I was waiting on my fiance who needed new pants from The Gap; I should have spent 40 minutes at QFC):
- Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc 2005 ($10.99) - I was hoping to find the Pinotage release from this winery based on this review from Vinography, but finding anything from a South African winery at a local store was a surprise to me. I should have bought a bottle but my wine budget has been decimated lately so I skipped it.
- Several different Torbreck releases, although after this review from Appellation Australia I worry about the next batch from this vineyard
- Clonakilla Shiraz (this wine keeps popping up everywhere I go!)
The overall selection was great but most of the other wines are pretty typical for the better wine shops around Seattle. That Southern Right was a cool find…now I just need to go buy some.
This particular QFC was also the place where Steve, the QFC wine guy, directed me when he told me about the 2000 Paracombe Cabernet Franc. That particular wine, more than almost any other, started me on this path toward learning more about wine. So I guess I have a very small sentimental attachment to the U-Village QFC. Plus, they have a Cinnabon and a fireplace in the store, so what could be better (I don’t eat Cinnabon, though, and it was 70+ degrees here today, so never mind).