74 F r o m t o p c l o c k w i s e : A l t e s i n o ; A r g i a n o
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U LY/A U G U S T 2 0 24
ARBITRAGE
Just as you'd pore through annual reports
to uncover undervalued stocks, so too must
you acquaint yourself with the state-of-the-
art circa 2011
BCL website. The conven-
tional wisdom is that there are no deals to
be had at the government stores, but the
determined shopper can find anomalies in
which lurk deals. To be clear, it's usually
the producer and importer giving you the
deal, not the
BCL. The key is to dive deep
on certain markets to get a baseline familia-
rity and then strike when the numbers line
up. Take Italy's Brunello di Montalcino—a
wine loved by Americans (the U.S. is the
wine's No.1 market) who mark it up liber-
ally, whereas here it's equally as coveted
and a great building block for a growing
cellar but far more reasonably priced. For
example, Altesino's excellent brunello is
$65 at the
BCL and US$70 at huge Ameri-
can discount retailer Total Wine—that's
almost a 35-percent savings when you fac-
tor in the exchange rates. Brunello from
another great producer, Argiano? $80 at
the
BCL vs. US$90 at Wine.com. Going far-
ther north in Italy, the
BCL sells Produttori
del Barbaresco for $53, but it's US$56 at
Total Wine. Beware, this is a highly specific
technique (don't even think of trying it with
anything from Bordeaux or California) that
requires plenty of Google searching to iden-
tify the market's blind spots.
CORK TALK
Wine producers Altesino and
Argiano offer savings on Brunello di
Montalcino, an Italian red known for
its complexity and richness
