Cheap Vino

Lord knows, I love a bargain. (My mother still calls me up to tell me when she's had a coupon windfall at CVS.) No worries. I'm not going to be swigging Two Buck Chuck or wine out of a box. But, if Newsday is correct, it looks like $50 Matanzas Creek Merlot is suddenly to be had at $35 a bottle:

For wine lovers, the glass isn't just half full. It's overflowing.

An ocean of wine from California, Australia and other producers is flooding the market worldwide, continuing to drive down prices as the holidays approach.

"It's time to buy," said Karen MacNeil, who chairs the professional wine studies program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. "Wine prices are better than they have been in years."

After more than a decade of extensive grape planting coupled with skyrocketing prices and a rush of competitive imports, the rules of supply and demand started catching up with wineries last year.

And to think - no coupon clipping!