Wine- looking for everyday drinkers at a lower price...
 

Hi All,

So I fell into that trap of slowly upping my price point on wine, and generally the wines that I have been drinking recently are very enjoyable, however I am trying to scale it back in terms of the everyday bottle cost.

I typically prefer Cabs from Napa, and have recently enjoyed Spellwine for under $20 (through Lot18) and Mount Veedner Cab at around $25...these have crept into the everyday bottle range, and $60-$100 for special wines. I am looking for something around $10-15 a bottle on the Cab side that is great value - any ideas here?

I also enjoy Chardonnay, and have always found those to be more reasonable, and able to find a decent enough one for $10 or less, Cupcake Chard is an example of a great cheaper option (I just need the Cab version of it, which isn't the Cupcake Cab unfortunately).

Any little gems out there that I should keep an eye out for?

Cheers,

Matt

See if these two existing threads help:

Your favorite white wine under $12/bottle

Your favorite red wine under $12/bottle

There is a world-wide glut of wine so quality has really improved for the no-name label wines. Try Trader Joe, the majority of their wines are well chosen and excellent value at any price point. Otherwise it gets tricky. Lately I buy wine mostly at auction, and can get $50 Cabs for $10/bottle that way but supply is unpredictable and frequently varying.

i am able to get very good cabs for about 20. good pinots for around 16-15, and really good chard for about 15. i have a resource for "distressed" wines, where red and white burgs are 17 and 12, or thereabouts.

prices really drop for complete closeouts, maybe under 10 for chards, and under 15 for cabs. to get those deals, one must "know someone"(usually buy direct from the importer in at least 3-5 case lots), and go pick up the wine.

Why don't you have someone pour you samples from a range of wines from Trader Joes, including <$5 bottles. If you can't tell the difference, stop buying / perceiving wine based on the price, and enjoy the cheap stuff...

i can usually tell the difference. i think most of the trader joe stuff is seriously defective cr**. i do, drink a lot of rose in summer. i actually prefer a number of the $7 or so to the mid priced, and i dislike the +20 rose.

i also think most of the cameron hughes cheap wine is garbage. every now and then he acquires something decent as distressed merchandise, but most of his fill ins are really really bad.

for a decent $10 chard, taste through the Argentinian. some of those are really good. also look for an aussie Riesling.

Thanks for the links - will certainly look through them and check them out.

That sounds like a good option - my only problem in the past (not with auctions) but with discounted wines in a place in NYC is that what they are selling off seems 9times out of 10 to be corked...

That said I do enjoy buying them cheaply online through the various discount sites.

I typically can tell the difference though, however there are the odd few gems, that often come from less well known regions that are excellent at lower price points, I'm just looking for other peoples experiences with these.

I agree about the TJ stuff - I had heard that some of their Reserve (Black Label) has been exceptional in the past when they have bought up big label vineyards stock, but I just went there and saw a cab, was about to buy a case and the assistant was: 'Yeah this is excellent, at least equal in quality to the $11 Bogle...' so I picked up one in the hope it was even better, but should have listened to him and my gut.

I'll check out Argentina, I do find a lot of good Chards coming out of other areas than Napa and holding up well, but haven't got many from Argentina as yet.

Of course I now have to train my palate to appreciate unoaked more too, so there is a lot to play with with these.

Could you share the names of a couple of the Cabs with me?

At that price point I have recently enjoyed Spellwine Cabernet the most, and at slightly higher 20-25 Mount Veeder Cabernet (I have a bottle of their Reserve 06 waiting for an excuse to get stuck into too).

THIS. And if anyone recommends you buy the Two-Buck-(Up)Chuck, they are crazy. Absolutely swill. Just because TJs randomly won a wine contest doesn't mean all of it is good wine. Almost every bottle we have had was spew.

Wine is a personal thing, what some people love, others hate. So you have to go through and find ones you like at a price you are willing to pay.

There are various lists out there of best wines under some amount of money, here's one for Cabs under ten bucks

http://wine.about.com/od/winerecomme...absunder10.htm

and another for under $15

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/...rnet-sauvignon

The only way you are going to find something you like is to try a bunch of stuff, much of which you probably won't like. Like any wine in any price range, there is such a huge range that there is nothing everybody will like.

^

This is definitely the case in the wine market presently. In fact much of the quite excellent $10-15/bottle stuff being sold under the Trader Joes, Cameron Hughes, or Kirkland labels, was originally intended to be sold by the wineries that produced them for prices in the $30-60/bottle range, but financial distress and the need for cash flows has forced the producing wineries to sell them to the folks running those labels at pennies on the dollar in bulk. Nowadays, it's very easy to find a high quality Napa Cabernet or Meritage - often from a prime appellation like Rutherford, Oakville, Yountville or Stags Leap, under those labels listed above for $12-14 or so. Five years ago, that was simply not possible, as the wines from those venues were invariably selling for north of $30 a bottle - often WELL north.

The fact is, nowadays you often CAN'T tell the difference, because much of the $12 bottle from Trader Joes or Kirkland was made to be a $60 Napa Cab. But, financial distress has resulted in the wine being sold off to those store brand labels.