Average spend on a bottle of wine
 

What do you spend on bottle of wine for a regular night at home? Not at a restaurant, not a special occasion, just your regular night at home.

For me it's about $20

Average spend on a bottle of wine
 

9.99$

$13-17.

Lots of Argentine Malbecs, Chilean Cabs, Spanish (Garnacha, Monastril, and Tempranillo), Cotes du Rhone, and Aussie Rhones within that budget.

Almost always French... $35 +

Average spend on a bottle of wine
 

For an everyday wine, there are fantastic, quality choices. Never pay more than $12/bottle.

Really depends on my mood and the food being served. Low brow home cooked meal about $16-20. When were serving something special, I'd say more in the $26-34 range.

I have just a few $10 bottles at home. Usually keep a few around to bring to friends houses that think "two buck chuck [$2.49 now]" is adequate.

Took inventory a few weeks back, and realized based upon our normal consumption rate, we probably have a three year supply of wines in this price range stored.

LOL. I hear this, exactly.

We are usually in the $15-$30 range. There's a good wine shop right next to our supermarket, so we often will stop after getting groceries and have them suggest something in that range. Have had some great $12 bottles and some less great $35 bottles.

Two other fun facts:
- We've also taken to keeping a Black Box wine box around. It's a solid, no label wine. Sells for about $20 but contains the equivalent of four bottles and the built in tap means it will keep for two weeks after opening. This isn't anything premium by any means, but it is far better than any other boxed wine and on par with many $15-$20 bottles. Advantage is convenience if you just want a glass or two one night, and ability to just have it sitting there waiting.
- One of our favorite everyday sparkling wines is Sophia Coppola Blanc de Blanc. We recently discovered that these are sold as splits in aluminum cans. Sounds kind of weird, but they are perfect for taking poolside, to a tailgate/concert, wherever. And again, nice if you want some bubbles but don't feel like downing a whole bottle.

You can have a cheap bottle of wine (red or white) for about $5-$10 and the mid-range to expensive ones about $40 to $70.

$8 to $30. Sometimes a little less. Sometimes a little more.

My second home? Average spend well under US$10

I'm a University (or College for our American friends :D) student and the most I'd pay for my own consumption would be £8. Google tells me that's $12.86 in today's money, which is of course worse with the whole Scottish thing going on. To be honest, I'm just glad the Scots don't make wine that hits the supermarket shelves. That'd be some awful tasting p**s.

Last year probably around $10 to $20 when I was able to buy all my wine in France. Where I live now those same wines are about double the price, so I've had to downgrade.

Do you live in South-East Buckinghamshire?

Interesting, I live close indeed ^

Or you could buy better wines that aren't French. My experience is that, for ~$15 US, it's hard to find a bad bottle of red from Spain, Argentina or Chile.

Everyday wines ~15AUD, champagne ~50AUD.

In the UK, adjusted to USD:

Red wine: $25
White wine: $18
Champagne: $100

Oddly, I will almost inevitably drink more expensive wines (even ignoring mark-up) when eating out. Part of that is that I don't drink wine with dinner too much any more, but it was a habit even some years ago.

Yes I do. Nice area

This is exactly what I've been doing recently. I have a real fondness for wines from Spain and Portugal so that is what I've been buying recently.

We stopped drinking wine with dinner during the week, so now more often than not it's "special occasion" stuff which I will have layed down between 10 and 30 years ago. In today's prices from a retailer, probably £50-300, but I would never pay that much.

For a non-special occasion, or when the children are around, it would be about £10 per bottle at which price point, if you avoid the supermarkets, you can get some excellent wine.

I was intrigued that, at my US home this summer, with a whole lot of guests, I was serving an Italian Sangiovese which I had bought at a merchants in SF for $8 plus tax. We went wine tasting in Sonoma and found several Sangioveses, the cheapest of which was $39 plus tax. None were nearly as good as the cheap Italian one - not surprising really, but confirmed my views on Californian wine.

I just checked. Roughly ~$50.
When I remove the higher priced bottles, the average is ~$40.

I should have included Portugal in that list of countries where the ~$15 reds are almost invariably decent or better - but for some reason, we don't get many of the non-fortified Portuguese value reds here in California, whereas we get lots of the better value Spanish wines.

Yeah, I worked there last year for a big American conglomerate.

Nice area but not an awful lot going on. I'm from north Bucks by the way.

And what happens when you remove the lower priced bottles? ;)

Anywhere between $6 and $20. I have found some drinkable white wines from Italy, Spain and Potugal at the low end of that range. Reds are usually $12 -20. We are not sophisticated wine drinkers, just trying to avoid "funny" flavors like dirt and turpentine.

I hear ya. When I was temprarily retired 4 years ago, Mrs BamaVol and I hit the Alabama Wine Trail; a dozen wineries specializing in wines made from everything from muscadine grapes to peaches. In all,we found one decent bottle from a guy whose father brought tokay vines from his home in Hungary. We have also visited wineries in Tennessee with similar results. Now that we're in Florida, we don't bother. I mean, you feel obligated to buy something after a few tastes, but it's never worth it. I have a bottle of wine from Missouri in my rack that I have no idea where it came from. I keep trying to give it away to guests but I always find it back in the rack.

The Scots should stick to whisky.

I typically pay £8 for a bottle of wine but up to £15 for a special occasion wine.

I'm into Carmenere's and Malbecs at the moment.

For European wines, I'll go for a good Italian wine over a mediocre French wine which is typically price comparable.

Most Californian wine that makes it to the UK is cheap swill so I've given up on it.

I used to live in Chile and got spoiled by the wide variety of good wines available for the equivalent of US$10 or less---most of them much less. Yes, there is plonk sold in Chile too, but it's sold there even cheaper than two-buck Chuck. Maybe that's why I don't feel like spending much for everyday wine. I will say that inexpensive taste testing helped me to learn some things which of the old and new wineries in Chile produced the most reliably good- and high-quality reds and whites.

For daily wine drinking, we usually stay less than $8 for a 750-ml bottle or $14 for a 1.5-ml bottle, and I watch for sales at Costco and good local liquor stores (Binny's, DeCarlo's). For guests or gifts, a sentimental favorite is Santa Rita Reserva cabernet sauvignon, which I've paid $14-$19 for in the past, but lately goes for about $12, an old and reliably good red, or other reds that I'm familiar with from Chile in the $12-25 price range. If I'm looking to spend more for a bottle of wine for a gift, I look for Casa Lapostalle.

As for bargains, there used to be a great blog with reviews of Trader Joe wines---you could get some great wines at great prices based on that blogger's reviews. But he stopped keeping up the blog and moved on to something else a while ago. I wish someone else would take up the project.

It was pointed out to me some time ago that the price of cropland naturally enters into the price of wine, and since then, I've never felt disloyal about steering away from Californian and French wines, unless they're on good sales, and leaning toward Chilean, Argentinian, and Australian wines. For the same quality, you can get more for your money from places other than California.

I also notice some people in this thread, living in the UK I think, mentioning they favor reds for daily wine with dinner. I like red wine, but lately it has been way too hot here in the Chicago area to drink high-alcohol red wines--I'd be asleep by 9 pm! So I've been having chilled white wine even with dishes that normally go with red wine (pasta bolognese, beef, etc.). Just this week it's cooled down for the first time in months and is starting to feel like autumn.

I usually spend $15-25 but will spike up to $80 or so if I'm on a wine trip with my wine connoisseur friends.

I've discovered it's harder and harder to find a sub-$15 bottle I like. Or maybe my NYC wine stores are just too spendy. :)

One interesting thing I've learned is that a bottle of Pinot Gris/Grigio that costs more than $10 is unlikely to be any good (and stands a good chance of being more like a Chardonnay).

Good Pinot noir on the other hand are rarely below $18. Below $20 maybe, but pretty much never below $18.

The first Pinot Grigio (Santa Margherita ?) I tried and liked was >$30 a bottle. Of course those were cruise ship prices. It's probably <$10 landside.

I always thought I hated Chardonnays. Then I found that I like them just fine if they haven't been aged in oak. An oaked chardonnay, to me, tastes like my old gym bag smells.

Santa Margherita is nice but usually overpriced. It should be about $17 in the store, but has often crept up to $20-22ish.

Extremely envious of all the posts here. Import tax on alcohol is very high in Singapore so even the most pathetic wines cost at least US$20. As a result my average spend is ~US$60 and above. This is just above average in terms of what's available in the supermarkets, not considered extortionate. Not surprising given the cost of living out here. I always look forward to drinking Two Buck Chuck whenever I'm in the US. :D

We have a wine cellar, so we likely are at the upper range of normal. Our average wines cost (purchased directly from wineries and rarely at a wholesaler near our home):

Pinot Noir: $80-100
Chardonnay: $75-90
Syrah: $85
Cabernet/Cabernet blends: $250-300
Merlot/Merlot blends: $90-110
Malbec: $75-125

We drink mostly New World wines, and we prefer aged wines (though my husband prefers younger Chards/Pinots than I do). Wines that age well tend to be much pricier, of course.

If you like more freshness or acidic wines or more fruit in your bouquet/flavor, then younger wines are the better way to go, as they are usually less expensive. If you like big powerful wines but want to avoid the harsher tannins and sulfites that often cause headaches, then I'd recommend spending a little more as you can afford on Cabernet type wines...or consider Syrahs that can be as big but not nearly as expensive.

I love Carmeneres and Malbecs, as well. Unfortunately, you're probably right that much of the California wine that makes it to the UK is not of the best quality...but I assure you there are some amazing California wines. Import taxes likely price them too highly, I'd guess, especially with the favoring of other Euro imports. If you visit California, however, I'd recommend them highly!

Sadly, it's now Two and half Buck Chuck, which I've found, makes the stuff less economical than paint thinner for the main purpose for which I would normally use it.

You might try drinking wines, rather than labels. There are some pretty amazing wines in the $30-60 range. I find it difficult to even find a New World Syrah that costs $75, let alone those which would actually be worth it. The same is true with Malbecs that cost over $100. I can only think of a handful that cost in the $75-95 range, and just about none in triple digits, with the vast preponderance of Malbecs costing $15-$60. And I'd stack the ageworthiness of most of the $45-60 Syrahs I buy with anything that costs double that range or more.

The only wines I could see paying > $100 a bottle for would be classified growth Bordeaux, Premier Cru or better Burgundies, and small domain Super Tuscans, Barolos, and Barbarescos and wines from a handful of domaines in the Rhone region.

Speaking of wine shop prices, not restaurant prices, of course.

So don't pay more than $100! I'm not trying to tell you what to buy or spend.

For aging, there are better wines (in my opinion) that we like better. What it's worth is relative. Compared to the comparable ageabilty of French wines, ours are much less expensive. Only American Pinot Noir IMO can't quite compete with the French red Burgundies; but other top New World wines can compete quite easily and at better price points.

Before you judge us as preferring "labels" I think you should consider the wines below--most of which I'll assume most people have never heard of before. We switch to new wineries only when we like their wines more consistently for many years more or with better prices. Whether you approve or not, these wines have tremendous history and ability to age, and that is important to us. In my opinion, top California Cabs/Syrahs age as well if not better than most Bordeaux, so we save money by sticking with California for the most part.

We also have visited every one of the below wineries as part of our extensive wine travels, as I love to see the places from where the wines come that I like to drink. I also am enrolled in the winemaking certificate program at UC Davis, so I'm a fairly serious person about wine--making it as much as drinking it.

Our wines include:

Cabernet/blends: Pahlmeyer $125, Peter Michael $175, Hundred Acre $275, Abreu $325, Colgin $350, Bryant $425, Harlan $550, also Meerlust (South Africa) $45, Woodlands (Margaret River Australia) $90

Syrahs: Saxum $85, Alban $120, Sine Qua Non $160.

Chardonnays: Aubert $80, Kongsgaard $75-175, Morlet $90, Peter Michael $100-175, also Pierro (Margaret River Australia) $75

Pinot Noirs: Aubert $90, Pahlmeyer $80, Morlet $90, Sea Smoke $65, also Felton Road (New Zealand) $65

Malbecs: Vina Cobos $100-180 (Argentina), Achaval Ferrer $125

I appreciate that not everyone spends for wine like we do. Not everyone appreciates or enjoys aged wine as much as I do (even more than my husband). Fair enough. But no need to cast stones.

I've actually heard of ALL of those wines, and tasted most of them. You should probably put a bit more care into shopping. The Achaval Ferrer single vineyard Malbecs are easily found for $85-90. You might also try their Quimera, which is a blend that costs under $50, and IMHO, is at least as interesting as the single Fincas. The top Cobos wines can also be found for $60-80 a bottle. I could also name about 20 other Malbecs that you can get for $30-50 that I think are every bit as distinguished as the Achaval Ferrer and Cobos wines - and BTW, Achaval Ferrer is my favorite winery in Argentina, but I've never paid more than $90 a bottle for any of their single vineyard wines. - and I invariably prefer their Quimera for $40-50 a bottle. I also would recommend some other top Argentina domaines: Diamandes Winery, Bodegas Giminez Riili, Mendel, Colome, Bressia, and Altocedro. All of these are making wines at the level of Achaval Ferrer and Vina Cobos, and most of their top wines are selling for $30-60 a bottle.

As far as Syrahs go, I'd stack the Foxen or Andrew Murray single vineyard wines, which cost about $50 a bottle, against any of those you listed, for complexity, character, and ageworthiness. I might also suggest that you try a winery called The Farm Winery - which is a boutique winery in the Paso Robles area that's the pet project of Santiago Achaval, from Achaval Ferrer.

The Sine Qua Non wines, along with Colgin and Bryant Cabs, are textbook examples of wine that taste more like the barrels they are made with than the grapes. Those are three of the wineries I had in mind when I referred to labels rather than wines (I do like Harlan, though, but it's simply not worth the money they charge). I'm surprised to not see Screaming Eagle in your list as well. Give me a Chateau Montelena Estate Cab over any of those - as well as Pahlmeyer, which is another wine you're paying too much for - it can easily be found for $80 or so. I'd also prefer Dominus to any of those on your list.

I'll cut you some slack on the Pinot Noirs, because they are small-lot artisnal wines - and I do like Sea Smoke - but I'd suggest that you explore Oregon for some really fine choices that can easily be found for $60-80 a bottle. I'd start with Christom. I am also a big fan of Foxen and Dierberg in the Santa Rita Hills area, if you're a fan of Sea Smoke. Again, you can generally get some really GREAT pinots for $50-60 a bottle.

An overpriced waste of $ that is all about a name that is worth more than the wine inside the bottle.

It is one of the wine industry's best marketing successes. At the Westin Paris, it is modestly priced at € 47

Even more sadly, this is often better than the complimentary "domestic USA airline lounge pour" served these days.

Now back to our average spend at home, which is the regularly scheduled program for this thread.

The last time I was in the Admiral's Club, they were pouring a Chilean Cab and Carmenet that were roughly $7-8 retail wines that were entirely decent.