Finding Good Wines at Great Prices: Expert Advice for Frugal Wine Lovers
Published on - December 2nd, 2008 (by J.D. Roth) I love wine but I’m not a wine snob. I don’t speak the lingo, and I don’t want to. All I know is that some wines taste better than others, and that some wines cost more than others. For me, the best bottle of wine is one that tastes great but doesn’t break the bank. With the dinner party season coming up, how can I find good wines at great prices? I turned to Gary Vaynerchuk at Wine Library TV for help.
I discovered Vaynerchuk through his personal website, and his videos about blogging and personal entrepreneurship. (Two of my favorites are: You can have a day job and build your own business and Building personal brands.) But Gary’s real claim to fame is his free daily video blog in which he tastes and reviews wine. Mostly he drinks more expensive stuff, but I wondered — could he offer advice for a frugal guy like me?
Good wines at great prices
I wrote to Gary and asked if he’d be willing to e-mail a few recommendations for GRS readers. He did me one better. He didn’t just write back — he created an entire video featuring his best value-driven wines of the year (subscribers will need to click through to this post to see the video — sorry):
Vaynerchuk starts with some advice that took me a long time to learn: You don’t have to spend a lot to enjoy wine.
The price point of a bottle of wine has no impact on the quality of that wine. That’s very important for people to understand, that price does not equal quality. In wine, that freaks people out. There are enormous amounts of $10-$12 wines that rock and roll…And there’s plenty of wines at $30-$50 that stink up the house.
When I first started drinking wine, I believed that a higher price meant higher quality. I now know that’s not true. My favorite wine I’ve tried this year is the 2007 Alain Brumont gros manseng sauvignon, which costs $10 per bottle at my local wine shop. (I like it so much that I bought a case, which brought the price down to $9 per bottle.)
What does Gary recommend for frugal oenophiles?
- 2007 Tiefenbrunner pinot bianco Italian white ($12) — “A tremendous alternative to pinot grigio.”
- 2007 Mastroberardino Mastro white Italian white ($14) — “An amazingly crisp, clean wine.”
- 2006 Ercavio Roble La Mancha tempranillo roble Spanish red ($10) — “Perfect pizza wine.”
- 2006 Alto Almanzora Este Spanish red ($10) — “A powerhouse red wine.”
- 2004 Monteviejo Festivo malbec Argentine red ($13) — “Explodes on the palate.”
- 2004 Villa Carafa Aglianico Sannio aglianico Italian red ($15) — “Old-school Italian.”
- 2007 Poesia torrontes Argentine white ($10) — “The white grape explosion…taking over pinot grigio and New Zealand sauvignon blanc fans by storm.”
Learn what you love
But Vaynerchuk emphasizes that these aren’t the only options. Each person has different preferences. What might taste good to you might taste like swill to me. Or, as Kris and I were recently reminded, the same chardonnay may taste like gasoline with one meal, and then taste refreshing the next night with a different dish.
Because of this, wine recommendations should be treated like movie reviews: they can give you a general idea of what you’re going to get, but your actual reaction will be intensely personal. It’s important to find what you like, and then remember it. Vaynerchuk says:
You need to explore. How do you figure out what you like? By trying them. If you only drank apple juice every single day of your life, how in the heck do you know if you like orange juice? Or pineapple juice? Or plum juice? Or prune juice? How do you know? You don’t! And the same thing with wine. You’ve got to mix it up and try different things.
My kind of shopping
Armed with Gary’s advice and the latest recommendations from Consumer Reports, I went wine shopping last Wednesday. I established a budget before I set out, and then spent a couple of hours exploring the wine selection near my home. I visited Costco, Cost Plus World Market, Safeway, and Fred Meyer (a regional all-in-one store).
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any of the wines from Vaynerchuk’s list and only two from the Consumer Reports list. Remembering Gary’s advice, however, I decided to be adventurous. He recommends a 2004 Argentine malbec, so I picked up one from the same vintage and region but a different producer. I also bought a tempranillo and a couple of other varietals I’ve never tried. I look forward to sharing these bottles with friends over the coming months.
Some people are serious about wine, and that’s fine. For me, though, wine is fun. Eating a good meal while sharing a bottle of wine is a bonding experience. Wine brings people together. And it does that just as well at $8 a bottle as at $80 a bottle.
What about you? What tips can you offer for finding inexpensive wine that’s still fun to drink? Do you have some favorite wines you can recommend for holiday gatherings?
If you like Vaynerchuk, be sure to check out Wine Library TV every weekday. (I liked yesterday’s episode: What wine goes with candy bars?)
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
I like Cathy at Noble Pig (www.noblepig.com). She writes about more than wine, but her wine posts are fantastic. Look at her left sidebar to see specific recommendations for wines and a wine shopping list. She’s also wonderful about sharing wines that are a great value and talking about wine pairings (to avoid the gasoline factor, J.D. LOL). She currently lives in CA, but she and her husband are in the process of clearing their property in Oregon to build their own vineyard/winery. It’s neat to see their progress.
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This guy is great! He’s so passionate about what he’s talking about that I could listen to him all day.
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Don’t get me STARTED on Trader Joe’s. I moved to Austin, Texas 11 years ago, and seeing there are not yet any TJ’s in the entire state, every chance I get to travel to a city inside the domain I take, with an empty suitcase for the ride home. You know it’s an interesting story: Aldi, the quirky Euro grocer, owns TJ’s. They are a family-held company with ZERO debt, and they only expand when they can do so without changing that philosophy. They finance their expansion the old fashioned way, with cash. Aldi is planning an expansion into Texas next year, and they often build in TJ’s capacity into their Aldi distribution centers in this country, piggybacking capacity so that wherever Aldi stores are, Trader Joe’s follow. Until then, I’m flying to LAX on January 7, and I thank the commenters here who recommended wines to try.
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Pretty disappointing that this guy couldn’t recommend anything domestic. There are many great California and Oregon wines far exceed the quality of these he recommended and are often less expensive. Additionally, purchases of USA products helps our economy.
Buy American first!!! Keep the money here at home.
peace, Rick
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i tend to spend around $20 a bottle on wine – apparently that is quite a bit for some, but i drink it so rarely that i enjoy it if i do have it…
my favourite white is the kim crawford sauv blanc – very crisp and fruity (!).
i figure you can’t go wrong with an australian shiraz, as long as it isn’t yellowtail. other than that, the shiraz is always spicey and for some reason the ozzies seem to do this type of wine well…
another one of my favourites is a nz pinot noir… but i’ve yet to find one i love for under $40 a bottle… if you can find them from the central otago region, they are lovely and rich.. but the marlborough region is also great too.
i also have to add, that i think the prices in canada might be a bit higher than in the us for wine -we only have it available in liquor stores so i think they tend to bump up the prices a bit…
oh, and another suggestion – get some cheap cheap wine, and make mulled wine! perfect for this time of year!!!
http://www.wineintro.com/mulled/
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I like wines and live not far from California’s Napa Valley. I also spent time in France, Spain and Italy. For the most part, Americans prefer a lighter and fruitier wine than Europeans, but you can find very drinkable Australian and Chilean wines. I find the Chilean wines heavier, and they tend to have a sediment factor that most Americans don;t appreciate. However, if you want an impressive red wine, look for Australian wines that are combos. I like Cabernet/Shiraz blends and have found Cabernet/Shiraz/Merlot blends for $3.00 a bottle. What is appealing about these blends is that (on the cheap) you get a great palate of flavors. Not too tannic, not too bland, not too sweet, not too fruity.. etc… You can also find similar whites, with a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio blend in the same price ranges.
Adventures in alcoholism!
jegan
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I have 2 points:
Every so often you have to drink a really good bottle of wine, if only to know what a really good wine tastes like (helps to have a friend with a good job, and an extensive cave)
One way to tell a decent wine at a lower price point is to go shopping on a Saturday and see which spaces are emptier.
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You have to become familiar with the lingo.
Knowledgeable people in any field are called snobs by those jealous or ignorant about an art, but if you really want to become an expert in any field you will be called snob by other people.
If you are knowledgeable you are bound to ask pertinent questions about the wines you are selecting, which in turn may help you to save more money.
Fearing becoming a snob is frankly childish.
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I am jealous of all of you have have places that compete against each other. As a Pennsylvania resident, we have to contend with the Liquor Control Board and whatever they feel like buying and putting in the stores. That is probably why PA is one of the largest Beer drinking states in the country. I bet that would change without the LCB.
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The best tip I ever got–and it works wonderfully–is to compile a list of importers that you can count on. Once you have that, you don’t need to worry about vintage or producer. Just look for the name of an importer that you trust, and you’ll probably get a good wine.
This doesn’t work for domestic wines, however.
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I’ve had that tempranillo before and it is a good, inexpensive wine. Also, Argentinian malbecs are one of my favorite wines at the moment and you can get lots of decent bottles for under $15.
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I love drinking wine, but I am the only one in my household that drinks it. Unless I had company over, wine would go bad before I had finished the bottle. I purchased a small vacuum pump and rubber stoppers, and my wine will keep much longer! I have saved a lot of money that way. The vacuum pumps are not expensive and can be found at Target or at wine or kitchen specialty stores.
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When buying a case, don’t forget to ask for a 10% discount – pretty standard at wine retailers.
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I second what others have said about using Costco and Trader Joe’s for value wine choices.
I’d like to add another: World Market has some fantastic deals on good wines at good prices.
I bought two bottles of Pinot Noir for my thanksgiving meal (my personal favorite) — both were $9 and both were fantastic.
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Sam @ 20:
My family has also discovered Rex Goliath Pinot Noir, usually can be found for ~$8/bottle. Give it time and room to breathe, and you’ll be rewarded with a very smooth, drinkable wine that will go with most anything.
My kid sister and her husband turned me on to Rex Goliath, and I second the recommendation. Good stuff. Plus, it’s named after a giant rooster, so we get to make all the expected, groaningly-bad “cock” jokes.
My wine-buying strategy is ludicrously simple: I go into Trader Joes, look to see what’s down to the last one or two bottles left on the shelf, and buy that. It’s a completely idiot-proof way to pick a decent bottle of wine.
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Great post, as always!
I didn’t read through every comment so I don’t know if this wine has been recommended yet or not, but my favorite wine by far is Banrock Station Shiraz.
It’s a $5 bottle of Australian wine you can get at Wal-Mart (at least the Wal-Marts here in MI carry them), but it’s won numerous “Best Buy” awards for taste. And for $5, you can’t beat it.
I keep it stocked at my house, and never get tired of it!
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I know there are numerous TJ’s mentions already and I agree. Rarely do I pay more than $6 a bottle and while not every one is great all are drinkable and you find quite a few gems. Those gems are what we are all after. Here are my Top 10 Trader Joe’s Wines now. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Jason
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J.D., I’m not trying to be difficult, but one of the things I read here is “cut caffeine! cut caffeine! sodas and coffee are addictions and will SUCK YOUR WALLET DRY!!”
Isn’t wine, by and large, more expensive than, say, Diet Coke? I ask because I drink Diet Coke, not wine. I’m not suggesting that anybody else not drink wine, I’m really curious – why is wine apparently OK if you’re frugal, but not caffeine? One of the added benefits to caffeine is that it helps reduce pain; I suspect if wine is used to the same effect, it could cause some problems. Or is there something I’m missing? I just wonder if it might not be “save money on coffee/soda [because I'd rather spend the money on wine]“.
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I highly recommend looking for wine tasting events in your area. Many wine stores will have such events where you can try a wine (about 1/4th of a glass) as part of a series for a buck or two each.
Places like Central Market have free tastings on weekends.
These are excellent ways to get a feel for what you like.
Another way is to try out the Grocery Store wines. You know…the 3 dollar ones? It is fashionable to hate them, but Ive found several that I like. There’s several flavored apple wines that are great! Blackberry wine is also good to me. The investment is very small (especially when you can get the little bitty 125ml bottles to try it out)
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Grate post. I am the Frugal Oenophile and I think Gary’s message is spot on: discover new wines and new tastes. Pinot Bianco, Tempranillo, Malbec (which is in my glass tonight), Torrontes … all fabulous and under appreciated g rapes. My only criticism is in the pronunciation of some of the European grape names (Aglianico is pronounced Al-yon-ee-koh).
Regards,
Richard Best, The Frugal Oenophile
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