Walking into the Grocery..wanting a cheap bottle of wine...
Do you have a "go to" wine... under 15 dollars...ok 20 for you NY folk...
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14 Comments:
Not a specific label, but I tend to look for an inexpensive shiraz or an unoaked chardonnay. Neither is generally going to be very complex or nuanced, but they'll still be pretty good.
Nicholas H at 1:14AM on 08/28/07
I did a little homework and determined that even though Trader Joe's Markets are spreading eastward across the country and are in many East Coast states now, most of them do not sell beer or wine (the why of that may become a Talk Topic). That is unfortunate for many of you because they carry a series of wines (red, white, and I think rose too) that sell for around $3.00/bottle! All of them are blends of California wines and they are good enough for most occasions and are affectionally called "Three-Buck Chuck" by all of Joe's customers.
czken at 5:35AM on 08/28/07
If you're ever here in SE Michigan, my go-to place is Pentamere Winery in Tecumseh. They make everything right there ... they cut the floor out of the old storefront building they're in and put the vats on the basement level. You can stand at the rail around the "pit" and watch them work. On the Wine List page, you can see most of their wines are under $15. Unfortunately, Michigan law states they can only ship within the state, so you have to come here to get some.
LunaPierCook at 6:33AM on 08/28/07
i definitely don't pretend to know a thing about wine, but i usually go for jacob's creek - any of their reds.
ceforrester at 8:42AM on 08/28/07
We love Shiraz & you can find a variety of labels that are a great value: yellow tail, woop woop, penfold, wyndham estates....they can range from 4.99 for the yellow tail during a case sale to 20.00 for a better year. Penfold & wyndham also have much, much more expensive wines.
For Sunday brunch, we usually get the Freixinet Extra Dry Cava, and more recently we discovered McGuigans Sparkling Shiraz...both are 9-12.00 depending on where you find it.
2qrs at 10:22AM on 08/28/07
When buying French wines, many good ones of which can be found for under $20, look for a few things on the label that will ensure a decent quality:
- "mis en bouteille au domaine" or "mis en bouteille sur la propriete" etc. This means the wine was bottle on the estate, instead of being hauled off to a bottling facility. Wines bottled on the estate tend to be better.
- "appellation controlée" or "appellation d'origine controlée", sometimes with the name of the region such as "appellation cotes du rhone controlee" means you are getting a product sanctioned by the government as being authentic.
If you see a bottle of French wine with those two statements on it, chances are good that it will be decent, even if it's cheap. The same goes for Italian wines, but my Italian isn't good enough to write the equivalence. I've bought bottles of Montepulciano d'Abruzzi for under $4 that were very satisfactory.
seyo at 10:33AM on 08/28/07
Our Trader Joe's Market in Cary, NC, do carry beer and wine and the prices are unbelievable! I especially love the Charles Shaw chardonnay that costs $2.99/bottle. The reds are good too.
Susiebee at 2:31PM on 08/28/07
Protocolo is a great South American red with a little spice to it. Usually I see it for around $8.
kuhlimuh at 2:31PM on 08/28/07
I've always liked Chateau Greysac, a Medoc Bordeaux that goes well with beef or pork without overpowering it. It's a blend, so it's not too complicated, so it's not likely to run away with the meal. Under $20.
ronfrankl at 5:21PM on 08/28/07
Charles Shaw wines in California sell for $ 1.99 - so we can buy "Two-Buck Chuck. The 2005 Chardonnay actually took a couple of first place ribbons in a wine competition with pricier labels.
It's great for cooking and not a bad glass when well-chilled.
suegsf at 1:09PM on 08/29/07
I like VRAC, a French wine from the Cote that usually runs between $10-$14 depending on the store. Its white, it works well with everything, and the labelling looks really cool. If they dont have it though, I'll usually grab any Rueda, Rioja or Gruner Vertlinner thats under $12...once in a while you hit a bad one, but in general those tend to be pretty good for the price.
Or I just go to Whole Foods and buy whatevers onsale- and pray!
Annmarie at 1:10AM on 08/30/07
I know this is gonna sound odd... But the best drinking wine for under 10 bucks in my book is Ernest and Gallo Cafe Zinfindale.
It's a blush zin, not too dry, not to sweet so it appeals to everyone's pallet. Every time we take this to a party its a hit.
You can usually find it at any grocery store. A standard bottle is about 5.99 and the larger bottle is about 7.99
http://wines.com/faq.html says this....
You might like Ernest & Julio Gallo's "Cafe Zinfandel", a sweetish red wine with a nice combination of fruit and almost a cinnamony undertone, very guzzle-able when cold.
barbigirl8 at 1:34AM on 08/30/07
I'm a Chardonnay drinker and like bigger Cali-style wines. Bogle, Beringer Founders Estate, Stirling, Toasted Head - they all fit the bill!
vermonted at 3:09PM on 08/30/07
If you like Piesporters and Rieslings, my husband and I have found the von Wilhelm Haus Spatlese to be a very smooth choice, and it runs about $14.
flootsmith at 3:41PM on 08/30/07