There’s Absolutely No Reason To Spend More Than $3 on a Bottle of Wine

[Syt]

3$ (or €) at the supermarket is pretty doable for a drinkable local Austrian wine, though I'd go with 6-10 € for a good (rather than decent) product.

[Malthus]

I bet "Two Buck Chuck" goes a treat with gas station food. 

That's also the nick name of the tranny hooker behind the gas station

I'm not going to ask how you know that ... 

Anyway, I'd avoid on principle any alcoholic beverage whose marketing name is a euphemism for "vomit". 

[Malthus]

Around here, $12 will get you a very decent bottle of wine.

[HVC]

I bet "Two Buck Chuck" goes a treat with gas station food. 

That's also the nick name of the tranny hooker behind the gas station

I'm not going to ask how you know that ... 

all i'm gonna say is that these are tough times

[Gups]

I don't think I've ever had really expensive wine so I've no idea.  My wine buying's basically the same as Brazen.  I don't think you can get £3 bottles or boxes of wine in the UK.

Sure you can. All the supermarkets sell at least a few £3 bottles of wine. Once a flat tax of £1 something, the price of the bottle, distribution and the retail cut have been added in, the producer is probably getting about 5p for the wine, so expectations should be lowered accordingly.

[Sheilbh]

Sure you can. All the supermarkets sell at least a few £3 bottles of wine. Once a flat tax of £1 something, the price of the bottle, distribution and the retail cut have been added in, the producer is probably getting about 5p for the wine, so expectations should be lowered accordingly.

I've never noticed it then.  I always think those prices are the sort you get for plastic cartons of wine in France or Spain.  The lowest price I thought you'd get in the UK would be around £5.

[crazy canuck]

Around here, $12 will get you a very decent bottle of wine.

Yeah, the local production in Ontario is very inexpensive compared to BC.

[Brazen]

Sure you can. All the supermarkets sell at least a few £3 bottles of wine. Once a flat tax of £1 something, the price of the bottle, distribution and the retail cut have been added in, the producer is probably getting about 5p for the wine, so expectations should be lowered accordingly.

I've never noticed it then.  I always think those prices are the sort you get for plastic cartons of wine in France or Spain.  The lowest price I thought you'd get in the UK would be around £5.

Well I stand corrected. I went onto Tesco's online shop to prove Gups wrong and there's a Bulgarian Merlot for £2.99, an Aussie red at £3.15 and a Montepulciano for £3.19. There's even a quaffable looking Cotes du Rhone at £3.56.

Perhaps Asda, Morrisons or (shudder) LIDL could beat even these.

[Gups]

Lidl do (or used to do) a £20 6 bottle case which even includes a champagne.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/article1920420.ece

[fhdz]

There are some completely serviceable table wines in the $10-20 range. Additionally, with reds, decanting the wine through an aerator can turn a $10 bottle of wine into a $20-30 bottle. I'm not sure I've ever had a sub-$5 bottle of wine that I liked. I agree with others in the thread that the issue of assessing value is more problematic at the higher end of the range, not the lower.

[Malthus]

There are some completely serviceable table wines in the $10-20 range. Additionally, with reds, decanting the wine through an aerator can turn a $10 bottle of wine into a $20-30 bottle. I'm not sure I've ever had a sub-$5 bottle of wine that I liked. I agree with others in the thread that the issue of assessing value is more problematic at the higher end of the range, not the lower.

Way I'd put it is that below a certain price theshold, chances are the wine will be inferior or very rough tasting ... but that threshold is not very high. A $12 bottle can easily be as good to the average idiot like myself as a $40 bottle or an $80 bottle, but chances are good on average I can tell the difference between a $12 bottle and a $6 one.

[fhdz]

Way I'd put it is that below a certain price theshold, chances are the wine will be inferior or very rough tasting ... but that threshold is not very high. A $12 bottle can easily be as good to the average idiot like myself as a $40 bottle or an $80 bottle, but chances are good on average I can tell the difference between a $12 bottle and a $6 one.

It's not even an indicator of "average idiotness". ( ) Some $40 wines are quite simply overpriced.

[crazy canuck]

Way I'd put it is that below a certain price theshold, chances are the wine will be inferior or very rough tasting ... but that threshold is not very high. A $12 bottle can easily be as good to the average idiot like myself as a $40 bottle or an $80 bottle, but chances are good on average I can tell the difference between a $12 bottle and a $6 one.

It's not even an indicator of "average idiotness". ( ) Some $40 wines are quite simply overpriced.

Too true.

[The Minsky Moment]

At $40 and up you are usually either dealing with a wines from a delimited geographical area where there is therefore restricted supply; or with a wine where the producer is using very costly techniques like "tri" of the grapes by hand on a sorting table; and/or where the price is being driven by particularly effective marketing.

Whether what you get is fair value is a subjective judgment of the beholder.  If you want a wine that is like Chablis for example, there aren't very many choices outside of Chablis, and despite recent expansion, there is only so much land under vine in Chablis.

[crazy canuck]

Not so much here JR.  It is not uncommon for local producers to price their wine in the 30-40 dollar range.  Way overpriced.