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Shoestring Spending

With Wine, How Low Can You Go?

Posted October 30, 2008

If there’s one thing we love besides whining, it’s a glass or two of wine with dinner. (We know that was painful, but we couldn’t resist – we wrote it, erased, wrote it again, and decided it was time to move on.)

At a time when people are switching from soda to tap water to save a few bucks, we’ve gotten worried that wine might just be an expensive indulgence. The operative word, though, is “might.” Our taste-testers are planning to conduct lots and lots of research before we draw any drastic conclusions.

We launched Phase One of The Whiner’s Wine Test last week, when we meandered our way into a wine store conveniently located near our YMCA. (Yes, yes, yes! The very same YMCA where we conducted key aspects of our recent pre-election EconoPoll.) A brief, somewhat intimidating conversation ensued.

We asked The Salesman to recommend the best of the absolutely cheapest red wines the store sold. He recommended a $15 bottle. We asked for something under $8. He recommended an Argentinian Malbec (Finca Flichman, 2007) for $8.99. We said that was too much. He stared. We stared.

He stared some more. Then The Salesman recommended an Australian Shiraz (Rosemont, 2006) for $7.99. We said okay. Then we buckled and bought the Malbec too because we have given ourselves a $20 per month expense account and we couldn’t remember if we had used it yet or not.

More on those two reds in a second. But as we were leaving the store, our attention was horrifically, if irresistibly, drawn to a bin containing a $4.50 Merlot (Marble Crest). We boldly walked back to The Salesman and asked, “What about the $4.50 Merlot? Is that worth buying?”

He stared. We stared. He stared. We buckled again and whimpered something about, “you know, with a burger ….” He stared some more, then he told us, “Oh yes, that’s a very good buy. It should sell for about $6 a bottle, but we bought it in bulk.” Sold, even though we knew that a $6 red was likely to be just as pathetic as a $4.50 bottle.

One week later, here’s our assessment:

The Merlot was kind of like background music (not in the elevator, more like what you’re listening to when you’re in a traffic jam but you’re not really paying attention). There was nothing awful about it, at least that we noticed: no bad smell, no overpowering taste either initially or afterwards. It’s fair to say that we were basically neutral about this bottle (which in this economy might count as a buy).

The Malbec was alright, certainly better than the Merlot, although we didn’t think it was worth busting our $8 budget limit. Strangely enough, it seemed to taste better — a little less harsh — the second night (even though we hadn’t enough done that oxygen-sucking-out thing, because we can’t afford that particular piece of equipment any more than we can afford a $15 bottle of wine). We give this bottle a slightly favorable recommendation, but are not prepared to go overboard about it.

The Shiraz was the definite winner of the group. Nice fruity taste that held up beautifully with a somewhat spicy vegetarian meal. We even found the shape of the bottle appealing. (Well, that’s probably because we polished it off at one sitting.) And the price was just right.

Don’t miss EconoWhiner’s recommendations for inexpensive whites. If you’re looking for other discount wine recommendations (preferably from a wine expert with a much better grasp of his adjectives), don’t miss Eric Asimov’s recent column in The New York Times, “Lively Reds, a Bargain for Hard Times.” Meanwhile, what about you? Do you have any favorite wine bargains?

Reader Comments

  1. Beth Seetch

    Don’t forget how good and affordable box wines have become. ($24 or less for 3 liters of drinkable South American, Californian, or Australian) As a daily “house wine,” it keeps well, and for a party (like the spaghetti celebration we plan for this weekend) it’s not embarrassing at all. If the box embarrasses you, then decant it into a carafe for heavens’ sake.

  2. Kat Nalley

    My go-to cheap wine is the Barefoot brand, particularly Barefoot Pinot Grigio. Publix’s always has it on sale for 2/$10, and the brand consistently earns very high wine ratings. You just can’t go wrong with good wine for $5 a bottle!

  3. Kristin

    You absolutely cannot beat the Charles Shaw (yes, 3Buck Chuck on the East Coast) from Trader Joe’s. I like the Chardonnay and the Shiraz. The Cabernet is a little on the spicy side, but still tasty & great with pizza. Trader Joe’s also had a very good Red Zinfandel on sale for $5.99 & Purple Moon Shiraz for $6.00. Prices on other more expensive brands are very competitive.

  4. Fabricio

    I just found out about this website that sells good wine at highly discounted prices. The bottles are marked down because if a wine store opens a case of wine and finds that a bottle has broken and the wine has stained the other labels, they basically have to throw them away. The folks at the Accidental Wine Co, purchase and resell them for a great price. For example check out Petunia’s Party, it is a mix of various wines, 12 bottles for $99 ($8.25/per bottle). http://www.accidentalwine.com/petuniaparty.html

  5. Jack Jr.

    Wow. I love those ideas (especially the place with the broken bottles – got to try that). Here’s a red I opened last night and it was very good ($6.99): Garnacha de Fuego (Old Vines 2007, whatever that means). I got it at a great warehouse-style liquor store that sells to a lot of restaurants (PJ Wines in Northern Manhattan). Maybe the restaurant connection is something to look for; they’ve always got really good deals.

  6. Tiffany Clark

    The Whiner is writing about wines, look at you go. I always enjoy a good taste testing with cheap wines. But, the problem I run into is with the hangover in the morning. I ended up throwing in the towel and now I stick with my $15 Shiraz.

  7. Humphrey

    These days, I buy wine based on the size of my pocketbook. Since I currently have no cash flow I try and buy the cheapest wines possible. So anything from the $4 merlot to the $8 Shiraz works for my palette.

  8. claire

    My boyfriend and I recently conducted a blinded taste test of 4 cabernets under 10 dollars – all from Trader Joe’s. Novella Paso Robles was the winner for each of us, even on a second round where we re-tagged the wines to test for internal consistency. It is 6.99, quite delicious, and beat out Ravenswood Vintner’s Reserve (9.49) and JW Morris (3.99). The loser was Bear’s Lair (4.99).

  9. John

    Boxed wines galore; blackbox, pinot evil, as long as you steer clear of the bottom of the barrel, they all taste like real wine and not juice. There are even organic options

  10. Doug

    You can’t buy a decent California Cabernet Sauvignon for less than $15. Sorry, it just can’t be done. All of the suggestions – Ravenswood, Charles Shaw, boxed wines, etc. – are just horrible wines. If you like lots of sulfites and other additives, you’ll really love them.

    A decent cabernet that I find in the local grocery store is Hess Cabernet. Acceptable and I’ve found it on restaurant menus.

    If you want to save money and like red wines, you need to explore other varietals. I don’t like Merlot but I do like Petite Syrah. Malbec can be good if you find a good label. There are other possiblities. However, I recently read that many wines from foreign countries have problems with metals in them. Caveat Emptor!

  11. marianne evans

    Costco and Trader Joe’s. My price limit is$10, but I try to stay under seven. I will but at my local Giant grocery store if the price is under $10 and it is alt least $4 off their “regular” prices, which are high. We liked the 2006 Kanoonga Hills Cab and Shiraz cab, widely available, Trader Joe’s Tuscan Moon Sangiovese, their Black Mountain labels, the Trader Moon Old Vine Zinfandel. Basically we are always trying new things in this price range.

    The Charles Shaw is beyond the pale, it’s so bad. I have heard of people buying a bottle, surreptitiously tasting it in the parking lot ( don’t get arrested) and running in to buy a case if it’s good as it apparently varies. Maybe I just had a bad batch-I think it was the Chardonnay.

  12. PMM

    Regarding the fact that the Malbec tasted better the next day: decanting improves cheap wines considerably. Let it sit a while in a wide mouth vessel of some sort; one in which a relatively large surface area of wine is in contact with air – I use an old milk bottle. Something that makes the wine harsh, alcohol gas, maybe, or something else, can then evaporate out of the wine. It makes a noticeable difference and can turn ‘cheap’ wine into what the French call ‘table’ wine – and thus suitable for weekday dinners.

  13. Catherine

    I love Carta Vieja Merlot for every day table wine. At the wine store I used to frequent in the Village, it was $4.99 a bottle, but I’ve also seen it sell for $8.99+, depending on the store. My husband and I would experiment with more costly wines, but kept going back to Carte Vieja. I also like Falling Star Merlot, which is about $4.99 a bottle, but it has a screw cap that makes the experience of opening the bottle feel…well, cheap.

  14. henry1814

    I see and approve of the better, I go for the worst. A translation of a Latin phrase still so applicable today.

    Locally a wine called “Crane Lake,” available in a number of colors. There’s a lot of bottle variation, but many of the 1.5 liter bottles (on sale, %6.99 + tax) of “merlot” and “cabernet” are not despicable. A lot better than a lot of “house wines” you get at mid-priced places.

  15. Jamie

    It’s obvious you guys don’t know cheap wine. My husband jokes that Two-Buck Chuck is twice as expensive as what he drinks…yes, we’ve been known to buy wine at Dollar Tree…for, yes, $1/bottle. Sometimes it’s absolute swill but sometimes it’s actually worth going back for more. You just never know. Sometimes it’s stuff we’ve seen in Safeway for $6 or so a bottle (wow!). Even if it’s totally awful I know my sister will drink it!

  16. MaryM

    For cheap reds, I’ve had good luck w/Mirassou Pinot Noir, which is @Costco for $7. Lately my favorite cheap wines have been sparkling wines, there seems to be a lot more variety @the cheaper price points.

  17. Emily

    If you live on the West Coast, Grocery Outlet is abosultely the best, cheapest place to buy wine (and just about everything else too.) Last weekend they had a 20% off sale and we snagged a case of Jake’s Fault Shiraz for $30. That comes out to $2.50 a bottle for a wine that usually retails for around $10. Even when they dont have a sale, they have a big selection of wines for under $10.

  18. Roberta Shearson

    Cut your energy bills, and you can buy more wine.

    Respect the British Thermal Unit(BTU); don’t throw them away. (The BTU is a unit of energy, like the dreaded calorie, only bigger.)

    For example, consider the BTU and natural gas.

    You buy natural gas in units of one thousand cubic feet. That is what the letters MCF on your gas bill mean. This winter, one MFC (1,000 cubic feet of gas) is predicted to hit $20 in Ohio where I live. A few years ago the same quantity of gas cost $5.

    I have a keen interest in natural gas at $20 a MCF. My house is planted square on the bank of beautiful Lake Erie. In the winter, the Lake morphs from balmy blue to howling wilderness. Here the wind roars, fresh from Canada, over 60 miles of ice at speed 70 mph. Temperatures cower in the teens for weeks on end. In brief, prime BTU territory.

    Now one cubic foot of natural gas at normal pressures contains around 1,000 BTU, so one MCF of gas has 1,000,000 BTU.

    Wow! you say, that’s at lot of BTUs for only $20. What a bargain! Well, hold on. A small, forced air gas furnace burns 50,000 BTU in one hour. That’s one twentieth of a MCF of gas up in smoke (or, to be more precise, up in carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water). So every hour your furnace runs, it burns up $1 of your hard-earned money. If your furnace is on 8 hours a day (a reasonable time), your basic monthly gas bill will be $240. That’s just for the furnace. Add the cost of heating water, drying clothes and cooking dinner if these appliances are also gas. If you have a 100,000 BTU furnace, your bill will be $480. This plus a flat service fee of $12.50 for the gas company to read your meter and fiddle around with their service lines. And don’t forget the tax.

    So what’s my savings plan? Insulating and installing thermal pane windows are, of course, the first step. Then turn down your hot water tank to 120 degrees and wrap it in an insulation blanket. Buy some clothes line and abandon your clothes dryer.

    Now the BIG step. Install a programmable thermostat for your furnace. Set the thermostat for 45 degrees (45 is as low as regular thermostats go) at night and 50 degrees in the daytime. This will get you to a point where the furnace runs one to three hours a day.

    The temperature of your house at night is relevant only to your water pipes. You yourself will not be cold. Breathing 45-degree air puts you, not to sleep, but into coma. You will sleep like baby. Don’t worry about having to go to the bathroom. Feet hitting the 45-degree floor will cause your bladder, normally not a thoughtful organ, to reconsider the severity of its distention.

    In the day you must dress as your stalwart pioneer ancestors did. Put on long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, and finish with a wool sweater and a wool vest. A wool tube scarf and fingerless gloves add a nice touch. (But don’t answer the door bell clad in scarf and gloves. You will be hauled off to the funny farm.) These wool garments should be knitted with 5-ply gansey wool or merino wool and with fine stitches–7 to the inch. (Try the Goodwill.)

    Above all, don’t sit down. This means getting rid of you TV. No TV reduces your electric bill slightly and eliminates the cable bill altogether.

    Above all, keep busy.

    Also buy a small electric heater and run it when, for some reason, you are forced to sit down, for example, when you’re paying your gas and electric bills or calculating your income taxes.

    You may actually save on the electric bill by running a small,700- or 800-watt electric heater for a few hours a day, that is when you are absolutely must do the no-no, i.e. sit down. This is because, even though you had added the heater, the electric fan on the furnace will be running less.

    The scientific, small-heater theory is based on the fact that the heater warms mostly YOU…not vast empty spaces in far off rooms, or the pictures on the wall, or already well-clad, over struffed furniture, or any other such inanimate object. These things have no interest in heat and being warm. (The exception is your piano. Heat, causing excessive dryness alternating with summer dampness, is not good for it.)

    Another idea from the treasures of thermodynamics. Remember the Second Law–i.e. everything tends to go from bad to worse or, put another way, houses can easily go from toasty-froasty to lukewarm and then on down to wintry. The speed at which this terrible process happens is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the bad and the worse, in this case, between the inside and the outside of your house. The hotter your house, the quicker it loses heat. Read: money. (Picture a child in a white dress eating a chocolate ice cream cone on a very hot summer day. Nature abhors temperature difference and color contrast!) On a cosmic scale, the ultimate purpose of your furnace is to heat the great outdoors. So the more you crank up the thermostat, the faster the furnace accomplishes its divine mission.

    So stop whining. Turn down your thermostat. I dare you.

    Hey, it works for me. I’m seventy years old. If I can live and thrive at 50 degrees, so can you. I haven’t had a cold in two years. I read that flu and cold viruses like cold, but I think even they have a threshold of discomfort below which it’s not worth their effort to go out and find a nostril to crawl up.

    Why my grandfather, born in the last year of the Civil War, told how, as a boy, he woke up with snow on his bed covers. He had to break ice in the water pitcher to wash his face in the morning. He went “on the Lakes” (in Ohio that phrase means to became a sailor on the Great Lakes) at the age of thirteen–his early years spent on sailing ships. You can bet he was cold. In his later years, and much to my mother’s horror, he bragged that he took a bath only once a year, at which time he also changed, most unwillingly, his long-johns.

    Now there was a man for you–frugal,hardy–no whiner he.

  19. Mimi Forsyth

    When I lived in European wine country, we drank locally produced wine that only a short while before had contained twigs, spiders and what-all. It often was remarkably better than what was sold in bottles that was sometimes made from re-constituted granules. We knew it was all natural and additive-free. A little cloudiness was not a deterrent.
    It’s impossible to get that plonk now, so I have to be satisfied with cheap wine in clean bottles.

  20. Seneca

    My favorite cheap red is La Vieille Ferme, a French table wine that sells at my local grocery for $7.99 a (750 ml) bottle. If you can find the 1.5 liter, it’s an even better deal.

  21. morrison

    I found a discount liquor stores that sells slow selling wine at $3.99 a bottle. You have to know the labels. I’ve been able to buy some nice whites from Venice, some great Tuscan wines from Italy and some San Genevese grape wines. Throw in a few from France, Chile, Australia. Plus every month the store offers a $2.50 coupon for purchases over $30. I go once a month, buy 8 bottles of the $3.99 wine and enjoy a bit of the vino every night. All for under $35.

  22. Coyote

    Double Dog Dare is a not bad cheap wine, at $3.33/bottle, and 10% off for a case purchase (12 bottles) at the local DrugMart here in Ohio.

  23. Derek Lutz

    If you can find it, Pinot Evil Pinot Noir, with the monkeys on the label. Usually about $5.99 here in SW Ohio at Jungle Jims. Cheap wine enthusiasts love Jungle Jims. Always great buys.

  24. Strfish7

    We like Lindeman’s Shiraz, Australia, recently on sale at our local grocery for $3.99/bottle. Really hard to go wrong with Australian Shiraz…

  25. elle mac

    Bevmo… online they will give you the rating and you can go under $10 very easily for some pretty great wine– plus pretty regularly they have a buy one get one for 5 cents.

  26. Mark Dooley

    Four bucks, if I recall, no more than five:

    Hold your nose, go to Wal-Mart. Bottom shelf. Banrock Station, from South Eastern Australia. Rather fabulous everyday wine. Reds better than the white, Cabernet Sauvignon quite credible. Drinking the Shiraz-Cabernet blend at the moment …

    Check it out.

  27. Sunshine

    Sheesh. Hangovers do NOT come from cheap wine, they come from too much wine. If it’s cheap, maybe you’re giving yourself permission to drink more than usual…or maybe you’re choking it back faster instead of savoring it. I know that I drink less when it’s either good or expensive. Cheap wines don’t necessarily have any more additives than expensive ones. (Additives cost money, after all…) And most wines have nearly no additives at all. (How do I know? I’m a winemaker.)

    Cheap wines are cheap because of cheap grapes or market circumstances (Charles Shaw being made of overproduced wine from many different wineries, for example)–or a winemaking or storage mistake (like too much SO2 at bottling, a perfect example of too much additive but reverse causality, or the truck parked for a week in Texas in the summer). *Damaged* wine is not the same thing as *simple* wine. And don’t forget that some of those “additives” (notably SO2) keep your wine tasting good, and even the best wineries use them. (I can’t tell you how many spoiled and oxidized “natural” wines I’ve tasted in my career….)

    Try grape varietals that cost less and wines that are more forgiving of winemaking bloopers: Zinfandel or Barbera if you like reds and Sauvingon Blanc if you like whites.

  28. Robin Ketro

    Check out The Wine Trials from Fearless Critic publishing, this book was written by a friend of mine so I am biased but, it is based on a giant scientific taste testing comparing wines under $15 with wines costing over $50 and $100. Hopefully your public library has it? (Also featured in Erica Asimov’s New York Times column a few months ago.)

  29. Don Hyde

    For years my wife and I have been searching for good cheap wines, starting from a wonderful wine class in a teensy Illinois town where we lived at the time.

    It’s pretty hard to beat South Australia for good, cheap red wines, especially Shiraz. Rosemont and Lindemann’s are consistently quite good, and have some slightly more expensive wines that are even a little better.

    The South American wineries got into the habit of some pretty nasty adulteration when under pressure from the IMF for quick profits, and don’t seem to have shaken the habit. They seem to us to produce many more headaches, so we avoid them.

    There is a lot of good wine for under $10, and once you find one, don’t be ashamed to check the local grocery for the one you like.

    We do a lot of wine shopping at World Market. If there’s one in your neighborhood, you might give it a look.

  30. EdgedInBlue

    The Barefoot brand, even the Merlot, is passable and amazingly WAY under the $8 limit in my part of the country. I have also retreated to, tho I said I never would, to the box wine for my daily ‘go to’ standard. That said, I’ve still not found a suitable replacement for my red zin… I love my old vine fix and haven’t found a cheap alternative!

  31. paprikapink

    Further evidence that Life Is Not Fair. Great, life-enriching, entertaining comment by one “Roberta Shearson.” I want to read more from her. Google’s no help. So I painstakingly sift through many EconoWhiner comments pages…still no more Roberta. (But no shortage of amy.)

  32. michael

    The Malbec I’ve had recently but it didn’t make a lasting impression. Not quite for ‘laying down and avoiding’ but almost.
    I know the Rosemont ‘Shiraz’ but believe that the Yellow Tail is superior and you should be able to pick it up for under $7.00.
    Beyond that, I’ve hardly been able to find any reds for under $7, hence the YT standing out.
    We’ve recently arrived from a five year stay in Italy and my eyes still water when I recall just how cheap (upwards of 1.50 euros) and how good the wine there is.

  33. Sommeliere

    Perhaps your readers will like my suggestions for inexpensive wine to be found at Trader Joe’s. I am the wine columnist for Chef magazine and a number of other publications.

    Since I can’t seem to post the PDF of the mag, here is my piece from Orange Coast (California) magazine Feb 2009.

    Beyond “Two Buck Chuck:” Wine Bargains at Trader Joe’s
    With the economy in the worst shape it has been since Grandma’s time, you really need something delicious to drink, especially while you open the bills. So, take a trip to TJ’s and get some very good wine for a reasonable price. Leave “Chuck” for those who are not in the know. Spend a few dollars more and drink the good stuff! And, all of these wines are made in California, so you can stimulate the economy. And, speaking of stimulating, my toast to you is: kiss French, but drink American!

    Clay Station Viognier 2007 $3.99
    A marvelous, rich Viognier, one of my favorite white wines, with lychee and lime flavors.

    Novella Synergy Blanc 2007 $4.99
    An unusual blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Muscat and Pinot Gris, with apple and citrus flavors.

    Lorca Pinot Gris 2006 $5.99
    Made by Jon Bolta, winemaker for the pricey Caymus Conundrum, this delicious pear-scented PG only tastes expensive!

    California Wine Party Franc Merlot 2006
    Ignore the silly name and label and try this blackberry-flavored blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

    Castoro Cellars Syrah 2006 $9.99
    With a nose of sweet berries, this smoky Syrah sizzles!

    Parducci Pinot Noir 2006/2007 $9.99
    Full of sweet cherries and baking spice, this Pinot pairs beautifully with turkey, salmon, duck–everything but Dover Sole!

  34. Jack

    Two Buck Chuck Cab or Char is a deal and a half. Eminently drinkable, a cheap buzz if you split the bottle with a loved one.