Value in Wine

Posted by Alan Boehmer Sep 25, 2007

Perhaps America’s greatest gift to the international wine-loving community lies not in its best wines, but rather in its unbelievably good low end every day wines. Most readers of these blogs and articles are familiar with Trader Joe’s so-called Two-Buck Chuck wines, offering very drinkable Cabernet, Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and other varietals for less than $2 a bottle. While we’re not recommending these wines to our readers, there is no question that they offer terrific value. A case of Charles Shaw Syrah will set you back less than a single bottle of the good stuff.

Our question here references those wines in the middle of the price/value continuum. Will you receive commensurate value if you spend $9 instead of $5 for a bottle of wine? Not necessarily.

There are dozens of wines priced at $5 or below that offer as good or better quality than wines priced at twice the price, and we tend to skip over the pricier ones. The really inexpensive wines are typically products of very large producers who amortize their production expenses over tens of thousands of cases. Medium-sized producers simply cannot compete and must charge more per bottle for competitive products. Small wineries simply need to offer a distinctive or clearly superior product and charge accordingly.

When we rise to the $25+ price point, everything changes. Here the boutique producers begin to compete head to head with large producers. The results vary. Often a tiny winery comes out with the better wine at the same price point, but sometimes the large producer has its act so well together, thanks to the contributions of expensive viticulturists, chemists, winemakers and equipment, that its products are equally competitive with the mom and pop artisans.

So go for the good value low end and the decently priced higher end wines.