Under ten dollar wine - endangered species? - Philip Bernot

Quite understandably we are hearing a lot more of this recently – “You got any nice wine at or under ten bucks?” Yes, but . . . The under-ten-dollar category for wine is disappearing faster than the polar ice caps. There is, and will always be I suppose, wines under ten dollars. But the wine that was nine dollars last November is now twelve to thirteen. This should surprise no one-why should we be immune to global inflation? By extension this means last years fifteen dollar wine is pushing twenty, and the twenty dollar wine is pushing twenty-five. It may help to reshape your expectations or parameters. There seems to be widely held myth that wines from South America are the best values in the market place. That is simply not my experience. They spill more wine in France in a year than they make in all of South America; naturally there are more and better choices. Ditto for Italy & Spain. California? The wine from the Golden State (my home) historically is and will remain more expensive than those of Europe. It is a different business there, and the cost of doing business is higher. Too, it will definitely help if you are open to grape varieties outside of the big names. Eight-buck Chardonnay from the Central Valley of California is usually worth what it costs-or less. The unknown grape variety from France or Italy may be dramatically undervalued in quality to the price.

How about those big bottles? I think there are some really good values to be had in this arena with some pretty solid selections available for around twelve bucks. We will continue to seek out wines that offer the best value for the money spent, but value is relative. A twenty-five dollar wine can be a great value every bit as much as a nine dollar wine; often more so.

We feel your pain-literally! We are in the same boat and paying much more for the same items than we paid last year.