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If you enjoy drinking wine, chances are you’ve had some fancy bottles and some downright unfancy bottles. Inexpensive wine has its place: When you’re sipping rose from Solo cups at a pool party, it’s a little silly to break the bank.
But if you want to have an unforgettable wine experience (and share one with your guests or hosts), you need to break the habit of scouring the liquor store for the best deal.
“If you walk into the store and buy a wine that’s under $20, there’s a very good chance you’re looking at something that’s been mass-produced and grown conventionally with synthetic pesticides, fungicides and herbicides,” says Mark Osborn, Lead Sommelier at SommSelect. “That’s all that lives only in your wine.”
Osborn has tasted more than 15,000 bottles of wine and admits that occasionally you can get very good bottles cheaply and pay exorbitant prices for wine that ends up disappointing. Overall, though, he says, the $25-$30 price point is where “things start to break out and you start to get some identity expression in your wine.”
The sweet spot for a good bottle: $30 to $60. Double that to $60-$120 if you buy from a premium region like Burgundy, Napa, or Champagne.
Here’s Osborn’s best advice for picking a great bottle.
It’s no secret that people like to buy wine by the label. If everything is roughly the same price, why not pick the best looking one, right? But that probably won’t help you find a bottle of wine that actually tastes good.
“A cool label doesn’t mean there’s cool wine on it,” says Osborn. “That means they probably have someone with some marketing skills.”
The label to focus on is on the other side of the bottle, Osborn says. Even if the information on vintages and regions and grape varieties doesn’t tell you much, there should be a few important certifications: organic and biodynamic.
These distinctions show that producers are “cultivating, at least in terms of the land and soil that they source from quality vendors and farmers who actually care for them,” Osborn says.
Although certification as organic or biodynamic aren’t sure marks of quality, they’re “a good place to start if you want to avoid synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides,” says Osborn. “It’s wine through a cleaner and more transparent lens.”
One thing worth noting on the front labels: familiar faces. Think of some of the wine brand names you keep seeing in different stores. “I’m going to avoid this at all costs because it’s in every store in America,” says Osborn.
As a rule of thumb, any wine you see everywhere is made on an industrial scale. And it will probably taste like this.
“Anything that’s mass-produced, I would recommend people avoid it,” says Osborn.
Osborn compares this type of wine to corporations like Amazon and Nestle. “When you think of these companies, you don’t think of self-expression or uniqueness.”
Ultimately, you need to learn more about the world of wine if you want to get good at choosing inexpensive, delicious bottles. But with all the regions and grapes and producers, it can be difficult to know where to start.
One strategy for budget drinkers is to start with familiar regions and look around for bottles. Let’s say your favorite wine is Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which averages around $50. Start branching out from there, Osborn says.
“Hey, what’s up in Mendocino County? What’s going on in the Santa Cruz Mountains? What’s going on in Santa Barbara?” he says. “These are regions that are emerging, so they’re not that expensive [as] the Napa Cabernet with the highest billing.”
Other regions Osborn sees as emerging are the Bierzo region of Spain and the Finger Lakes region of New York, which are currently producing “a lot of great Rieslings, dry and semi-dry.”
When all else fails, find the best wine shop in your area and befriend the people who run it. Tell them what wines you’re generally attracted to and why.
“Once you’re on the same page and realizing what you drink in general, hopefully you can broaden your horizons and explore a little more,” says Osborn.
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