Cheap Wine

[lovin'fl]

Lately I have been getting Apothic Red (a blend). It's good. And not too costly, like $12-ish. http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/apothic+red

I like this too, but it's a sparkling wine (champagne) and hard to find http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/carnaval+moscato

 

[GAN]

Confession..... I'm a bit of a wine snob. I can drink anything -I like a good time . But while the easy to find MASS produced wines work in some situations, like during the holidays when we have 20 people over -10 of which could care less about the wine ....yeah, break out the YellowTail. But honestly -it's crap. The sad thing is that there are plenty of $8 - 15 bottles that are great, and people pass them by -probably because it can be so confusing and is somewhat intimidating looking at wine in a store. My wife and I belong to a national wine group and we drink a pretty good amount of wine. At a recent tasting, these wines stood out:

Red ...$10-12
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/caro+aruma+malbec+mendoza+argentina

White ... $7-10
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/quinta+aveleda/2012

These are fantastic wines with nice aromas and flavors that should appeal to most.

Cin Cin.....

 

[Cadiewampus]

Lately I have been getting Apothic Red (a blend). It's good. And not too costly, like $12-ish. http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/apothic+red

I like this too, but it's a sparkling wine (champagne) and hard to find http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/carnaval+moscato

We keep a regular stash of Apothic Red around the house. Also Apothic Dark which use to be their seasonal is now available year round and it is very good. Another good one we get here at Total Wines in Ga. is called One Smart Cookie. Also another is called Kitchen Sink

 

[leebee]

Not to be a snob- because we are happy with Charles Shaw from Trader Joe's (been drinking it since it was known as TWO-buck Chuck!), but we won't drink Barefoot, Yellow Tail, OakLeaf, etc. Remember that you get what you pay for, and while there are good wines in the $7-$10 range, I wouldn't trust anything under $5, unless you are mixing it with fruit juices or something. We are happy with Apothic, Menage a Trois, Suffering Ba****d, Rex 47, Columbia Crest Two Vines. Many of the Chilean wines are very good. We haven't been as happy with Australian wines, but many of our friends love them.

 

[crisi]

Not to be a snob- because we are happy with Charles Shaw from Trader Joe's (been drinking it since it was known as TWO-buck Chuck!), but we won't drink Barefoot, Yellow Tail, OakLeaf, etc. Remember that you get what you pay for, and while there are good wines in the $7-$10 range, I wouldn't trust anything under $5, unless you are mixing it with fruit juices or something. We are happy with Apothic, Menage a Trois, Suffering Ba****d, Rex 47, Columbia Crest Two Vines. Many of the Chilean wines are very good. We haven't been as happy with Australian wines, but many of our friends love them.

I'd have pretty much the same list. (though Charles Shaw tastes like it spent some time in someone's underpants to me and I've never had a good Columbia Crest. And if I want a bottle of wine to get drunk off of the Cupcake sweet wine is fine - or the Beringer White Zin )

OP, is it for you? A gift? A party? Bringing to dinner?

For wine drinkers? Foodies? For show? A token?

White? Red? Sweet? Dry? Sophisticated? Something to get tipsy off of?

What do you consider cheap? I have a really lovely $35 a bottle Rombauer Zinfindel downstairs. Its cheap when compared to the Opus One or even the Caymus sitting near it in the wine rack.

(The Show is a decent $12-15 Cab - Liberty School is a decent cab in that range as well. If you want a white that straddles sweet, drinkable and sophisticated - a gewurztraminer usually goes over well, On the red side, a Shiraz or Old Vine Zin usually is a good bet. Personally, if I didn't know wine and wanted to bring a bottle, I'd go for a $12-15 bottle with an obscure label and take a risk - everyone knows you dropped less than $10 on the bottle of Cupcake and bought a dependable and completely mediocre wine. Bring something with an interesting label and a decent wine spectator rating (easy to look up) and you can just say you are taking a risk)

 

[antmaril]

I bought a bottle of Malbec called "Tall Dark Stranger" for a gift exchange with girlfriends. It was $14 and I have no idea if it is any good, but it has a cool label.

 

[georgina]

I bought a bottle of Malbec called "Tall Dark Stranger" for a gift exchange with girlfriends. It was $14 and I have no idea if it is any good, but it has a cool label.

Yeah, sometimes I buy wine by the label too. I'm having my wine snob relatives over for dinner Sunday and always have them bring their own wine!

 

[ckcnj]

Charles Shaw is cheap but does not taste good. For $8 or $9 a bottle, The Naked Grape pinot grigio is very good. If you want to spend a bit more, Clo du Bois makes a nice chardonnay for $11 or $12.

 

[Jesse 23]

Thank you everyone for all the great suggestions. The wine is really for me to drink and if drinking a white wine i like a chardonnay and if drinking a red wine i like merlot. I have a lot of shopping to do but I know I'll have fun testing them all.

 

[missnic]

Another vote for Barefoot and Apothic Red. I like my wine sweet. And cheap.

Side question for those Apothic fans - have you found the 2013 blend to be WAY off (drier and not nearly as sweet) from the 2012? Or did I just get a bad bottle?

 

[Dread Pirate]

Oliver Winery (just up the road from me) has a nice Soft Red. I like all of their wines.

 

[GAN]

Another vote for Barefoot and Apothic Red. I like my wine sweet. And cheap.

Side question for those Apothic fans - have you found the 2013 blend to be WAY off (drier and not nearly as sweet) from the 2012? Or did I just get a bad bottle?

Not likely a bad bottle -if it was bad/corked you would probably know at first sniff. I'm pretty certain this a large production wine -I've had it several times and it isn't a bad wine for the money ...very drinkable table wine. The thing with large production is that they get grapes that are available and probably ones that are at the "right" price. So, if Merlot(fruitiness) was short in availability because of say a poor growing season, then they may have to procure more zin, etc. With most any wine there are so many variables(especially a 4 varietal blend like this) that affect flavor, most vintages will taste a bit different. So my guess would be less merlot -whether by design(because they wanted to change flavor) or by necessity.

 

[Kae]

just don't buy Ugly Christmas Sweater spiced wine...Soo yucky!! I like Barefott for the Sweeter wines we enjoyed the Refresher ones all summer. Boogle has a nice Merlot and Pinot Noir. Pink Releisling is nice. the Naked Grapes are good too.

Kae

 

[missnic]

Not likely a bad bottle -if it was bad/corked you would probably know at first sniff. I'm pretty certain this a large production wine -I've had it several times and it isn't a bad wine for the money ...very drinkable table wine. The thing with large production is that they get grapes that are available and probably ones that are at the "right" price. So, if Merlot(fruitiness) was short in availability because of say a poor growing season, then they may have to procure more zin, etc. With most any wine there are so many variables(especially a 4 varietal blend like this) that affect flavor, most vintages will taste a bit different. So my guess would be less merlot -whether by design(because they wanted to change flavor) or by necessity.

That's what I was thinking, but I know ZERO about wine.. other than I like the taste. lol Guess I'll just have to try it again and find another brand if I still don't like it.

 

[GAN]

That's what I was thinking, but I know ZERO about wine.. other than I like the taste. lol Guess I'll just have to try it again and find another brand if I still don't like it.

Ménage a trois was mentioned earlier ...that is fairly comparable and equally as good in my opinion. It is a little more zin than merlot in the blend, so you might want to buy one bottle and try it ...about $10

 

[crazymomof4]

Menage a Trois Silk. A red blend. We like it a lot and so do several of our wine-snob friends. They have trouble keeping the shelf stocked at our wine store, so I suspect it's a fav of many.

 

[MomToOne]

La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, now going for about $20/bottle in my area. Everyone seems to love it. I'm not sure $20 would be considered inexpensive but I find it worth the price.

 

[RangerPooh]

I like Barefoot Mascato, the pink is the best. Usually under $6.

 

[Psychodisney]

We like Josh cabernet. About $12/bottle. Rated 96.

 

[GAN]

We like Josh cabernet. About $12/bottle. Rated 96.

That's a nice quality-price cab ...I've had it and I'd say it's perfect for the "new" cab drinker. I drink a lot of cab and I'd say it's more like an 88 but who's counting -I can see people feeling it's a 96!