How cheap can good wine be?

What’s your general rule of thumb when it comes to cheap wine? At what price (and I know this depends on the type) will you say “There’s no way a wine that cheap will be any good”. By good I don’t mean stunning; I mean something you’d be happy drinking at a dinner party full of non-winos. I don’t think there will be any consensus here, I’m just curious for people’s opinions:

My thoughts and notes:

Whites:
Sauv Blanc - drinkable Sauv Blancs can be found as low as $6 - Bolge comes to mind
Reisling: I think Chateau Ste. Michelle Reisling is eminently drinkable at $10 if it’s on sale
Chard - Tougher. There are probably some decent $10 bottles around, but none come to mind. More of an issue with the market than with winemakers able to make something good.
Random Whites - Plenty of good Spanish/Portuguese Whites for $9-10.

Reds:
Zin - I think decent ones can be had for $8, esp on sale. Ravenswood Old Vine gets that cheap, doesn’t it?
Cab - If a cab’s below $15, it’s likely a mes. Good values are available at $15, and choices abound at $20.
Syrah/Most others - Roughly same as cab.
Pinot - Here’s the tough one. At least for me, Pinot needs to cost $30 (some decent OR wines available at $25 but they’re tough to find locally). The odds I will enjoy a randomly selected $15-20 pinot are pretty slim. At $10 it’s undrinkable. I think there’s good reason for this too - the yields and winemaking techniques needed to produce good pinot require that it cost more. If I’m a party and the wine selections are “cheap CA chard” and “Cheap CA Pinot”, hand me a Bud.

I think you can touch a lot of respectable wines from Spain (both red and white) for around 8-9 bucks. Portugal and Argentina would make honorable mentions.

I’m pretty much on board with most of your price ranges.

Of course, I disagree a little on some of what you posted but I think the best answer is: it really just depends

Good topic for discussion

I think you can find some really good (both northern and southern)Rhones for $20 depending on the vintage. This is actually the best spot in my wheel house. I won’t touch a cali Syrah at $20 though, with the exception of bedrock and madeliene.

$20 cali cabs? They’re out there… But it can be very tough and hit or miss. Again, heavily dependent on vintage in my opinion.

I fully agree with you on what you state about Pinots. I have a hard time remembering ever having a cheap pinot I could even call drinkable. If anything, I think you’re being generous at $30.

For Sauv Blancs I also try and stay above $20. Every time I’ve had a $12 bottle I’ve been disgusted so I figure, why risk it when we’re onky talking a couple a bucks?!

You mentioned chateau st Michelle Riesling. I’ve had it and didn’t care for it. I always felt that Charles Smiths Kung Fu Girl to be a killer deal at $11-12.

This would be a better discussion if you defined good as a wine that a geek would really enjoy. Party wine pricing is $10-$15 but I can’t drink that cheap stuff and call it good. For me, a good wine starts around $25 and creeps up to $35. There are exceptions at lower prices that I’ve read about on this board, but they don’t apply in my market.

So river Marie Sonoma coast at $25 is not drinkable? :wink:

But yah generally definitely cost more for decent Pinot

I think that chateau ste Michelle Riesling is $5.49 here at Costco :wink: love it for parties

Great point! Definitely the exception to the rule.

We are drinking a 2012 Joel Gott 815 cab now. It is ok with food, but too sweet and fruit bombish for just sipping. At $15, not bad. If it were $20, it would be overpriced. I can’t see going lower quality than this.

I have a box of 6 Chateau ste Michelle Riesling from Last Bottle at $6 each and free shipping which was perfect since I have the box under my desk at work and if we need a little relaxation end of day, it’s tasty and pleasing but not a splurge to open one. For home consumption, I stick to better options.

Tons of great Pinot for $25 or less, including, just for example, basic bottling a from Au Bon Climat, but also many examples from Central Otago, Oregon and even the Cotes Chalonnaise and Maconnaise.

I would throw out that there are few good Supermarket options that fit your bill, and I struggle to find anything I would want to drink under duress, let alone buy, at my local supermarkets or Whole Foods. My local liquor stores (which happily include Weygandt and MacArthur) have tons of sub-$25 wines that are phenomenal.

La Vieille Ferme white is the cheapest wine I know of that I’d happily drink any time. I think it’s around $7 or so?

There is a lot of very good to excellent Muscadet under $15. Domaine de Pajot’s Gascogne white (“Quatre Cepages”) is pretty swell and under $10.

Chat. St. Michelle? Meh. Rather have a Finger Lakes riesling at around $15-18 bottle.
Speaking of that price range, I think that is a sweet spot for many wines, pinot noir excluded (like decent nebbiolo, $30 seems to be the entry price). Think the last time I found an under 10 pinot was back in the old days of Rex Goliath before it got really huge.
Heck, even good Muscadet is going above $15 now!
As for cabernet, why would you even look to California when you have petit chateau from Bordeaux that blow rings around anything from the Golden State at the lower price points (and here, I mean anything from $12-16)?

currently (ok, for a number of years now) in love with an Arneis from Piemonte that is $10.19 plus tax at my local. Astonishingly good.

Ten-bucks for an arneis? That’s cheep. Who’s the producer?

I’ve had very enjoyable reds from Spain for around $10. I agree that it is hard to find Pinot Noir that I enjoy from USA or France for under $20 or $25 a bottle. I’ve had a nice Pinot from New Zealand that cost $22. The basic Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, OR is under $30 a bottle and can be quite nice in the good vintages.

These are the best bargains out there now. And the whites from the Languedoc, you can get a killer Picpoul de Pinet for $9-$10 and other blends from the area are terrific bargains.

For me, good inexpensive red wine is around $15 - $20.

We opened a very nice 2011 Vallana Spanna (Nebbiolo) tonight. It cost around $16, and went very well with our bitter greens pasta. We are currently trying not to drink our way through a case of the 2010 Monsanto Chianti, which I can’t wait to try with some age on it (around $18). And we also are trying to keep our mitts off our 2011 Domaine de La Butte le Pied de La Butte (cab franc) which is a beautiful wine with so much complexity (around $17). Domaine Piron’s Morgon (gamay) clocks in at under $20 and the 2011 is a juicy, satisfying bottle. I really do wonder sometimes why I spend so much more on individual bottles when these give so much pleasure at such a reasonable price point.

I don’t like cheap and tawdry wine. It’s dirty.

For me, good wine starts at $13-$15 (I was going to say $12, but that didn’t hold up against the cold hard data). I would hate to be limited to this price range; but on the bright side, I would be drinking a lot of Muscadet.

Some recent purchases for under $15:
Pépière Muscadet de S-et-M Sur Lie VV Clos des Briords 2013
Luneau-Papin Muscadet de S-et-M VV Sur Lie 2013
Brun Cuvée l’Ancien 2013
Chidaine Touraine Rouge 2013
Le Bout du Monde Côtes du Roussillon Villages L’Écume des Jours 2011
Le Roc Fronton La Folle Noire d’Ambat 2012
Cantina Sociale Cooperativa Copertino Riserva 2007
St. Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett 2012
Cabot Klamath Cuvee 2008

And for $15-$20:
L’Ecu RedNoz 2012
Brun Côte de Brouilly 2013
Dom. des Tours Vaucluse Reserve 2010
Jérémy Quastana L’Insurgé 2013
J.L. Chave Côtes du Rhône Mon Coeur 2011
Jouan Bourgogne Passetoutgrains 2011
Filliatreau Saumur-Champigny La Grande Vignolle 2011
Plouzeau Chateau de la Bonneliere Chinon Cornuelles 2012
Dom. de la Petite Mairie Bourgueil Cuvée des Galluches 2011
La Quercia Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva 2010
Falkenstein Krettnacher Euchariusberg Riesling Auslese 2012
Leo Steen Calpella Red 2011
Broc Cellars Love Red 2013
Lioco Indica 2012

OK, I’ll stop…

On the burg front, I shouldn’t speak, but I had nice Rion Bourgogne and Cote de Nuits village for 20 and below. It was actually better than just acceptable wine for a party.

I have had good luck with some of the Drouhin LaForet as acceptable. You could get them at about 11 on sale. Some Macon for 12-15 is acceptable as well for Burg chardonnay in a mineral style.