Puff piece from CNBC, wherein some Somm Select guy says that wine $20 and under is trash, and “The sweet spot for a good bottle: $30 to $60.“
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That’s a click bait summary of his quote, which is in fact quite true…
“When you go to the store and you’re getting a wine that’s under $20, there’s a very good chance you’re looking at something that was mass produced and conventionally farmed with synthetic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides”
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Frankly, very reasonable advise from the Somm and a bad summary from you, Nate.
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OP looking for post karma. this isn’t reddit.
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I pretty much agree with the guy, though I guess it depends how you define pricing. Is it MSRP? Or is it what the wine generally sells for? I usually pay 20-50 per bottle, and that’s probably about 30-60 MSRP.
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I have drank so many good wines under 10€ it’s not even funny.
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But not as bad as the headline
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I suppose I should have added, if you go to the Somm Select website and look at their catalog, not a single wine is priced $20 or under. They are all $21 or over.
Pure coincidence, I’m sure, that their somm picked $20 as a price below which wine is mostly crap.
Also pure coincidence, I’m sure, that CNNC neglected to mention that some of their wines priced over that Line Of Quality that is $20 are available elsewhere for under $20.
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And I’ve drunk a bunch of great wines for which I paid under $20 but I don’t disagree with the actual quote, which I think can be accurately paraphrased as ‘when an average consumer who is not a wine geek buys a bottle for less than $20 they are likely to get mass-produced dreck’.
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Does it matter what most people pay?
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He doesn’t say which store he’s talking about. I can think of many stores I could go into and get wine for under $20 which is not mass produced.
He also doesn’t state what he means by “mass produced,” even though he seems to regard it as a key indicator of quality. Would he include first growth Bordeaux chateaux, all of which produce 10,000 cases or more per year?
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Love me some quality Brander SB for well under $20. What am I missing? I can easily come up with more but that’s my go-to SB and you can find it any town in southern CA.
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$30 to $60 as a sweet spot seems pretty non-controversial to me. That is the price range where vintners can generally grow grapes and make wine with focus on quality, and less need to work at volume.
Sub $20 can have its gems, but definitely will involve (a) personal preference playing a big role and (b) a less prominent region/variety.
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It’s not at all coincidence, but they seem to practice what they preach. Don’t try to twist his words to push your agenda.
All in all, this was a reasonable short write-up by CNNC with some reasonable advise. I don’t know why you try to make such a big deal out of it.
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Good timing
Also, I wonder whether the Sommelier King has ever had Domaine de la Pépière
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And the NYTimes list is merely the tip of the iceberg. Even the producers who make so-called mass marketed wine are making better and better wine in the last decade. Not that we consume them with regularity… Tomas_Costa and I have had the same experience - you just need to know where to look if you are bargain hunting.
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I think the statement in question regarding under $20 wines is more true of wine produced in the US and I think that what is whats being referred to. In addition to pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, these wines are more likely to have additives to give the wine color, body, and RS. They’re engineered in a lab to confirm to a particular taste profile and remove character. Mass produced as a brand like Coca-cola or Budweiser to match a single taste profile that has mass appeal.
You don’t see as much of that in cheap wine of Europe. There is an ocean of authentically produced wines with tremendous character and good quality under $20, and if you are buying in Europe it’s even cheaper to @Tomas_Costa’s 10 euro point. Often you’ll just need to look beyond the mainstream grape varieties and regions.
I think the NYT article above proves this point well. Very euro-centric.
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I think geography is a big thing here, too. Harder to find great Portuguese wine under $20 in the US than it is in Portugal
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Wasn’t aware I had an agenda. Thanks.
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I know that’s true. But we don’t get most of those here in the states, and when we do, they are $20 wines, or more, when you add transport, taxes, importer and retail markups.
It’s very rare to find a sub-$20 wine that’s worth drinking these days.