Some people are price snobs when it comes to wine. I used to be if I’m honest. Granted that was before I really started to get into it, but there’d be a time when I’d shop by price whilst barely looking at the label. Doesn’t exactly fill me with pride to admit that, but I think most things in life that embarrass you tend to stem from your mistakes. And that was definitely a mistake!
Picking “cheap” wines that are great can be a bit time consuming. In the lower price points there really is some questionable stuff knocking around, but that’s not to say there aren’t hidden gems. A few of the bloggers I follow, like the world famous Reverse Wine Snob, or awesome Cheap Wine Curious spend their days testing out bottles for under £7 (equivalent) so you don’t have to do it blind yourselves.
Ok as you go up the price range it gets a bit less like grapeshot. You spend £15 on a bottle of wine then chances are it’ll be pretty decent. But not every sees a £15 bottle as an everyday drinker! Would that we could, right? So I join all those wine-o’s out there who have their favourite value wines that keep them going through the week.
Right now I’m out in Italy, and my wine of choice after an hour or so DIY’ing in the hottest summer for decades is a charmat method (one of the cheaper methods) sparkling wine made from a mix of local and uninteresting grape varieties. But it’s cold, it’s bubbly, it’s balanced, and it’s got enough taste to it to keep me interested while I cool down in the shade. Oh, and it’s £2 a bottle.
The last 2 years of blogging and trying new things have near as damn it rid me of my price snobbishness. That’s what 104 weeks of sampling wine will do to you I guess?!
Cheers
Mike
