How can I tell the difference between quality wine and cheap ones.?
I wanted to know how can I tell what is a decent bottle of red wine to buy and what type or brand should I not buy. I'm not speaking on a very expensi...
I wanted to know how can I tell what is a decent bottle of red wine to buy and what type or brand should I not buy. I’m not speaking on a very expensive bottle, a decent bottle that I can drink when watching a movie at home.
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You can spend $7-10 (possibly even a bit less at a place like Trader Joe’s) and find a decent bottle of wine. There’s no easy answer as to what defines a good bottle versus one that’s just swill. If you go to a store that specializes in wine they’ll point you in the right direction after finding out your likes and dislikes. If you’re just shopping at your local liquor store, often they’ll post wine reviews by the wines so you could use those to guide you. If there’s a Trader Joe’s by you, I’d highly recommend checking it out. I’ve never found decent wines cheaper than what they offer ($4-6 range and still very drinkable). In lieu of that, I can offer some tried and true brands that are relatively cheap but reliably good. Since I’m not familiar with your tastes I’ll suggest several different brands to hopefully hit on something you’ll like.
Zinfindel – Cellar No 8 is really good – about $8-9
Syrah/Shiraz – Wishing Tree or Woop Woop – both Austrailian and about $8
Malbec – both Norton & Septima from Argentina are good – $8-9
Blend of red varietals – Red Truck by Cline – about $9
Pinot Noir – I wouldn’t recommend spending less than $10 on pinot noir – most won’t be that good – you may get lucky and find a couple but you’ll more likely get a very tart wine.
Generally whites are cheap as a whole than reds so you’ll have many more choices of whites under $12 than red and by and large the quality at those price points will be better.
Sauvignon Blanc – I’d take just about any of them out of New Zealand
Reisling – Chateau St. Jean (I think from Washington) about $10
Chardonnay – really depends on your taste (oaked/unoaked)
A few reliable brands across several varietals are Mondavi, Chateau St. Jean, Yellow Tail (very inexpensive), Bonny Doon, and Columbia Crest.
By the way, legs do not denote quality or lack thereof. It’s the thickness or viscosity of the wine that determines if a wine will have "good legs". This is more indicative of some varietals and less so of others so while it is a characteristic of some wines, it doesn’t tell you in and of itself if the wine is good or not.
Cheers and I hope you find some that you enjoy that won’t break your pocketbook.
Good wine are made of all grapes and don’t have sugar or grain alcohol added. So are a lot of bad wines. So you just need to try lots of diferent styles and brands till you find one you like. Go to liquor store on customer appreciation day or something when they are giving out lots of samples and see what you like.
Let me start by saying that a cheap wine can be a quality wine. A common misconseption is that you have to pay a lot for good wine. That isn’t the case. That is just propaganda from wine snobs all over. You can find affordable and delicious wines by reading any good wine magazine. Normally they will run anywhere from $12-$30. You don’t have to pay a fortune for good wine.
The only way I have ever been able to tell is by looking at the "legs" of the wine when its in your glass. The "legs" are on the side of the glass when you tip it one way and back the other and can see the wine running down, if you can picture that its hard to explain. But the better, more defined and thick the legs are then supposible the better the wine. But I have found that even Carlo Rossi has pretty good legs and thats pretty cheap lol good though
Find a wine that YOU like, then go to a good wine shop and ask for similar wines, in the same price range. You can also go to wine tastings to try ahead.
Good wines won’t give you headaches, cheap ones will. So anything over $10 bottle is alright. Of course the more expensive the better. When you open the bottle let it vent and open up for about 30 min, you can totally tell the difference in taste. Dancing bull, Bogle, are some pretty good ones that are pretty cheap but good.