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Where are the bargains?

In each issue of Wine Press Northwest, we highlight "best buys" in our Recent Releases section. This would be white wines that retail for $10 and under and red wines for $15 and under.

In the new issue, which should start arriving in subscribers' mailboxes this weekend, we have just eight red wines and seven white wines that qualify for this distinction.

Is our sense of what a bargain is too low? Should a bargain be a white wine $15 and under and a red $20 and under?

I would be interested to know what you think constitutes a bargain, based solely on price.

By aperdue at Dec 10 2007 - 3:26pm | red wine | white wine | aperdue's blog | 1216 reads

Andy, I have very much

Andy,
I have very much enjoyed looking through this web site. I am a complete Wine rookie, coming from a Bourbon background. I like your "bargain" set point, it works well with my income and certainly what I am willing to spend on bottles for daily drinking. One day I will venture and spend more on a bottle for a special occasion, but I am just starting out.
My tastes are in their infancy, but I have very much enjoyed the bottles I have tried so far, and they all fit your "bargain" price range, lucky me!
Thanks for this site, very nice.

By Ivan at Wed, 12/12/2007 - 8:49pm | login or register to post comments

What's a bargain?

Andy,

I currently live in London and work at a wine merchant dealing with high end wines. But there is a ton of stuff on the supermarket shelves under £10 and the average price point per sale is hovering just below £4. And since the wine trade is virtually 100% import here, this integrates a £1+/bottle duty into that sub £4 price point. So, in comparative terms, there are plenty of £7.50 reds and £5 whites to sift through to find some best buys. Here a bargain is considered a wine for under a fiver and a respectable average wine is £7-10, but up to £15 depending on what you're looking at.

All this to say that yes, it is totally reasonable to consider Sub-$10/$15 wines as a bargain. Granted, I'm not sure how much UK purchasing power vs. high duties impacts our quality scale and bargain-finding ability here.

P.S.- FYI, we have a nice 1999 Pinot Noir from Beaux Freres (Roseburg, OR) at our shop for about £55; not sure it would sell for that much back in the US!

By bforbes at Tue, 12/11/2007 - 3:17pm | login or register to post comments

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