Definition of Everyday Wines - "Daily Drinkers"

Many times within a post there is a mention of a special wine, a wine for a celebration, or a comment on a wine’s quality to price ratio, etc. And there are often comments saying something like “not bad for a Tuesday night wine” or “we loaded up on this wine as our house wine” or “perfect for a mid-week bottle shared with my wife over dinner.”

I know there is a large range of wine-lovers on this Board, and along with that some functions of affordability as related to income/age/circumstance, but I’m curious to hear from the range of people here on how much they typically spend on their “daily drinkers.” This would be for newish purchases - I’m not talking about the people who were smart enough to put away wines 20-30 years ago that sport original price tags of $8.99, and the current value or new release of that same wine is 10 or 20 times that.

Usually $15 or under falls into the daily drinker category for me. Sometimes under $20 does as well, depending on the day. As the week progresses, I tend to open nicer wines. So a Thursday wine would be more expensive than a Wednesday wine, which would be more expensive than a Tuesday wine, etc. The $35 and up are reserved for Fri-Sun, or really bad days.

For me, it’s typically something that’s <$20, although I don’t drink wine everyday. “Daily drinker” to me is a wine that’s good, not great, not necessarily a sipping wine, and typically one where I’d serve with food. It’s also one that I don’t feel very special about, necessarily, so I’m not worried about not being able to replenish it.

Some examples for me personally are:

  • Columbia Crest Cab Sav H3
  • King Estate Pinot Gris
  • Rodney Strong Chard Chalk Hill

None of these will break the bank and all are easily replenished.

Depends on budget, drinking volume. For me, wines like Quivet, Myriad, Jones Sisters, Drinkward Peschon, Vin29 Cru, Pride cab, Screaming Eagle, and Hayfork are examples of wines I open as a daily drinker.

I consider daily drinkers to be wines I wouldnt mind my wife opening at home when I’m not around. They usually are drunk between the two of us before and over dinner. Many times my daily frinker stash comes from the discount sites and if there is a flaw or it not to our liking we feel we arent out anything and pop open another. On a side note I feel that the discount sites are byer beware and have never complained or sent them back – isnt that the way??

It’s a good question Merrill. For us, inexpensive would be $15 or so, but I’m decreasingly inclined to worry about the occasion to open a better bottle. Esp since my last bout in the hospital, I’m more and more inclined to open whatever, whenever. So ever more frequently on a Friday night or Saturday night, we’ll have a $15 Cotes du Rhone or like tonight - a young inexpensive wine from south Spain, and Wednesday someone stops by and we open an old Cab or Cote Rotie that cost many times more when purchased. Used to be I’d keep those for some undefined occasion, and for the most part still do, but that’s not a hard rule if we’re in the mood and it’s Wednesday.

I see what you did there, well done.

For Jonathan Favre, it’s either upper tier 1er Cru Burgs, or Grand Cru Burgs from middle and lower-rated vintages. He saves the good stuff for tasting events, nice dinners out, and for the weekends.

My situation might be slightly different than others seeing as I’m not married and no kids. If I come home from work on a Tues and really am in the mood for wine, I won’t think twice about opening a Maybach or Fairchild even though it’s just me drinking. If I only kinda sorta want wine, then I’ll be reaching for a <$20 bottle and will probably only have one glass. I made the mistake a few years back of spending way too much money on “cellar defender” wines instead of just buying more of what I really like and saying f*ck it and drinking what I want when I want it.

[whistle.gif]

So given that the $$ range is anywhere from say $60-$750, I would conclude that it is not cost that determines what you drink on a daily basis. [cheers.gif]

If I have to put a price on it, it’s a wine under $15 or maybe $20. But it also means a wine I don’t mind if my SO opens if I’m not home. (So I’m with Timmy Roos). It implies less expensive, but also not rare and likely replaceable.

Troisième Cru or equivalant. A young Brunello di Montalcino.

I just open whatever I feel like no matter what day it is. Life is too short worrying about saving wine for a special occasion.

Carrie and I have a slight advantage when it comes to daily drinkers, but they still start at about $12 and top out about $35. Dinner out is such a rarity for us that wines are chosen specifically for the food/location and cost is not a factor, but rarely exceeds $150.

The whole reason I have a cellar is to supply my daily drinking. Therefore, the things I drink daily are either wines to be drunk with the vintage, which typically range in the $10-$40 range or wines I purchased a few to many years ago and which my current purchases are refilling for future “few to many years ago” from now, so it’s hard to factor their cost into the equation. CT says I’m around $40-$80 on average over all I drink. Since I always drink on a day, that means that my daily drinkers average $40-$80, I guess [scratch.gif]

That’s what CT says it is worth, not what I paid for it way back when. That’s the rub here. The other factor making it hard to say how much I spend(or spent) on what I’m drinking now is that what I spend now is for things I’m not going to be drinking for many years to come, so I’m actually spending more per diem than I am drinking out of the cellar - the goal is to drink better stuff later in my planning.

Cheers,
fred

Anything goes here. But since I tend to cellar wines in the $60-$150 range it is where I drink most often. May seem like a high #- but since daily is only a bottle a week (or every 2 weeks) with almost zero consumption in the summer months it’s reasonable for me. I’ve started using Loire Valley reds, Cru Bojo, and the wines of Gonon and Lafouge as cellar defenders so I feel less bad always killing babies.

+1

Great thread (you guys get me thinking all to often about my habits).

As long as I can pretty much pop n’ pour and not decant over a period, that is a daily drinker. If I know I will be drinking a bottle over two nights by myself, I tend to be experimental…otherwise I go with something more familiar but still readily accessible within an hour of consumption.

I find it typically ranges between $40-70 depending on varietal and region.

I hesitate less to open wines that I have more of, regardless of price. Day of the week doesn’t play into it too much. We typically only have wine Wednesdays and weekends (awfully structured, I know, but it works for us) so at times that weekday bottle is more of an occasion than those opened weekends.