‘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’.
Whereas the wine geeks and those ITB can find remarkable values under $20, because we know what to look for. Costco has a lot of really good wines under $20 due to the average consumer not knowing what they are, and the supplier is stuck having to move them. For example, I’ve found excellent Cru Beaujolais, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, and DOs from Spain under $20. All goes back to Americans not knowing much about wine.
This goes back to something we discuss in a lot of contexts – the more knowledgeable you are, the better the value you can find and the fewer bad purchases you make.
Whether it’s in a region (e.g. Burgundy expert has far better odds of finding good wines at reasonable prices than others do), or on a big restaurant wine list, or shopping at Costco, the more you know about wine and about your own tastes, the better your odds are of making a good purchase.
Depends on your market as others have stated, for at least a couple reasons. Some individual stores may be given a bit more leeway depending on their demographic; the one in our area has made occasional one-off deals with local wineries/breweries/cideries, and have the occasional wine you wouldn’t expect to see appear in their bins. It also depends on what wholesalers have certain wines in each market. There are a LOT of wholesalers/distributors that want nothing to do with Cotco in our market, and that represents a lot of smaller to midsize wineries. But in another state some of those wineries may have representation with someone that does carry bigger box store brands as well, so they may appear in a Costco there if they choose to.
I think that quite a few more wines do this than we believe.
Megan and I opened a bottle of 2008 Pravis Negrara last year, with low expectations, and it was a lovely bottle of wine. Just delicious.
And pretty routinely people tend to believe that entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs need to be drunk in 3-4 years. But many will age for well beyond a decade. In 2003 at a dinner a bottle if 1991 Bethel Heights WV Pinot Noir was superlative, and WOTN on a table with some very fancy wines.
Flatiron (NY) is having a sale on a bunch of Portuguese wines, many under $20, and many on Tomas’ list. I can also recommend paying up for the Seabra Ilumitado Tinto which is a whopping $23.
I hadn’t seen this thread but, for what it’s worth, what jumps out at me is the $20-$30 gap in the argument. That’s the correct price point of many outstanding Rias Baixas Albariños, German Kabinetts, Rosés and Cerasuolo di Vittoria and good quality entry level Zins, Sangioveses, Chardonnays, Cru Beaujolais and Langhe Nebbiolos, even after current inflation.
I do think he’s right that under $20 this day and age is largely sus except in very limited non-wood circumstances. And that’s ok. We’ve had the $20 rule of thumb 20 years now or more. Time to adjust it for inflation.
