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Comment by kough | Hacker News Reader

More or less on topic - anyone have a favorite $5-10 bottle of wine? There must be some oenophiles here willing to make a recommendation to a broke college student.

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If you're in the US I highly recommend checking to see if you have a local owner run wine retailer. One that preferably hosts wine tasting nights. I used to sell wine b2b and was amazed at the level of care most of them have for their trade.

Find one that knows his range and visit/talk to him regularly and he should be able to point you in the right direction. I've always found the language used to describe wine outside of expert to expert to be too imprecise, and rely on comparison too much, to be useful. A retailer however will be able to pick up from you trying X and not liking it and trying Y and liking it, that Z is a good next purchase to try.

The classic from my own broke college days was the various "two buck Chuck" store-brand wine labels from Trader Joe's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine

It makes for great fun during blind wine tastings, too!

But that's loaded with arsenic [0].

[0]: http://www.medicaldaily.com/trader-joes-2-buck-chuck-and-oth...

I'm very familiar with the good Mr. Shaw at this point; looking for something "fancier". Great rec though, it has unparalleled value.

I also went through a Riesling phase (various blue-colored bottles from Germany, mostly). Bottles were in the $10 range, varied a bit in acidity and fruit, but were generally quite drinkable.

"Fancy" is a dangerous preference in wine, though! Wine does get better in the $20-$30 range, because some wines cost more to produce. (oak, late harvest, estate-grown, old vines, some varietals, etc.)

Second Riesling - if you like them sweeter, I'd throw out Liebfraumilch, Hock and Gewurtzraminer too.

I'll also mention you want European Riesling - the bottles from New Zealand/Australia can tend to have a slight petrol taste to them.

There are also some non-sweet Gewurztraminer, a German colleague once brought us a bottle, it was great.

In Alsace we also have Edelzwicker. Those are "vins d'assemblage", ie blended wine. They can be both great and cheap. You'll have to sample a few of them as quality and taste can vary quite a lot.

One of my favorite is the Klevener d'Heiligenstein, there's a Wikipedia article about it in English (Wikipedia never cease to amaze me !): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klevener_de_Heiligenstein

I always go get a few bottles when I visit my family, at a local producer who has an organic winery. The price varies depending on several factors but the cheapest ones are about 5-6€ a bottle and they're great.

Assuming you're in the US and have a favorable tax environment, you might have some luck with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It's generally an earthy wine with relatively low acidity and tannins which means it will be easy going. It's usually more interesting than similarly priced New World wines. It seems pretty hardy as well -- I've only bought one bottle that was faulted (out of many, many bottles) and that was just a little Brett and it was still drinkable.

You might also be able to find a $10 Chianti Classico. That will give you more structure which will make the wine feel a bit more "refined".

Also check out Cotes du Rhone reds. These will often be cheaper than the more famous regions in France but share a lot of the "refined" characteristics of their more well known counterparts. One of the best wines I've had recently was Cotes du Rhone (sorry, didn't get a pic of the label) and held up favorably to a Burgundy I had brought (to the lunch) at 4x the price.

Echoing what someone else wrote here, find a local wine seller. Wine is such a complex topic you really need someone to point you in the right direction. Wine is also a great way to meet interesting people. A local wine seller is a good place to start.

I suppose presence of brett in a wine is never a good thing? It can often be a feature of beer.

Look at Spanish wines and buy at random in your price range. Out of 10 wines, 2 will be undrinkable swill you tip down the sink, 5 will be drinkable, but boring, 2 will be good, and 1 will be fantastic. When you hit the fantastic wine then buy as much as you can of that wine. Repeat :)

Instead of pouring the bad ones down the sink, if they're not extremely bad, cook with them! I've saved some "meh" red wines by cooking a boeuf bourguignon, and some white ones to do a sauce au beurre blanc for example.

This is certainly an option, but bad wines can ruin good food in cooking. As a general rule if the wine is too bad to drink then it is too bad to cook with.

An alternative is to return the wine to the store for a refund. I have only ever done this a few times when the wine was very obviously faulty.

The most interesting faulty wine I have ever had was one where the wine ruined my taste buds such that every wine that I tasted after that on the night tasted terrible (it did this for my wife too). I opened about a half dozen bottles of wine over a few hours to see how long this effect lasted - it lasted the night, but luckly by the next day everything was back to normal. I almost wished I had bought up more bottles of this wine to give to my enemies :)

There're decent Spanish and French reds at Trader Joe in that range. I haven't had a bad Rioja one yet.

Spanish wines will give you the best bang for your buck if you are on the east coast of the USA.

If you are in Australia (like me) then have a look at the Wine section of my blog [1]. I try to write about all the good wines I find.

1. https://www.tillett.info/category/wine/

I don't know about $5-10, but I can make a $10-20 suggestion. I've recently gotten into Frappato (a Sicilian varietal that tends to have a really nice mix of minerally, fruity, and spicy flavors), and they often are a really good value.

The Valle Dell'Acate is one I think is great. http://m.wine-searcher.com/find/valle+dell+acate+frappato+vi...

I'll save up and give it a try, thank you!

Have a look out for Chilean Casillero del Diablo [0]. Their regular range sells for between GBP5.99 and 7.99 in the UK (there's GBP1.90 of duty and 20% VAT in those prices - we have ridiculous alcohol duty rates in the UK).

I can vouch for all of their reds - Malbec, Cabernet, Carmenere....even their Merlot is a decent thing.

[0]: http://www.casillerodeldiablo.com/?lang=en

I joke with my roommate that I should buy stock in that winery. I almost always have a bottle of their Carmenere on hand. I was also pleasantly surprised by the juicy fruitiness of their Pinot Noir, but haven't found it since!

One note though- they run $10-15 where I'm at- which makes sense given the conversion between USD and GBP. I'm pretty sure the user asking is from the US. So a bit more expensive than they're hoping for. Edit: Those taxes are crazy btw, I think in my state it's 5% on wine.

> I joke with my roommate that I should buy stock in that winery

Heh....you and me both. I'm a real fan of South American wine.

My pal, who was an employee of Oddbins (now defunct but was decent high street off-license [liquor and wine store]) had the good fortune of winning a works-paid ten day trip to Chile and Argentina to visit Concha y Toro's winerys (and some other producers). Back then they also used sell these other fab wines under the "Wine Maker's Lot" label which is what got me hooked on Chilean wines.

I love this Rabbit Ridge Allure de Robles and it is sometimes available at Trader Joes for about $5. Normally it's $10 but buying by the case has steep discounts: http://goodcheapvino.com/bargain-alert-5-%E2%80%93-rabbit-ri...

More info: https://www.rabbitridgewinery.com/red-wines.html

My wife and I are members of their winery in Paso Robles, California and always really enjoy their wine. I consider them a great value (which is true of Paso in general).

Jug wine burgundy.

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