Cheap Wine Not Cheap Taste

Filed in archive Cheap Wines on August 20, 2006

I remember back in the day when I did the college thing the first time around. As an English major, I attended a number of poetry and other readings form semi-famous or not-so-famous authors that would speak at the school. This was when it was okay to have alcohol on campus and the drinking age was a mere 18, so it was no biggie for those running the event to bring some jugs of white wine, a box of crackers, and some cheese (could have even been cheese food back then). We knew even then it was cheap, the food, the wine, the poet, but still we felt oh, so, cosmopolitan you know.

Today, there is still a stigma for most people when it comes to cheap wine. They assume that it doesn't taste good. Here's more from BBC News:

Today's mass-market wine is vastly superior to its equivalent a decade ago, says Tom Forrester, wine expert at Vinopolis, the wine centre and tourist attraction in London.

"The quality has shot up, the wine-making techniques are better - and if you look at the cheap wines we used to drink, they're nothing like as good as the £3.99 wine you're getting nowadays," he says.

The prevalence of so much wine in this price bracket reflects the power of supermarkets, he says.

"People don't have loyalty to a brand, the loyalty is to the supermarket - the consumer is saying 'I bought a £3.99 bottle from them last week, it was good, I'll buy another one that's £3.99 this week.'"

But there are differences in quality within this narrow price range. Mr Forrester says that you're more likely to get a good deal from a new world wine, such as big Australian brands - which can provide consistent, reliable, mass-produced quality.