What's a good cheap wine for people who don't generally drink?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We want good cheap wine that isn’t necessarily good wine. I mean, we don’t give a damn about bouquet or “redolent of sun-warmed nutmeg with a slight taste of mink.” We’re not connosieurs. I’m not even sure I know how to spell it.

We want something that doesn’t taste like rubbing alcohol nor grape juice that’s been too long in the fridge. We want a nice red to drink with the occasional steak dinner that won’t put us out too much money and will be palatable. We (being myself and Gunslinger) have each had such a wine before, but not together, and neither of us can remember what it was (mine was something from Riunite, and his was something that came in a bottle etched with leaves).

Neither one of us drinks much on a regular basis. When we do, we both tend towards things that taste more or less non-alcoholic, like flavored malt beverages rather than beer, and daquiris or rum and cokes or Long Island iced teas rather than martinis or straight-up tequila. So wine that tastes too much like alcohol would turn us off.

So. Cheap wine that tastes like neither rubbing alcohol nor grape juice, is readily available, and will go good with a steak. Shoot.

2

I like Arbor Mist

3

How about a nice Chianiti? It’s lovely with fava beans and liver.

4

Two buck Chuck!

5

Bola Bardolino is a nice red. My cousin, who seems to know his wines says, “anything French.” I follow that recommendation for whites and haven’t gotten a bad one yet.

6

I second Arbor Mist. The blackberry merlot is really really good and you can catch them on sale for 3/ $10 around here. Mmmm, time for another tipsy poetry reading…

7

Arbor Mist is not quite wine - it’s wine mixed with fruit juices, and a fair amount of sugar. It’s fairly sweet, more like light sweet fruit flavored cocktail than a wine.

If you’re looking for something more “wine-ish” for lack of a better word, on the sweet side there’s White Zinfandel. Sutter Home makes an inexpensive White Zinfandel. It’s not considered a highbrow wine, but it is, in fact, all wine (no fruit juice or sugar).

If you want a dryer red, try a Beaujolais. It’s not sweet at all, and is light, soft, and round. Look for Beaujolais by Georges DuBoeuf - there’s a whole series of them, ranging from about $7/bottle up into the $20s. It’s a good red for red-wine “beginners” - not overpowering, but still a damn good wine.

8

Mrs LeChuck and I are big fans of Electra , which comes in red and white. It’s a muscat wine, which is a very sweet, non-boozy wine that is typically for drinking with suffles, fresh fruit, or by itself after dinner. We like it with just about everything, though. It costs about $10 a bottle and we find it in larger chain liquor stores. (The one around these parts is called Binny’s. Not sure if they’re national… or which nation the OP hails from, for that matter)

9

Boone’s Farm Sangriya, straight outta the bottle.

10

A good “steak wine” would be a Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvignon or any other dry, red (too much sweet will overpower your steak and probably not be a good combination. Then again, I drink Riesling (sweet white) with everything, so…)

Ask your local liquor employee. Go to a store that specializes in wine. Look for wines that are about $10 a bottle, that’s usually a good starting place and you can find a wine grape that you like and if you really get into it, get into more expensive wines. Usually on the label (or a shelf tag from wine spectator or the like) will give you a description of the wine (dry is less sweet) and some of its overarching flavors (apricots, nutmeg, oak). Don’t be thrown off by these terms, they’re just a good way of describing what you’ll be tasting later.

DO NOT DRINK ARBOR MIST (or Boone’s or any other crap) if you want ‘real’ wine. These (while quite tasty in a fruit juice kind of way and fun to swill straight out of the bottle at parties) are more like wine coolers. If you wouldn’t drink a Bartles and James with your nice dinner, don’t drink any ‘flavored wines’. They’re mostly sugar anyway.

Try different kinds. You’re not going to buy a $40 or $50 dollar bottle of Merlot if you’ve never tried a Merlot before.

Blended wines (a Merlot / Cab) for instance, use different kinds of grapes mixed together to give a different flavor.

Also see if there are any local wines you can try. I never expected to find Kansas wine, but there is a winery just up the road from us and they have the most delicious sweet white vignoles I’ve ever tasted.

Some names to look for that I like:
Columbia Crest (Washington State), Hogue (Oregon or Washington State, I forget which) Rosemont Estates (maybe Rosemount, Australian wine) Yellow Tail (I don’t like their merlot, but their cab is quite nice, also Australian).

Remember that you can’t make a ‘wine mistake’ like wine snobs will tell you. If you think it tastes good, go with it.

11

Surprisingly, the Gallo varietal wines are very good, and cheap as can be. Stay away from their blends (like Hearty Burgundy), but try their Cabernet Sauvignon (which I buy by the case), Merlot, and Chardonnay. These are all nice dry wines, and, being from California, the vintage (i.e., the year they were bottled) makes very little difference.

When the local booze supermarket has a sale going on, you can get the 1.5 litre bottles of these wines for under $7.

12

Try a brand called “Chateau St. Jean”. These are decent California table wines that won’t break the bank, and are commonly available in any liquor store.

13

Well, if his bottle was etched with leaves, he might have had a Wild Vines wine. Their blackberry merlot is pretty tasty, but kind of dry. (Dry means that tang that makes your jaw muscles cramp a little. ) Those wines are like $4 a bottle, which definitely qualifies as cheap wine, and they’re available pretty much everywhere.

Personally, I don’t much care for wine, especially dry wine. If it tastes like alcohol, I don’t want to put it in my mouth. But even I really like some of the wines Dr.J picks up at his wine class. I don’t know how much they cost, or how readily available they are, but they’re damn tasty, especially with the right food. The other night we had a wonderful red with our pot roast–Casa de la Ermita Jumilla 2001.

He also brought me a bottle of Allan Scott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which I snorked right down. The wine hater polished off the bottle all by herself in about three days, that’s how tasty it was. I think he said it was around $10 a bottle, which isn’t expensive as wine goes. There was another white wine we had with pork chops and 3-bean salad last week, but I don’t remember what it was.

14

I have a coupla favorites, all in the cheap range. I have also brought all of them with me to parties, so they don’t scream “I’m cheap!”

For more bang for your buck, try Nathanson Creek. the bottles are bigger than your standard wine bottle. Their merlot is nice and smooth (none of that bitter “bite” you can sometimes get) and their chardonnay is yummy. Usually it’s about $15 a bottle, but around here it often goes on sale for 2/$15. Great for dinner parties as there’s more to pass around.

I also love Black Opal. It’s an Aussie wine that’s fabulous. At around $10/bottle it’s even better. Again, I like thier shiraz(I’m a big wine with your hunk of meat kinda girl) and my hubby and I both like their chardonnay (he prefers white with anything).

Other than that, shop around your liquor store. Try to find one with a big wine section and look aorund. Try a $10 bottle of wine and if you hate it , you’re only out $10.

15

I got lucky picking out a bottle of wine a couple of weeks ago – Yellow Tail’s merlot. I know nothing about wine. To be honest, I chose it because I generally like merlot, and I’ve heard good things about Austrailian wines, and (the stupidest reason ever), I like the label. It was quite good stuff.

It was $7.50 or so. Wine doesn’t have to be pricey to be good.

16

“Australian.” I can spell, really I can.

17

Yellow Tail’s Shiraz & Cab Sav are both really good, too. They’re both $6.99 at Bi Lo with the “Bonus card”. We have friends who actually do regularly drink really good wine who think the Yellow Tail wine is great.

18

The key problem is “easily found.” I know wines from BC and Washington like the back of my hand, but now that I’m in NYC I can’t find anything that I know, so I’mback to what I did when I first moved to BC six years ago-- scouringpapers and websites for a local wine writer who has decent taste.

Wine is like microbrewing-- lots of different grapes, lots of different growing areas, and what’s good from one year can be horrible the next. However it is possible to get great big rewards from a small amount of research.

Since you want something that will go with steak, you want a dining wine (which is different from a sipping win that you’d drink at a party) so it can be thinner (ie slightly watery). Try a merlot, or a cabernet sauvignon.
In a pinch, try seeing if there is a “wine bar” in your 'hood, and just go for a tasting session

19

Have you tried Booze?

20

I’ll second C3’s Yellow Tail suggestion. It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread. It’s about $8 a pop where I live. I also like Jacob’s Creek Shiraz. Georges DuBoeuf is good, too–I believe their labels all have flowers on them, if you can’t remember “Georges DuBoeuf” (which I never can at the grocery store).