Did you know there are over 600,000 different wines for sale around the world? Even if you were to try three wines every day it would take over five hundred years to try them all. The number one question I get from wine drinkers is how to find a good bottle of wine at a fair price?
Wine brands that consumers recognize can be good wines at a reasonable price, but remember it takes marketing and advertising dollars to build a brand and that cost is reflected in the final price. Value wines are the ones to search out, but what exactly is a value wine? A value wine is a wine that displays good flavour and balance at a lower price than a comparable bottle. I’ll give you an example; Bottle A and Bottle B have similar characteristics, good flavour and balance. Bottle A is $12, bottle B is $20; obviously Bottle A is a better value.
How do we compare different wines? The first thing is to take your time and focus on the aromas and flavours of the wine. Wines that mimic fruits, berries or flowers are desirable. The smell, taste and look of the wine must be clean and attractive. The different components must be in harmony or balance with each other such as alcohol and sweetness, acidity in whites or tannins in red. Once you have observed these qualities, you are ready to judge whether this wine is good. Your taste is the most important factor, if you don’t like the taste of Cabernet Sauvignon no matter how good it is you won’t enjoy it.
The first thing to do is to experiment with different wines to find the ones you enjoy the most. You can then seek out value wines from around the world. Luckily, there are a few large wine regions around the world that specialize in different wines at the best price.
Chile is renowned for value wines. They have developed modern wine making technology and skills on a vast level. They have almost 400,000 acres of vineyards, compared to the total for BC at only 5,000 acres. Wine varietals to look for include; Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere. Pinot Noir production also looks promising in the coming years.
Spain has the most vineyards per acreage in the world at 2.9 million acres. The past years have seen a modernization and investment in equipment and viticulture practises. Red wines are their strong points as most of the country has the heat, soils and sunlight hours required for red wine production. Red wines that are recommended include: Temparillo, Monastrell, Syrah, and Grenache (also named Granacha in Spain). Also look for a smooth and flavourful grape named Bobal which is sometimes used in blended wines. Search for a DO label (Denominacion de Origen) to ensure a quality Spanish wine.
Italy is known by everyone as a food and wine loving country, and at over 2 million acres has the largest variety of grape vines grown in the world. Unfortunately this leads to a bit of a problem when seeking out value wines as the typical wine names we recognize are absent in Italy. Therefore, search for wines that have IGT status on the label as they are usually an indication of good value wines. In the south of Italy look for Negroamaro or Nero D’Avola wines which have proven to be a good choice and are priced at about $12-$14 a bottle.
These are a few regions that contain value wines, but by all means is not a complete list. Take some time to go on your own wine adventure around the world and discover the wines that you enjoy, I promise you the trip will be worth it!
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