How Cheap is Cheap?
CheapWineRatings.com, which ought to know, draws the line at $20. Brooklyn Wine Guy says $12, allowing some leeway for inflation and fluctuations in the value of world currencies. Wine marketers categorize any wine over $15 as “super premium,” which would indicated that “cheap” has to be somewhere below $15.
The Wine Curmudgeon started his reviewing of “cheap” wines in the early 1990s, drawing the line at $10, and has not moved the line since, largely because of the worldwide grape glut:
The proliferation of companies focusing on cheap wine, like Bronco, The Wine Group, Three Thieves, etc…have taken advantage of the oversupply of grapes and used modern marketing techniques (something else that didn’t exist in the wine business 20 years ago) to sell wine. Used to be, it was disparaging in the business to sell cheap wine…
Not so much anymore, he says. Still, his reviews have crept up into the $20 range for wines that offer exceptional value.
My 1971 edition of The Signet Book of Wine notes that decent bottles can be had for under a dollar, but acknowledges that there is a quality component involved in calculating cheapness:
You should never buy the cheapest wine in any category, as its taste may discourage you from going on. (The cheapest) wines will always be too expensive.
Easy advice, given that a decent cru bourgeois could then be had for $1.50 and a premier cru for $7. Adjusted for inflation, those same wines should be, respectively, $8 and $37, which would still be pretty cheap if they didn’t actually cost $25 and $500.
In an atempt to bring order to a chaotic universe, a scholarly paper called Segmenting the Wine Market Based on Price: Hedonic Regression when Different Prices mean Different Products uses a 12,000 entry dataset and the following formula to segment the wine market into four distinct categories based on market behavior rather than subjective judgment.
By that calculation, searchers for good, cheap wine (they use the word “inexpensive”) seem to draw a line at $13. Above that, consumers expect special attributes.
I, personally, draw my own distinction at $17, because for some reason I’m able to say “it’s seventeen bucks a bottle” dismissively, as if it weren’t actual money, but I can’t do it with $18. In my mind, $18 rounds up to $20, and $20 feels more substantial.
My question to the two or three people who regularly read this blog is this: where do you draw the line? To you, where is “cheap,” and why?
March 26th, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Cheap used to be $10 and under. Now it’s under $8. Drink a bottle of Harlow Ridge Cab $6.99 and your expectations for what you get out of $15 wine will go up. Crane Lake Malbec at $3.99 is surprising a lot of people. Altano $5.99. Borsao and Viña Borgia $7.99. And the big winner, Cycles Gladiator Syrah- great fruit, an unexpected leathery component and a naked lady on a bicycle on the label.
March 26th, 2010 at 12:27 PM
For me, the line is blurry, between $15-$17. Like you, Tom, once I get past the $18 mark I automatically think that it’s a $20 bottle. Luckily there is a good amount of quality wine out there for $15-$17 which makes it easy to find a well made any time. The best under $10 I have had I purchased about 5 years ago before we realized that the Great Recession was on the horizon – Luzon Jumilla made from 100% Monastrell. Still the best wine under $10 I have ever had. I haven’t had it recently, but it might be worth a shot since it still retails for around $8.
March 26th, 2010 at 2:47 PM
For my store, I consider under $12 “inexpensive”. Cheap sounds like something I just don’t want to drink. As a purchaser, I think that the most exciting price range is between $8 and $15. There is a ton of wine out there in this price range, and finding an outstanding wine under $15 can be extremely satisfying. At least more satisfying than finding an amazing wine that costs $80.
March 26th, 2010 at 3:36 PM
I read that paper, thank you very much! But then again I am an economist.
My buyer and I have an interesting way of doing tastings. When a distributor comes in with new wines he will sometimes call me over to taste with him. We taste, chat, taste and then something like this happens:
20? No, 15. Well I would go to 17 maybe. I say 14.
And then we settle on a number. Then we look at the distributor. He checks his sheath of papers and says a number. If his number is lower than our number, that wine may be ordered. If not, we move on.
Of course we are talking about how much we would pay for the bottle. Hundred point scale be damned!
March 26th, 2010 at 9:28 PM
Aaron -
That sounds like fun. I used to develop game shows and we talked a lot about play-along value. You have drink-along value.
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:24 PM
Fascinating question. Generally I think of under $10 as cheap, but I find myself setting the level of what is cheap based on the region. An under $10 wine from Chile is different than one from California or one from Germany, or Virgina, or Bordeaux.
Maybe it is more about the value. If it is a great bottle at $25 vs. a decent bottle at $10, do they offer the same value? Of course budgets are only concerned about the cost, so I guess cheap is universal in that sense.
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:37 PM
I like how you slipped Virginia in there like it is one of the choices a discerning consumer commonly considers when making a wine selection.
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:45 PM
@Wally
True. Could have been any of the other regions in the US where there isn’t as much wine produced. I find prices are higher there. My point was that in those areas a cheap wine might be quite a bit more than a cheap wine from somewhere like California or Australia.