Reply to Wine nerds: Can't taste difference between $10 and $25

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[quote=Anonymous]Wine is like music, or art, or food.  There's a whole wide world of it out there, and there are different regions and genres, some more expensive, some less.  (There's great-to-awful Salvadoran food, great-to-awful steakhouses, grocery-store-to-flown-from-Tokyo sushi, etc.)  Some styles appeal to some but not others, some are mass-produced and some are custom, etc.  Price does not directly correlate with quality (much), nor with what you like.  The market has consumers of varying tastes and budgets, and producers of varying tastes and budgets.

If you immerse yourself in it, or study it, or just drink a lot of it, you may find yourself appreciating fine nuances, or chasing far-off, hard-to-find specimens, or willing to splurge for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  If you don't do these things, then it's a waste of money to blindly spend chasing quality, when price is determined by a lot of things other than quality, and quality is subjective anyway.

If you like what you're drinking, and what you're drinking costs $10, carry on.  It's a waste to pay more.  Stick with what you know at the price you like.  If you want to branch out, then you need a guide, who can (a) suggest where you'll find value at the price you want to spend, and (b) suggest stuff that will appeal to your own individual taste, and the context you'll be drinking in (with meal? without?  every day?  special occasion?  gift?  what season?  what food?  etc.)  Hence the many recommendations for knowledgeable vendors at reputable shops.

To detour into my subjective recommendations for accessibility and value: my preferred reds these days are from Spain, Chile, and Argentina.  I think there's value and versatility there.  I think California Chardonnay and Cabernet, because of their popularity and familiarity, are crowded with plonk at the low end and overpriced at the high end, and in the $20-$25 range it's easy to pay more than you'd like without tasting results in the glass.  The same is true of almost all pinot noir, though there are a few accessible values in Oregon (and I like Mark West).  If I'm drinking California red, it's most likely to be zinfandel or a rhone-style blend (or sometimes, wine from the actual Rhone Valley).  On the white side, my favorites right now, again for versatility and value, are chenin blanc, viognier, and sauvignon blanc.  Others' mileage may vary, of course.

And I'm willing to pay more for Virginia wine, because I like supporting the growing local wine industry and keeping my money local.  [/quote]

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