On average, what do you pay for a bottle of wine?

Question

Not something for a special occasion or a holiday, but for regular, everyday drinking.

Follow up: Do you pay that price, whatever it is, because you feel
a) A lower price does not provide the quality you want
b) A higher price provides no additional quality beyond what you want
c) You are looking for the most value you can get
d) You are looking for the "ultimate" wine experience and are willing to pay for it (you define ultimate for yourself)

Answer 1

My answer would be (c). Expensive does not necessarily mean good. My favorite wine is Wild Horse Merlot. Trader Joe's has a great price on this wine, where elsewhere it would sell for a much higher price. It all depends on the profit the seller wants to make. Being a former employee and having the pleasure of being the order writer for the wine section, I have seen exceptional wines come in at an exceptional price and fly off the shelves at an exceptional speed. Within hours even, if it hasn't been scooped up by the employees first. However cheap does not mean bad either. There are great Chilean table wines for $4.99 that I buy on a regular basis. Charles Shaw is not on my list simply because I'm tired of thinking about them. To answer your question: the average price that I pay for a bottle of everyday wine is $10. Another of my favorites is Black Mountain Fat Cat Cabernet/ Black Mountain Merlot. Great wine at an awesome price!

Answer 2

On average I pay $62 per bottle. I own 935 bottles of wine in my cellar. That is the average, though. Some of the wine I own is being aged to sell at auction, and a profit, some years from now.

We enjoy wine in many different contexts. We consume a couple of bottles of wine during the week at about $35 per bottle. On the weekends, we will generally open a bottle in the $80 range for a nice dinner. On rare, festive occasions, we may open something $200 or higher. We plan and structure the content of the cellar around these buy/sell and consumption patterns. We use a website www.cellartracker.com, which is a free site, to manage our cellar.

We are always seeking a value. We find small wineries that get started by the head wine maker at a major producer going out on their own to be the best value - usually top-notch wines at fair prices.

Some brands are overpriced, which we tend to approach looking for the right vintage year and price. For example, Silver Oak was very popular, had some years that they produced some so-so wines, and now the prices are coming into line. We paid $60 per bottle for the 2002 Alexander Valley Cab, which is very good, and priced fairly.

We're not looking for the ultimate wine experience. We don't believe it exists. Each bottle is different. Price is not always reflective of the experience opening the bottle will deliver.

Answer 3

For everyday drinking we typically spend $10-$35 a bottle. For meals with a little more prep, it's $35 up to $75. For special meals, dinner parties, etc., it can be up over $300, easily, and we generally pop these around 6 times a year.

For the everyday wines, it's typically a select group of wines that tastes far beyond it's price point. I won't pay $10 for a crappy bottle of wine, period. But I *will* pay $10 for a drinkable bottle. If there weren't any good $10 bottles of wine, then I would have no problem spending more than that. But I will never say "I don't really like it, but for $10, I'll go ahead and buy it." It has to be "Wow, that's only *ten* dollars???"

Answer 4

$10

Answer 5

i usually pay between 10 euros and 15 euros for wine just to relax with herself, but my favourite at the mo is Faustino number 1, or any Rioja which is a region in Spain will suit me fine. I stayed at a friends house adn his Dad bought out some Wine from his cellar which was from his hometown in France adn itr was pure divine but i drank so much of it that i can't even remember what the label looked like don't mind ehat it was called. I loooovvvveee Red wine and i wannna try all the french and Spanish wine there is cause it's wonderful. I wanna go on a wine tasting trip one year and i certainly will do ....

Answer 6

Yellow Tail is an austrailian wine and it cost $5-6 a bottle, and it really great for the price. It's better than some more expensive wines.

Answer 7

b) Generally, for daily consumption, I look to pay somewhere under $5 for a 750ml bottle of wine, or under $8 for a 1.5liter. Heck, I like the 3 or 4 liter bottle of Chianti you can get for $10. That's good enough for me.

It's one of the reasons I like the "Two Buck Chuck" Charles Shaw wines you can get for $3 or less.

Call me a cheapass, but I am realistic about my ability (or lack thereof) to discern and appreciate wine quality differences.

Answer 8

actually i pay about $30 for a bottle because that's where my taste in wine is. cheap wine to me just doesn't always go right with me. sometimes i'll get a bottle for $12 because it's a good blackberry wine. i guess i'd lean more towards d) since i'm willing to pay for the wine i'm looking for.

Answer 9

For everyday, it averages about $12/bottle. Some are $8, some are $16. So a good avg. is $12 for me.

Answer 10

My favorite is only $9.50 a bottle and the Winery is only about 30 minutes from my house. I get it by the case and save $$$$$. I stick with what I like. My other favorite is a bit more expensive--I save that for special occasions.