What is your favorite wine under $5

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

With these tough times just curious if you've ventured into the land of cheap wine? I have and am surprised to find a few that I like.

Inspired by a thread on Flyertalk, just curious what are your favorite wines that you'll admit to purchasing for less than $5.

Okay, I'll go first. Please keep in mind that I'm not an educated wine consumer like Frank & Vitner, but just like wine with my dinners.

I'm surprised how much emphasis we put on wine here in the states and yet when you travel in Europe, you end up drinking the house wine and it's an insult not to order it and it's usually cheaper than the fizzy water.

I've had great cheap wine throughout France, Spain and Italy.

Now closer to home what are your favorites?

Recently I've bought:
Walgreens Southern Point Cabernet & Zinfandel for only $3.33 each.
Rite-Aids, Shiraz which I found quite nice for $3.99.
I bought the 2 Buck chuck last year but didn't get to Trader Joe's this year.
In my hometown we have lots of Cuban pharmacies that import wine from Argentina, Spain and Chile and sell them for $2.99 to $4.99 a bottle and they're pretty darn good.

So what about you?

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

If it is $5 or under 2 Buck Chuck is the only one I can think of but for a few dollar's more I used to drink Corvo Red years ago but IMO it is not as good as it was. I know Lawren likes Blackstone which is not much more than Corvo. My favorite in the $10 to $12 range is a wine called Boogle. In the same range there are a few Montelichno or Montepulchiano DE abruzo

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

If it is $5 or under 2 Buck Chuck is the only one I can think of but for a few dollar's more I used to drink Corvo Red years ago but IMO it is not as good as it was. I know Lawren likes Blackstone which is not much more than Corvo. My favorite in the $10 to $12 range is a wine called Boogle. In the same range there are a few Montelichno or Montepulchiano DE abruzo

I still do Frank. Blackstone is a decent wine for < $10/bottle. I was going to say Gato Negro but I don't think I've seen that for less than $7.50/bottle in recent memory either.

Barefoot isn't bad and that's around $6 or $8.

I guess $2 ( or even $3) buck chuck is the clear winner but I can't get it here.

[LisaH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close LisaH]

We buy Ménage à Trois Red at Costco for about $8-9 a bottle which is quite drinkable.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

Two-buck Chuck is okay. (But, here in Michigan, it's Three-buck Chuck.) I will buy it once in a while. But, Trader Joe's also often carries a few bottles of something or other right at the $4.99 price point. Some of them are awful. But most of them are very serviceable table wines.

I tend to spend more time around the $8-$12 price point, where you can get some pretty drinkable stuff. Frank's Bogle is in that set.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Not under $5, but when the Siprañillo shows up at WTSO.com (for $7/bottle with free shipping), that's an easy "buy" decision for me. If you like Spanish style red wines (which I do, thanks to Frank getting me pointed that way ) I don't think you can beat the QPR (quality to price ratio) on this one.

It's not huge and complex tempranillo, but it's quite drinkable. Jammy and dry with a decent bit of structure behind it. I've found that the quality can vary quite a bit from bottle to bottle though. A couple of the bottles I've opened have been quite good from the start. Others, not quite as impressive.

And, like most Spanish reds that I've tried, they all benefit from some breathing time. In fact the bottles that I've been disappointed in initially have all been quite enjoyable after letting them sit overnight with added aeration time.

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Looking at some of our Washington wineries, almost any sub-$8 wine that you can find from Columbia Crest, Columbia, Snoqualmie, or Hogue Cellars will be decent unless it's a red wine more than five years old.

In fact, as a general rule I've learned to be very suspicious of any sub-$8 wine that is more than five years old. That isn't a high enough price to cover the wineries cost of holding the wine that long. So if it's on the market at that low a price that means they're just dumping it on the market because it hasn't sold. And through experience I've learned there's usually a good reason they find themselves stuck with stuff that hasn't sold.

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Also, pay attention to wine.woot.com, and if you're looking for cheap inexpensive wine at a great QPR jump on anything they offer that is less than $10 bottle. Winedavid, who runs that operation, knows what he's doing, and he doesn't source anything that isn't at least decent quality And the prices on what they offer are always better than what you can get anywhere else.

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

My low cost wine is Columbia Crest 2 vine. I find this on sale for about $5.50. Their cab or cab/merlot isn't too bad. Kind of odd that you can get a whole case of that for what several of us have spent on a single bottle.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

Wow - I can't even imagine buying wine for $5.00 a bottle. Here in PA the wine and liquor industry is heavily regulated by the state, so there's no competition. Thus, the prices are quite high. Even the cheap wines around here are in the $7 to $10 range. When we went to Florida last year, I brought home several cases of cheap wine. Sadly, they only lasted a few months

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

In fact, as a general rule I've learned to be very suspicious of any sub-$8 wine that is more than five years old. That isn't a high enough price to cover the wineries cost of holding the wine that long. So if it's on the market at that low a price that means they're just dumping it on the market because it hasn't sold. And through experience I've learned there's usually a good reason they find themselves stuck with stuff that hasn't sold.

My low cost wine is Columbia Crest 2 vine. I find this on sale for about $5.50. Their cab or cab/merlot isn't too bad. Kind of odd that you can get a whole case of that for what several of us have spent on a single bottle.

I generally agree about the CC Two Vines - but my comment above on sub-$8 wines more than five years old comes is partly based on some pretty insipid 2005 Columbia Crest reds. The other part of that statement is based on similar experiences with some of Trader Joe's offerings at that price level.
from made me offer that comments

[vinolover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vinolover]

Here in north Texas we can get some pretty decent wines for under $5 if you shop at the grocery stores when there are frequent sales, use your loyalty card and buy at least 6 bottles for the 10% discount. Mostly the Australian wines like Jacob's Creek, Lindemans, Hardy's which I think are pretty good. Also some decent Californian wines and some Italian. There is also a Texas cab that we like, St. Genevieve, that we call our "house wine".

Sadly no Trader Joes in Texas yet.

[CarolF Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CarolF]

I haven't seen wine for under $5 in the stores here, however I found an online store that shipped some 'cancelled export' wine to my door for $8 a bottle. I figured if it was of suitable quality to export to the UK it must be OK. What a shock, it is so bad I'm embarrassed that we send it OS.