*hiccup*

And, if you feel intimidated by wine -- here's an article from Fortune Magazine about why wine shouldn't be hard work: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/200...

For many people, I believe that they just do not know what they could/should be looking for... I don't believe it should be about a $10 bottle of wine -- but understanding what the experience potentially could be!

Its truly amazing what is out there for under $10. Here in madison, WI theres a place called "barriques wine cave". Aside from a top-notch selection of fine wines and scotch, their trademark has always been the locally famous "wall of 100"

a hundred wines, all under $10/bottle. not that the masses have a reputation for knowing their cheap wine... but my favorite is to ask for the monthly top-sales chart for the wall (which they are always happy to give)

hasnt done me wrong yet!

.....I'll bet they won't be under $10 in my state, which has some of the highest booze taxes in the nation. What I wonder is, how many bottles of vinegary-Thunderbird-quality wines does one have to choke down to find these?

Schloss Biebrich Sekt. $4 or so from Trader Joe's, and it tastes like a good off-dry champagne. In terms of QPR, the best stuff out there.

Another good wine blog is Good Wine Under $20.

Charles Shaw @ Trader Joes is one of my favorite cheap reds. It's nickname is Two Buck Chuck, so guess the price.

I dunno. All the wines they mentioned are a little highfalutin for my discriminating palette.

By far, the best place to go for wine-ing advice is http://www.bumwine.com/.

Two Buck Chuck!

Find a few you like and drink those. Or find a couple varieties you like, find out what countries do them well, and work through your wine section until you find a few wineries you like that make that kind. I know I'm always going to like a shiraz, so if I spend $7 and it's not spectacular, it's still okay. And when I DO find the $7 Aussie shiraz that knocks off my socks, awesome. Just because everyone ELSE is pretentiously pretending to like 30-year-old French something-or-other doesn't mean you can't enjoy your Lindeman's Bin 65.

@Eyebrows McGee: Funny, I was just going to post that my favorite cheapo is the yellow tail shiraz, at about 6 bucks at Trader's.

I can't deal with the chuxck, though. Yecch.

@UnStatusTheQuo: The Two Buck Chuck is $3 in Chicago, thanks to our sin taxes. There's a wine store near me with a $12 table, which is reliably good. Oh, and the Naia mentioned in the article is indeed a great wine, but it's become so popular I'm totally sick of it. Seems like every restaurant I go to has it on the menu, then I order it because I'm lazy, and now it's 6 months later and I don't want it anymore. The very fine big brother of the Naia is called Naiades, but it's hard to find. My favorite $11 bottle is Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc. Available just about anywhere, I've been buying it in large quantities for about 4 years now without ever getting sick of it (though 2005 wasn't the best year, for some reason).

@kerry

2 buck chuck is $3 in Chicago because of shipping - lots of places outside of CA have 3 buck Chuck. The taxes are added AFTER the 3 bucks.

Does anybody know what happened to Lindemann's Pinot Noir Bin 99? It just disappeared. That was pretty good for $6.

Er, the taxes levvied on liquor and cigarettes, other than sales tax, are usually added by the seller. That's why on january 1st the liquor prices sometimes jump uniformly. Interesting to know the chuck is probably cheap enough for the sin tax not to make a difference.

I saw an article about chainstores selling a few select brands for real cheap, but then putting small, quaint (and highly knowledgable) wineshops out of business.