good values for under $4?

[quijote]

Under $4! That could be a challenge, but who knows--you might get some good recs. For about $6 you can get a good bottle of Vina Alarba, a Spanish wine that Dananne and others have posted on. In fact, Spanish wines often make really good budget wines, and many reds last for a few days if recorked well and placed in the fridge.

There are some very inexpensive California wines, such as the Bogle series (merlot, cab, petite syrah, etc.) The prices may tend more toward the $8-$10 range, though.

Covey Run makes some pleasant quaffers in the $6-$8 range. I recently had their Gewurztraminer--very nice.

In my local wine shop I've seen very inexpensive ($5-$7) bottles of Algerian wine, but I cannot vouch for quality--I'd rather stick with the Spanish reds.

Something to consider doing is buying a whole mixed case (12 bottles) of under-$10 wines: a couple of Bogles, a few Spanish reds, and an assortment of other goodies. The total price at first will likely come to the $90-$120 range plus tax, but if you shop at a good store (like Premier) you'll get a case discount of something like 10%. If you buy bottles one by one, you don't get the discount, but by buying by the case, you save some money over the long run, and you have a nice, diverse assortment of wines to get you through a few weeks.



[This message has been edited by quijote (edited 02-28-2004).]