Lean vs Big

[Innkeeper]

It has a lot to do with hang time. The longer the grapes stay on the vine, the riper they get. The riper they get, the sweeter they get as with any fruit. These extra or overripe grapes produce wine with two characteristics one is that you will have jammy fruit, and the second is that you will have high alcohol, because more sugar has to be fermented into alcohol. If such wines have enough additional stucture to compensate for the first two, such as sufficient acid, other varietal characteristics, appropriate tannin, and others; then the wine can be fine, even a good ager.

Leaner simply means less ripeness, therefore less jamminess and alcohol. Such wines are easier to keep in structural balance.

The rub is really about whether wine with gobs of fruit and high alcohol is better or worser than leaner wine with balanced structure. A lot depends on what grape or grapes you are talking about. Some grapes or blends do better one way or the other.

Most of the wines you mention are more in the lean than the big category. There are not a lot of the latter under $20.