Out Of Favor Varietals (grape types)

Out-of-favor varieties are often cheaper. Most casual wine buyers head for Champagne, Sauvignon Blanc, or Chardonnay for their whites, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and maybe Merlot for reds.

There’s a whole world of varietals that are just as good. Here are a few examples of varietals that are less popular but produce stunning wines.

Gamay (Red)

Gamay is a light-bodied red wine that's loved due to its expressive fruitiness and delicate floral aromas. Most famously grown in Beaujolais, France, Gamay is a perfect red for those who want something different from the heavy tannins in many popular red varietals. It's often likened to a "summer red," offering bright, tart berry flavors.

Zinfandel (Red)

Zinfandel has fallen out of favor in the US. Yet it's a versatile red grape that can produce very powerful wines. Zinfandel wines often possess bold fruit flavors of blackberry or raspberry with a hint of peppery spice.

Vermentino (White)

This Mediterranean white grape varietal, primarily grown in Italy, is gaining traction in the United States. Vermentino produces aromatic wines with a zesty citrus character and floral notes. Its high acidity and refreshing profile make it an excellent alternative to popular white varietals like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.

Albariño (White)

Originally from Spain, Albariño is a white grape variety that produces bright, acidic wines with distinctive peach and apricot flavors. It's also known for its subtle saline minerality, making it a perfect pairing for seafood dishes. While Albariño is not as popular as Chardonnay or Riesling in America yet, its unique flavor profile makes it worth seeking out.

This is a very small sampling of less well-known varietals. If you want an expert to curate exciting varietals, consider a wine club like Plonk.

Less Glamourous Regions

And even if you insist on quaffing Pinot Noir with your braised duck, you can always check the appellation and go for a region that’s off the beaten track, so to speak. Napa is not the only valley in California that grows grapes, you know. Who’s to say? Maybe you haven’t yet tried your favorite grape.

France: Loire Valley

While Bordeaux and Burgundy often steal the limelight, the Loire Valley is a French wine region that deserves more recognition. Known for its diverse selection of wines, from crisp whites to fruity reds, the Loire Valley offers something for every wine lover.

Italy: Abruzzo

While Tuscany and Piedmont are well-known Italian wine regions, Abruzzo remains under the radar for many American consumers. Known for its Montepulciano d'Abruzzo red wines, this region offers excellent value for the quality it delivers.

US: Lodi, California

While regions like Napa and Sonoma may be the most renowned in California, Lodi has quietly made a name for itself. Known for its Zinfandel, Lodi also produces many other varietals and offers great value.

Eastern Europe: Moldova

Moldova, one of the oldest winemaking regions in the world, is not as well-known in the US. The country produces various wines, including sparkling and dessert wines, and is known for its unique underground wine cellars.

South America: Uruguay

While Argentina and Chile are famous for their wines, neighboring Uruguay is less well-known among US consumers. The country's signature grape, Tannat, produces robust, full-bodied red wines gaining international acclaim.

These are just a few examples of regions that make high-quality wines that don't command the high prices found in more famous areas.

Wineries That Need To Clear Space

There are ways to nab a great quaff at bargain-basement prices, the chief one being in the right place at the right time. Namely, occasionally, you’ll hear of a big-name brand (think Fred Franzia’s Bronco Wine) acquiring an independent winery. When this happens, small wineries must clear out old inventory to accommodate the change of practices (new orders, amped-up production, things like that).

You can also try to time your purchases to coincide with new vintages being bottled. When smaller wineries empty the barrels, they need a place to store the newly filled bottles. You don't want to be working on top of stacks of wine cases.

These wineries will try to move large quantities of wine. This means you can find great-value wine at low prices! Smaller vintners can make more nuanced, flavor-rich wines than bulk producers, so when their bottles are on clearance, you should stock up.

Négociant Wineries

Yet another way to find value wine is to go for négociant wines. To get everyone up to speed, this French term refers to merchants who source their grapes or even finished wines from small growers, then bottle them in their own facilities and sell them wholesale on the market. For this reason, you might find a reasonably priced wine from a négociant winery that would normally cost much more sold with a prestige winery label.

The trick is to check where the grapes are sourced, not processed.

We recommend the 90+ Wine Club if you are interested in Négociant wines. They source juice from vineyards that have produced 90+ rated wines for other wineries. They bottle it under their name and save you a bundle.

Bulk Wine

When speaking of cheap wine, one of the first things that comes to mind is bulk wine. For those unaware, bulk wine is pretty much what it sounds like – mass-produced.

• In places like California's Central Valley, there are a lot of vines. The growing conditions are hot, and the soil is very fertile. That means there are a lot of big, often plump, grapes. These big grapes produce lots of juice. This isn't the highly concentrated, quality juice produced by small vineyards. This is watery juice with lots of sugar.
• The vineyards and wineries here work together to create some very cheap California wine. This is created in large factory-style wineries designed to churn out truckloads of cheap wine. These trucks are sent out to other wineries.
• Upon arrival, the vino is repackaged under the name of the receiving winery or blended with some existing wine. This allows for very cheap California wine that appeals to the masses. Bulk wine typically gets to more consumers faster and at lower prices. The origin of the wine is often difficult to determine from the label.

Industrial-scale or bulk wine production often results in wines that lack taste and aroma complexity. This is largely due to the rigorous production process that meticulously removes elements such as yeasts, sediments, and bacteria, which are integral to the character and depth of a wine's flavor profile.

Example of Truly Cheap Wine

Two Buck Chuck

One particular example that comes to mind when thinking about assembly-line wine is the Bronco Wine Company’s flagship booze – Charles Shaw, aka Two Buck Chuck. If you’re even half-interested in wine, you might recognize the name, but for those who don’t, this is a cheap wine made chiefly from California grapes.

It used to be sold at the incredible price of, you guessed it, two dollars (the actual price today may vary from state to state, but it’s still dirt cheap). Theories abound as to how exactly Charles Shaw wine lives up to the Two-Buck part of its name – they’re harvesting grapes mechanically, they’re growing the grapes outside of Napa, they nabbed a boatload of airline wines at next to nothing after 9/11… the list goes on.

Just like Coca-Cola’s recipe, we may never know the truth about it, but Trader Joe’s keeps stocking the Chuck, and it keeps finding its way into the shopping carts.

Wrap Up

All in all, the difference between cheap wine and value wine is fine regarding the price point. You can probably get away with paying as little as $20 for a decent drop, but if you go $10 or southwards, there’s no way your palate will thank you.

A value wine is like buying a luxury loft in an up-and-coming neighborhood. The loft has all the modern amenities, design, and comfort you'd find in a well-established, trendy neighborhood, but because the area is still developing, the price is significantly lower. This is much like finding value wines - you're getting top-notch quality without the premium price associated with such excellence.

You’ll still get hammered, though, but that’s not the point of wine, now is it? As haughty as it sounds, wine is meant to be more than a drink (and less than a meal), tasted and savored. As R. L. Stevenson put it: “Wine is bottled poetry.” Admittedly, it’s an acquired taste, but once you dive into it, you’ll be tasting symphonies.