There are cheap wines, and there are value wines. Cheap wines may only set you back a few bucks, but their quality is, well, questionable. Value wines, on the other hand, can have a wide range of prices, from genuinely inexpensive to kinda pricey, but they overdeliver at whatever price they are. Cara Patricia is a sommelier and co-owner of San Francisco's DecantSF and shared some value wine-buying tips over email recently. "If [the price] seems too good to be true, it is," she said. "Wine can be cheap, but it has a cost."
Figuring out those wines that represent excellent value can be challenging, even for educated wine consumers, which is why people like Patricia have jobs they love. (Pro tip: Corks over screw caps don't necessarily mean a better wine.) Wine is a huge category to which people such as sommeliers and other wine professionals dedicate their lives.
As casual vino consumers, we're not expected to know everything or even anything, and yet sometimes we still feel intimidated asking for help. Somewhere in the last couple of decades, it feels like the prevailing attitude became that wine knowledge was a requirement for urbane adults. But what's an urbane adult to do when sometimes it feels like the only word we have to describe our wine preference is "dry," and the only financial strategy we have when buying wine is to choose the second least expensive selection? (Hint: This does not often represent the most bang for your buck.)
Patricia's wine motto is "drink for yourself," and DecantSF is known for its relaxed approach to connecting people with wines they'll love, without even a soupçon of pretension. As a woman- and queer-owned business, the top order of business at DecantSF is inclusivity, including on matters of budget. Using Patricia's wine expertise and consumer-friendly attitude, here are seven strategies on how to shop for the best value wines.
Shop local
"You're not going to get a wine expert at a big box store," Patricia said. "Shop at boutique stores where the experts are," and you'll have access to a wealth of knowledge honed over many years of studying, evaluating, and most importantly, drinking wine. Wine pros are often on a budget, too. "Go to a shop and ask for staff picks in your budget," Patricia advised.
"At DecantSF, we blind taste everything before we bring it into the shop, and the hardest section to blind taste for is our least expensive wines," Patricia said. "We really want these wines to over-deliver on value and deliciousness, so we're super picky with what we bring in. We stock our own homes with those wines, so they have to be good!"
Know your price point
You have every right to your budget and should never feel self-conscious about what you're looking to spend. Wine pros deal every day with people whose budgets are in the tens of dollars, as well as people whose budgets are in the tens of thousands of dollars. Either way, they are prepared to play matchmaker and take a great deal of professional pride in connecting people to the right bottles along any budget considerations.
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