Find a wine store you can trust (good sources for locating them include word-of-mouth and mentions in wine magazines) and chat up a clerk in a friendly way. Tell the clerk what your budget is and what you have liked in the past.
What About Restaurants?
Do not seek value by ordering wines by the glass. Typically restaurants serve inexpensive wines, and the price of a single glass pays for the bottle. You may not always know how much a glass of wine is (very often, the server tells you they have a Chardonnay, a Cabernet, a Merlot - and if you want to know the price, you have to ask). In Manhattan you can be charged $25 a glass in high-end restaurants, though $15 is more typical.
Consider the wine list instead of ordering by glass. You’ve heard the old chestnut about ordering the second least expensive wine. Unfortunately, in the wine world, the highest markups are usually at the bottom. That said, I’ve found terrific values in very high-end restaurants (think a $55 wine from the Gigondas AOC in France, versus a $3,890 Burgundy on the very same list).
These tips work whether you are a millennial, a boomer, or beyond. If there is a silver lining to what America is experiencing, it is that millions of wine lovers like you are now searching for value-oriented, well-structured wines with personality and passionate winemakers. The secret is knowing just who these producers are and knowing where, exactly, the value can be found.
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Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Good points, Marisa. It's what we do on a regular basis; try out the "cheaper" wines during the weekday, when dinner is rather quick and ho-hum, and then splurge with something nicer on the weekend when dinner tends to be more complex.
2 - marisa d'vari
Thanks!