The Best Cheap Wines Worth Drinking

Proof that inexpensive doesn't have to mean thin. The winery's page says the core of this wine comes from Zinfandel on 60-to-80-year-old head-trained vines, handpicked, and vine age of that sort usually costs a great deal more. Ask for the Old Vine Zinfandel by name rather than whichever Bogle bottle sits nearest, because this is the one that tastes like somebody made decisions.

Famille Perrin has been making this since 1970, according to the producer's page, and that consistency is the whole appeal: it tastes like itself every year, which is more than most weeknight reds manage. Southern French, dry, built for food rather than for the first sip. Get the Vieille Ferme Rouge, the red bottling, and keep a couple around.

Washington's answer to the question of what to drink with anything spicy. Its page calls this a medium-dry style sourced from Riesling vineyards throughout the state's Columbia Valley, so it's blended across sites rather than drawn from one, which is why it turns up so steady bottle after bottle. Buy the Riesling Columbia Valley; the touch of sweetness is the point, not a flaw.

Here's the origin story, straight from the winery's page: Charles was eating Chinese takeout, watching a fight scene in a martial arts film, and decided to make a white wine built to be paired with Asian food. The brief shows in the glass. Its own tasting note calls it a dry Riesling, so expect citrus and stone rather than sugar. Ask for Kung Fu Girl Riesling.

New Zealand Sauvignon at a gentler price than the category's famous names. The producer's page credits Marlborough's warm days and cool nights with an extended growing season, letting the grapes build intense varietal character while keeping crisp natural acidity, which is the technical version of tasting like a grapefruit in a good mood. The Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is the core bottling.

Cold-fermented in stainless steel with what the page calls reductive winemaking, the technical route to a white that tastes like it was picked yesterday. No oak, no softening, just grapefruit and a hard edge of acid. Yes, this is the second wine here from the same Clarksburg family, and it earns the place on its own terms. Look for the Bogle Sauvignon Blanc.

The argument for a box is simple: you can pour a glass on Tuesday without committing to the rest of it. Its page names the blend outright, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio rather than one grape doing all the work, and gives the operation's home as Manteca, CA. Two grapes is why it drinks easier than either would alone. Ask for Brightside by name.

Sparkling wine that doesn't ask you to save it for an occasion. The label's page names it Prosecco D.O.C. and Italian Sparkling Wine, and the appellation is the part that matters: it ties the wine to a defined Italian production zone instead of to a marketing word. Get the Flagship Prosecco, pour it over ice or into orange juice, and feel nothing about it.

Ignore the name if the branding puts you off, because the wine is more serious than its label. The page says the signature Chardonnay is crafted from grapes grown in the California coastal vineyards of Monterey County, and Monterey is genuinely good Chardonnay country: cool, fog-bound, slow to ripen. Buy the standard Cupcake Chardonnay and serve it colder than you think.

Lodi is the detail worth knowing. The producer's page says the grapes are sourced from select vineyards in California's Lodi region, which is warm-country Cabernet and explains the plush, faintly sweet edge on it. Whether that's a virtue is a matter of taste, and plenty of people are firmly on its side. Grab the Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon.

Three grapes, named right there on the producer's page: Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, blended into something soft and fruit-forward that goes down easily at a party where nobody is paying attention to the wine. That's a compliment and a limit in the same breath. Ask for the plain Red Blend and serve it a touch cool.

Divisive, and it has earned that. The back-label text on its own page files the wine as California Table Wine from Modesto, CA, a broad appellation class, which is a polite way of saying the grapes come from wherever the blend needs them. Sweet, dark, smooth. If you like it you like it. Ask for Apothic Red, the Original Blend.