Let's talk about affordable red wine

badbnagdway

Our venue allows us to bring in whatever booze we want as long as we have bartenders. The thing I'm hung up on is figuring out what in the heck red wine to buy. FI and I both cannot drink red wine so we do not have a go-to budget wine the way we do with white wine. I also know that cheap red wine can be really really terrible, whereas you can easily buy a very drinkable bottle of white wine for $6. 

I have asked around and have some feelers out among friends and acquaintances who drink wine to see if they have any ideas. Another friend of mine bought several boxes of red wine to try because she is also getting married later in the year. Frankly no one seemed very into any of them, and one of them was downright gross. Ideally, I would like to find a wine for $10 a bottle or less. I'm not above boxes but since I don't know that all of our wines will be boxed (white wines probably won't be) I think it would be weird to do some boxed, some bottles. 

Thoughts? What did you buy? 

PrettyGirlLost

Supposedly TRader Joes has a very good, "cheap" wine selection.

Knottie39998946

I worked in the wine business for 10 years- Spanish reds are typically great value for the price, and tend to be crowd pleasers because they are usually lighter in body (most are aged in stainless steel rather than oak, so they aren't as dry).  They are pair well with a variety of foods!

Cookie Pusher

The wine we had for our wedding was Yellow Tail, and very reasonably priced. It happened to be the favored brand of many of our guests too, so it was an added bonus.

cgss11

My go to red wine is Apothic Red. It's a blend, and usually around $8/bottle. Everyone who I know has liked it.

jacques27

cgss11 said:

My go to red wine is Apothic Red. It's a blend, and usually around $8/bottle. Everyone who I know has liked it.

This is my go-to as well for hostess gifts and I've always gotten good feedback on it.

Otherwise, beyond the Apothic Red, I don't know that my tastes are all that mainstream as I gravitate towards malbec and carmenere wines.  My experience from event bartending is that merlot tends to beat out cabernet sauvignon about 2:1.  My sure-fire plan for this situation though, is to go to a reputable liquor/wine store (an independent shop usually - somewhere where the owners are pretty visible rather than 21 year old college kids just working part-time), give them my menu and my budget and let them take the reins.  I've never been steered wrong when I do this.

Kahlyla

My votes go to Barefoot or Las Moras (actually, Las Moras wins for sure but many of the Barefoot wines are quite nice as well). They're around $9-$11 a bottle here, and likely far cheaper in the US. I keep meaning to try the Apothic Red but haven't yet.

badbnagdway

Thanks for the feedback so far. I will look into these. The hardest thing about reds is that everyone has very strong opinions. For example, I asked my friend, who loves red wine, and she said Apothic Red is her very least favorite. 

What types of red (ie, pinot noir, vs merlot, etc.) is good for a crowd? Or, what two wines maybe. 

cupcait927

Apothic Red is good and I have to echo the PP suggestion of Spanish reds. H and I have tried a bunch of Spanish reds at different wine tasting events and we're never disappointed.

 

For boxed wine - H and I actually drink quite a bit of it in the winter (less trips to the liquor store when it's cold and snow), but we also don't go bottom of the barrel. Black Box is pretty consistent if you stick with their reds, and we also like Shania boxed wine - which, coincidentally, is a Spanish boxed wine.

PrettyGirlLost

Cabs, Cab Sauvs, Merlots, or Shiraz might be a good way to go for general "crowd pleasers"

simplyelegant2015

I haven't even thought this far.  I'm glad I ran across this post, back to the drawing board

slothiegal

Not even kidding, this is my favorite cheap bottle of red.  (They also make a white, "Damn Good Wedding Wine".)

katiekessler123

We used Trader Joes Cab Sav for our red.  It was a big hit!  At four dollars a bottle or 35 a case, you can't go wrong!  We tried all of their whites too, but weren't impressed. 

Casadena

We used Rex Goliath brand and got it on sale for 4.99 (usually 8.99) per bottle with a 10% case discount. In my experience Pinot noir (red) and Pinot Grigio (white) are good middle of the road wine taste wise and please the biggest majority of wine drinkers. These were the only two wine varieties we had and we were down to the last couple bottles for both!!!!

Lauderdale Pink

PrettyGirlLost said:

Supposedly TRader Joes has a very good, "cheap" wine selection.

This.  Their reds are very good and generally priced at $4.99 per bottle.  You can also get similarly priced wines that are very good at Whole Foods.  If you don't really "know" reds, stick to Merlot, which is generally mellower.

badbnagdway

Lauderdale Pink said:

PrettyGirlLost said:

Supposedly TRader Joes has a very good, "cheap" wine selection.

This.  Their reds are very good and generally priced at $4.99 per bottle.  You can also get similarly priced wines that are very good at Whole Foods.  If you don't really "know" reds, stick to Merlot, which is generally mellower.

Again, helpful. Unfortunately, I live in a state where you cannot buy wine in grocery stores (although legislation has passed to change this, but not until after our wedding). We also do not have a TJ's, although I have long thought we should (I grew up in a part of the country where TJ's were plentiful). 

So, a TJ's purchase will require a drive, which is totally fine, although in an ideal world I would want some of our friends to taste the wine we buy to make sure they like it before we commit to 30 bottles.

katiekessler123

Me too..I live in PA, but I friend lives in Columbus. She picked up all of our red Trader Joe wine in Columbus and brought it to us.  If you have an out of state friend that would be willing to do that for you, I'd  recommend it!  It saved us SO much money.  I'd highly recommend the Cav Sav...we tasted all of them before we bought and that was the one that stood out to us.

katiekessler123

One other note..if you're providing all of your own liquor, and it sounds like you are, we got a keg for our beer.  Also a HUGE money saver, and no one was any the wiser.

badbnagdway

katiekessler123 said:

Me too..I live in PA, but I friend lives in Columbus. She picked up all of our red Trader Joe wine in Columbus and brought it to us.  If you have an out of state friend that would be willing to do that for you, I'd  recommend it!  It saved us SO much money.  I'd highly recommend the Cav Sav...we tasted all of them before we bought and that was the one that stood out to us.

Yeah, I don't mind the drive, I think the closest would be about an hour and a half drive to a suburb of Atlanta. We have friends in Atlanta and go there from time to time anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge deal. 

I found this on the internets about TJ's wine: http://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/the-best-two-buck-chuck-at-trader-joe-s-cheap-wine-thrillist-nation

Accurate? Basically the whites are gross. But that's no biggie, I do not have trouble picking white because I drink it. And my favorite wine is Barefoot Pinot Grigio. Cause I'm classy. 

katiekessler123

Yes- we did not like the whites at all!  We didn't try the rose wine though, so I can't speak to that.  I'm not sure if this is just the Columbus store, but they are 3.99 a bottle now, but they give you a discount if you buy an entire case ($35 per case).  We truly enjoyed the reds!  They are wines I would buy regularly if we could in PA. 

That's funny..we actually used Barefoot Pinot Grigio at our wedding as one of our whites!  We also used Fish Eye.  I'm not sure when your wedding is, but ours was in August so we assumed less people would want a heavy red.  We bought much less red than white and it seemed like the right decision bc we had quite a bit of red left but very little white.

BlueBirdMB

TRADER JOES.  They have tons of great wines under $10, but my personal favorite is the Nero d'avola for $5.99.  It tastes like a $20 wine.  

badbnagdway

katiekessler123 said:

Yes- we did not like the whites at all!  We didn't try the rose wine though, so I can't speak to that.  I'm not sure if this is just the Columbus store, but they are 3.99 a bottle now, but they give you a discount if you buy an entire case ($35 per case).  We truly enjoyed the reds!  They are wines I would buy regularly if we could in PA. 

That's funny..we actually used Barefoot Pinot Grigio at our wedding as one of our whites!  We also used Fish Eye.  I'm not sure when your wedding is, but ours was in August so we assumed less people would want a heavy red.  We bought much less red than white and it seemed like the right decision bc we had quite a bit of red left but very little white.

I really like Barefoot. I'm a basic girl. 

Our wedding is early May and all inside. May here is a crap shoot, it could be 85 or it could be 65. I expect more people than average will drink our whiskey selection, and if I had to guess, I'd say we won't have as many red wine drinkers as one would expect. But I also don't want to run out or serve something terrible. 

[Deleted User]

BlueBirdMB said:

TRADER JOES.  They have tons of great wines under $10, but my personal favorite is the Nero d'avola for $5.99.  It tastes like a $20 wine.  

I'll second this.  I just had a bottle last night.  It's incredible.  I'm not a fan of the Charles Shaw wines (the really cheap ones), but TJs has good deals on almost everything.  The closest one to me is 200 miles, but it's in the same place my grandparents live, so when I go see them I stock up.  The last time I was there I spent $200 and bought 30 bottles of wine and a liter of Jameson.  They have a very limited liquor selection but their prices on that are good as well.

I love red wine.  (I will always pick it over white,  even if it's 105 degrees outside.)  I'd suggest shiraz or pinot noir if you're looking for a crowd-pleaser.  The first red wine I ever drank and liked was valpolicella - it's Italian and very mellow.  It's not especially cheap, however, although Bolla can sometimes be found pretty cheaply.  For a sweet red wine, I like a red moscato.  Barefoot makes a really good one.

augsum15

I'd suggest a Chilean wine, we got a red blend called carmen reserva, on sale for about $10. I find most Chilean wines are well liked, and blends are usually decent. I know I had to be careful about what wines I bought because, for instance, my mom can't drink cab sav, so of course I'm going to choose something my mom can have!

But keep an eye out at liquor stores or wine stores for specials. You can end up finding really good deals.