The Magic of a $15 Bottle of Wine

America’s Most Popular Wine

Is your idea of a wine drinker a rich old dude drinking red wine from an expensive glass? If you do, you are going to update your assumptions, pal. The most popular wine in America is white wine.

It’s not a specific wine. It’s any white wine that costs $15 or a little less.

Big Cork Sees You

Wine is big business, so it shouldn’t surprise you that Big Cork knows what you like and how much you want to spend. The Wine Market Council (WMC) is the leading agency in the United States that researches wine consumption. Every year, they report who is drinking wine, who is buying it, and what that wine costs. The results will probably surprise you.

Most wine drinkers are not prosperous, ranging from the working poor to the middle class. They also aren’t old. Most are either Millennials or Generation Xers. Most wine purchased isn’t expensive; it’s $15 or less. And that wine drinker? Well, it’s statistically more likely to be a woman. And women are more likely to drink white wine than red, according to the WMC.

Wineries Want You, Bad.

The new American wine drinker is a younger woman drinking a reasonably priced glass of wine, and winemakers are noticing.

For some time now, that $15 price point has been an essential metric for winemakers. Small and large wineries compete to offer wines at that price range. The next time you walk through the wine shop, notice how many wines are priced at $15 or slightly less.

Tasting rooms are also changing. Sure, some still look like a retirement home for avid golfers, but styles are changing quickly. One of the most significant changes is wine education. Wineries like Willamette Valley’s Adelsheim Vineyard are finding that offering wine education programs is the way to draw a younger base of fans.

Not every $15 is equal.

Some places in the world are better equipped to produce white wines that are both excellent and inexpensive. For instance, Napa Valley makes great wine, but it’s an expensive place to make wine. During harvest, wages can go as high as $30 an hour, and grapes cost an average of $7,000 a ton. You can make great wine, but not for $15/bottle.

On the opposite end of the equation is Riverina, Australia, where Chardonnay grapes cost less than $250 a ton. The grapes are cheap but not up to the quality we need for a great wine. This is the stuff of jug wines and regrettable life choices.

The Sweet Spots

There are a few places in the world where they grow great grapes but don’t cost a fortune. In the United States, the sweet spot is Columbia Valley in Washington State. The Rhone Valley is a bright spot in France for good quality whites, even though very little is produced.

Plenty of excellent white wines are produced across Spain, so it’s hard to pinpoint just one spot. That goes for Portugal, too. In Australia, Clare Valley is a top pick for white wines. Most of South America produces very good whites, especially Chile and Argentina. In Italy, great whites are everywhere, especially in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Most white wines have two things in common: fresh-tasting and zesty. This is the predominant style. It takes a good winemaker to harness the grape’s potential, but it’s reasonably inexpensive to craft. For that reason, plenty of great wines in this style are less than $15.

Know the Game

Knowing the game is sometimes the only thing you need to know. Wineries often have three tiers of wine: a value line, a mid-priced wine, and a luxury bottling. They gain the most by drawing in the wine buyer who is looking for a mid-priced wine; that is where a lot of effort is put in. It’s where the money is. Because of that, you get way more for your money at $15 than you get at $8 or $80.

What You Don’t See at a Wine Tasting

At the wine school, we don’t show $15 bottles of white wine (or any wine) –except for a Wine 101 class— mainly because you already know those wines. Our wine-tasting classes are geared to show you wines you haven’t had before. So, if you want to explore wines with us, we’d love to have you!