Good food and good wine are heaven on earth. - Henri IV, King of France.
Bonne cuisine et bon vin, c’est le paradis sur Terre. - Henri IV, roi de France.
Introduction
Have you ever tasted a really good wine only to find that it is prohibitively expensive, so that you can only afford to drink it once or twice a year. Well all is not lost. You may be able to find equivalents that also suit your palate but are much cheaper so can drink them regularly. It will require you to do some investigation and tasting and trying different wines. I give an example of one region in France that I know well I believe that the same ideas can be applied to wines almost everywhere.
Well known wines in regions tend to always be expensive, because they are well known and always in demand. People often buy by the label as it is a safe bet, even if it is an expensive one.
The AOC and AOP procedures improve quality and give some guarantee of the consistency of the wine. One part of the procedure limits that amount of wine that can bear the AOC or AOP label from each hectare of land. This means that in a good year where grapes are plentiful not all wine produced can bear the AOC label. The rest has to be sold off as a lesser wine. This is good to know as often some of the lesser wines in the same region as the higher quality wines are nearly as good as the quality wines they share the same earth with. It also why the producer is happy to have visitors to buy wine as it may not all appear against his AOC quota.
France Southern Rhone Wines
Wine is sunlight captured in water. Galileo, scientist.
Le vin, c’est la lumière du soleil captive dans l’eau. Galilée, scientifique.
In the southern Rhone around Avignon the best wine is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape but that starts at around 30 euros a bottle. In the same region there are very good wines with a similar character like Gigondas starting at about 15 euro, Vacqueyras about 12 euro, and Beaumes de Venise starting at 9 euros. Beaumes-de-Venise is cheaper because they didn't finally get their full AOC status until 2005, but it is as good as the rest.
When I speak to vignerons in Beaumes-de-Venise they tell me that before they got their AOC they used to sell their grapes to Chateauneuf-du-Pape to make Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
To look for even cheaper wines with a similar character then you can go for a simple Cotes-de-Rhone made in one of the same regions normally at about 5 euros. Me I like Mont Ventoux wines which are in the same region. Like wine with the label VMV (Vignerons de Mont Ventoux a loose cooperative). When it is on promotion at the supermarkets here in France I can find it at around 3 euros a bottle and it is an excellent wine.
Click here to show Detail on Gigondas
An interesting Gigondas wine
Click here to show Detail on Beaumes de Venise
A good Beaumes de Venise wine
Click here to show Detail on Cotes du Rhone
A Cotes du Rhone wine from around Beaumes de Venise
Click here to show Detail on Mont Ventoux
A Mont Ventoux wine by VMV (Vintners Mont Ventoux)