7 On Your Side: How to pick affordable quality wine
If you enjoy an occasional glass of wine, you don't need to wait for a special occasion to have one. There are a lot of good wines for under $15 bucks. 7 On Your Side takes a look at how to pick out an affordable quality wine.
This year there were some 3,000 entries for the Sunset Magazine International Wine Competition and 7 On Your Side find out what the judges looked for in tasty, yet affordable wines.
The next bottle of wine you pop open doesn't have to be costly to be good. Judges scored thousands of entries.
"They could know the grapes, they could know the year, they could know where the wine was from, but that's it. They could not know the price," Sara Schneider from Sunset Magazine said.
Schneider says its gold medal $15 winners outscored many $100 wines. In fact, price points are often suggestive. Schneider recalls a study where people are mislead to believe one glass of wine costs $15 and the other $75.
"People invariably enjoy the $75 glass more even though it's exactly the same wine," Schneider said.
Inexpensive wines are trying to be an everyday wine generally made in bigger productions. They don't use the expensive wine making techniques of the costlier wines which are trying to stand out.
At the "Savor the Central Coast" event in San Luis Obispo County, you'll have a chance to taste winners from all price categories, but 7 On Your Side got a sneak peek at gold medal winners in the $15 and under category. The 2012 Fog Head Chardonnay was named by judges as a gold medal winner.
"It has a really good balance of generous fruit," Schneider said.
It would go well with fish and chicken. The 2013 Little Black Dress from the Fetzer Winery produces a gold medal riesling. It's delicious during warm weather, Thanksgiving or even a Sunday morning.
"This is a great brunch wine. I would put this with egg dishes and any kind of cured meats," Schneider said.
The 2011 Zinfindel from Renwood is produced in the Sierra foothills.
"This is a Zinfindel that's over delivering for that price," Schneider said.
And finally the judge's proved you can get a good bottle of cab for under $15. Schneider showed us a 2012 from Clos du Bois.
"It has layers underneath the fruit of a little pepper, espresso," Schneider said.
Savor the Central Coast kicks off with a party at Hearst Castle on Thursday with the main event this weekend.
