Tampa – When it comes to buying wine, many shoppers go for what they know.
“I would say starting at the $15 is more decent. Anything below that is sketchy,” shopper Amanda Lacey said about how she determines which wine to buy at the grocery store.
But, wine expert Gregory Mayer said a lower price doesn’t necessarily mean low quality. Mayer is the wine director at South Tampa’s Haven. News Channel 8 asked him to show us some of the best inexpensive wines – under $14 – at South Tampa’s Publix GreenWise.
“That’s the real fun of wine, being able to find those $10, $11, $12, $13 bottles of wine that are just as enjoyable as the $200 bottles,” Mayer said.
The first bottle Mayer pointed out as a great buy, affordable with great quality, was only $6.99. “This is Marques De Caceres. It’s a Verdejo, which is the grape from a region called Rueda in Spain. $6.99, you can’t beat that,” Mayer said.
Mayer told News Channel 8 the key to pick a great bottle of wine is in observing the location mentioned on the label. “Wine can come from a (larger) region or it can come from a (smaller) region, or (even) smaller – down to a single vineyard. The general rule of thumb is the more defined, the smaller the region the better the quality,” he said.
Mayer pointed to a French wine, Beaujolais Villages.
“This specifically comes from a place called Beajoulais Village, which means it comes from a certain village within the region. This is something we drink regularly around the house just because you can get it for great values. You can get it for $11.99,” Mayer said.
Mayer said for California wines, look for wines labeled Napa or Sonoma County. He also points to wines that are produced outside of California, in places like the Columbia valley, Argentina and France, since they are less likely to be mass produced.
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