8 Delicious Red Wines for Every Budget

Unless you’re a sommelier, it can be tough choosing a good wine. Does more expensive mean better quality? Should you just pick the one with the prettiest label? Do a quick round of eenie-meenie-miny-moe?

Before you find yourself standing wide-eyed in the Cabernet aisle, hoping the wine snob judging you out of the corner of her eye doesn’t start making suggestions, check out our list of red wines for every price range. Get ready to walk confidently down that wine aisle, and maybe even fool passersby into thinking you know the difference between a Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.

 

$5: 2015 Target California Roots Red Blend

This red blend is delicious, only five bucks, and is made by Target – as in the place you go to buy toilet paper and come out with 75 new household items, yes. It’s semi-sweet, and tastes better than its competitor, Two Buck Chuck. Not that you needed another excuse to visit Target…but now you have one!

 

$10: 2015 Luzón Verde

This wine was aged without an oak barrel, which is what gives it both the cheap price and the delicious flavor. The flavors are a little more bold and in-your-face, but are still blended together very well.

 

$15: Thurston Wolfe 2013 D.R. Wolfe’s Family Red, Columbia Valley

This Washington wine combines blackberry, vanilla, and caramel together in away that makes it feel like you’re drinking a blackberry pie, without it being a dessert wine. It’s delicious, completely affordable, and is a great red for beginners.

 

$20: The Locations F French Wine

This red wine from France is a blend of Roussillon, Rhone and Bordeaux, and tastes like a quality wine. If you love dry wine or earthy flavors, this one is for you!

 

$25: 2014 Bedrock Old Vines Zinfandel

Not only is this wine delicious, but the winemaker behind it will make you feel good about the purchase. Sonoma County has some of the best vineyards, but a lot of them are dying. Morgan Twain-Peterson is a young winemaker who is doing all he can to save them, and this wine is the product of one such vineyard.

 

$30: Pondera Winery 2011 Salon Series, Horse Heaven Hills

This red wine tastes like Christmas in a bottle, with holiday spices, chocolate, plum, and ripe fruit flavors, along with some oak. It’s a wine that feels comforting, and makes a great holiday gift.

 

$35: Robert Foley The Griffin

Full of tons of fruit notes, this wine is made even more delicious by the fact that there’s a chocolaty taste at the end. It’s suggested that you eat it with beef, but all of these flavors can easily hold their own as a late-night drink!

 

$40: 2015 Band of Vintners Consortium Cabernet Sauvignon

This red has notes of plum and licorice, and the new label is the brainchild of several top Napa winemakers, meaning you’re getting a big taste for a low price. Similar wines are selling for twice the amount, making this a great host or wedding gift.

 

Have you tried any of these wines? Leave us your thoughts (and your wine recommendations!) below.