Over the weekend, The New York Times published an article about how cheap booze is flying off the shelf. Consumers are putting price before quality, and this is apparently a bad thing for alcohol producers.
Nonsense. When it comes to alcohol -- especially liquor -- price and quality don't go hand in hand. There may not be great vodkas for $5.50, but for just a little more, you can drink like a king.
A king on a budget but still a king.
It's
tough to get good whiskey, scotch or certain red wines cheap because they have to age in barrels for years, and those cost money
to store. Also, about 2 percent of the liquid will evaporate each year no
matter how good the barrels, so after 20 years there's a lot
less product to push.
White
liquors like gin and vodka don't need aging. Gin is so cheap to make that it became the drink du jour (more
like drink of the hour) of dirt-poor Britons during the 18th and 19th centuries,
which led to rampant drunkenness and nearly caused a war. So when looking for value, look for clear.
I've said it before: When you pay for expensive vodka, you're mostly paying for image.
Middle-of-the-road vodkas like Smirnoff taste just as good as $50 ones
and win more awards. In the comments here last week, JJs in KC made the point that local vodka Most Wanted
would sell more if it charged more. In a normal economy, I'd agree, but now's the chance for people who previously considered
themselves "only Grey Goose" or "only Ketel One" drinkers to give it a
try. They'll discover it's just as good. Same goes for Tito's or
Olifant.
When it comes to wine, many reds have to be aged while
whites (other than chardonnay) rarely do. This technically means you should
be able to find better deals on whites. Also, the more funky you're
willing to go on the grape, the better the deal. It would be tough to find a 90+ cabernet sauvignon for $20, but you can grab a 90+ zin
from Storybook Winery for that price simply because many people don't associate zin with good wine.
The
best way to find what you like is to experiment. Have a cheap vodka
party. Tell everyone that they must bring a bottle of vodka, in a brown bag,
that doesn't cost more than $15. As host, buy an expensive "premium" vodka,
hide it in a brown bag and don't tell anyone. After an hour of
drinking and sampling, have everyone reveal their choices. The best part won't be opening your friends' eyes to the ways of vodka -- there's no way each person can finish a bottle, and because it's illegal to drive with an open container, you get to keep all the leftovers. Now that's really cheap liquor.
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Your absolutely right. Malbecs are a steal right now and I'd also add some Spanish wines like rojas into that category. I'm thinking I'll put great deals in wine in a different post and talking about how the farther north you go up on the west coast the better deals you get.
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