We all know that feeling when a great night in is on the cards (because staying in is the new going out) and your friend texts you on the way saying ‘BRING WINE. I’M OUT.’ As if you hadn’t thought of it already. You pop into your local supermarket and experience a very real panic, confronted with the impenetrable wall of wine that greets you.
Obviously, the wine has got to be drinkable but crucially, it can’t be too pricey.
Mark Price, the former boss of Waitrose, has recently revealed the secret to the perfect bottle of wine. Apparently, £10 is the price you have to pay to strike the balance between quality and cost. To get a little more technical, the production of wine involves many different stages and so the cost of the wine itself will usually be a fraction of the overall price. What that means is, if you buy a bottle for a fiver, the actual wine will have cost 45p to make, when you consider the other incurred costs such as labelling, VAT, transport etc. So, a £10 bottle means that what you’re drinking is full of ingredients amounting to a whole £3! That’s x6 the quality for just x2 the price. Worth it right?
In the UK, our stingy spending on supermarket wine is on average £5.50 per bottle… Whilst we can totally relate, clearly no one knows the secret to good wine.
Clearly, it all comes down to personal taste. We’ve always strived to emulate Hallie in that memorable scene of The Parent Trap when she remarks that ‘the bouquet’s a little too robust for a merlot, but then I’m partial to the softer California grape.’
So if you don’t have the foggiest about fine wine, should it be smoky, oaky, fruity, dry? At least now you know the fool-proof way to transport yourself to a rustic vineyard in Provence.
Don’t whine about cheap wine, just pay £4 more.
Liked this? You might also be interested in:
A Mircle Has Occurred: We've Found A Way To Make Shit Wine Taste Good
How To Stop Partying And Start Staying In Without Losing All Your Mates
Folllow Maeve on Twitter: @maevieCampbell
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.