The Best Grocery Store Wines

This year while in California we reviewed 31 wines purchased in local grocery stores. We specifically looked in the under $10 price range and as expected we found quite a few wines we really didn’t think were even up to the quality of that low price point. We bought both imported and California wines, but had to search to find an equal amount of imported wines in the California grocery stores. Throughout our brief grocery store wine review we were quite surprised to find wines we thought had quality far above the purchase price. Following is a list (in alphabetical order) of the seven wines we thought were OUTSTANDING values (what we call the three and four thumbs up rating). if you can find these wines in your grocery store we recommend you buy all all you can get, especially if the purchase price is near what we paid for them.

Wines with a Four Thumbs Up rating:
Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2017 ($16.99)
Las Rocas Garnacha 2016 ($6.99)
La Vieille Ferme Rouge 2018 ($5.59)
Perrin Cotes du Rhone Reserve Rose 2018 (8.99)
Perrin Cotes du Rhone Reserve Rouge 2017 ($9.99)

Wines with a Three Thumbs Up rating:
Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva 2013 ($9.99)
Marques de Caceres Rioja Crianza 2015 ($10.99)

So what’s interesting here? Only one is a California wine and three are entry level wines from the same Southern Rhone valley producer (Perrin family). The California Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir was priced at the high end of the range, but was really a FANTASTIC value at this price. Unfortunately it’s probably only available in Southern California grocery stores. Without question the Perrin Cotes du Rhone Rouge Reserve was probably the BEST VALUE WINE UNDER $10 WE HAVE EVER HAD!!! At $9.99 we went back to the store three times and bought all they had on the shelves, then went back again and ordered several cases to put in our California cellar.

You can see all the grocery store wines we reviewed by looking under the key word “Grocery Store Wines”. We recommended (wine receiving a one through four thumbs up rating) about half the wines we reviewed, but there were many we simply didn’t like because they were way to sweet.