How To Choose Good Cheap Wine from the Big Brands: Cabernet Sauvignon

We’ve all been there. It is 6:30pm and you get a call from a friend inviting you over for a casual dinner. Your only option is the supermarket or local grocery store. The shelves are lined with the well known big brands. How do you decide which Cabernet Sauvignon is best for you?

Research shows that packaging and label design have a significant influence over what wines customers buy. But if you are also interested in the taste how do you decide which is better?

According to A.C Nielsen scan data the most popular wine brands sold through grocery stores in the United States include Yellow Tail, Sutter Home, Franzia, Woodbridge, Beringer California Collection, Livingston Cellars, Twin Valley, Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve, Carlo Rossi and Almaden.

Armed with this information we decided to check out a selection of these well-distributed brands. We also included a number of additional brands that we felt warranted being included. And to be able to make accurate comparisons we stuck to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Altogether, we tasted fifteen wines. Our aim in tasting was to find wines that would entice you to pour a second glass. We were looking for wines with a good concentration of clean fruit, refreshing to drink, smooth across the palate and balanced in terms of the tannins, acidity, fruit intensity and alcohol.

The most interesting finding from the tasting was that overall Chilean wines seemed to offer the best quality: price ratio. Understandably so, given that Chile’s international wine success came from producing good quality affordable wines. Australia’s Jacob’s Creek once again proves to be a consistent safe bet. Won’t knock your socks off but reliably balanced and dependable.

We had some Californian and Australian disappointments where the wines were, either thin, weedy and overly hot or, far too sweet, candied and syrupy.

We hope that the suggestions below will be of some help the next time you have to pick up a wine in a hurry.

Best Big Brand Wine Bets: Cabernet Sauvignon

• 2006 Santa Rita 120, Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley, Chile ($7) – Intense cassis, black cherry, clove and vanilla aromas. Brimming with juicy ripe fruit and layers of spice and earthy notes with a touch of eucalyptus on the palate. (17/20)

• 2006 Montes Classic Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, Colchagua Valley ($8) - packed with juicy black fruit with layers of toasty caramel, spice and hints of eucalyptus. (17/20)

• 2006 Errazuriz Estate Cabernet Saivignon, Aconchagua Valley, Chile ($10)
Full-bodied with ripe red and black fruits and earthy aromas. Layers of plum, strawberry and blackberry and toasty spice on the finish. (16.5/20)

• 2005 Jacob's Creek Cabernet Sauvignon ($7) - stewed plums and cassis aromas with hints of rhubarb and herbal notes. Modern fruit forward style with restrained oak and A fruit driven style with concentrated black fruit and spice on the palate (16/20)

• 2005 Hess Select Cabernet Sauvignon ($11) – Intensely fruit forward with enticing aromas of ripe ‘jammy’ fruits with an overlay of chocolate. Cassis flavors dominate the palate with hints of cocoa. (16/20)

• 2006 Foxglove Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles ($13). A big wine. Bright cassis fruit with lots of toasty vanilla and spice. (15.5/20)

• 2006 Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon ($10) – Ripe plums and black fruits with lots of toasty vanilla and smokey mocha notes. Full bodied with hints of spice and herbs on the palate. (15.5/20)

• 2005 Ravenswood Vintners Blend, Cabernet Sauvignon, California ($10) - Dark and brooding with strong earthy notes. Lots of black cherry and plums with subtle oak notes. (15/20)

• 2005 Columbia Crest, Grand Estates, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Washington ($10) – Baked plums and blackberries with layers of spice and coffee and hints of coconut and vanilla. (14.5/20)

Have a great week!
- Mary

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Comments (23)

You guys could do this weekly. Awesome post - always happy to get tips so that if the bad-ass wine guys at my grocery store aren't there I can still pick up a bottle or two.

smoking loon changed their label recently?

This is a great article - please do more of these! It's a great resource.

Aaah, wine in a grocery store. Someday Minnesota will allow that, I hope.

Though it is kind of nice that alcohol cannot be sold in any establishment except a liquor store, bar, or restaurant. It forces me to go to the liquor store where I usually have lots of options, not just a few.

Ooh, good info.

I must run against the grain...I typically avoid all the brands that look like they're big brands, with the exception of Lindemann and Georges DuBeouf.

Kassie, you'd be surprised by the kind of selection you can find in the "basic" grocery stores these days (in states that allow it). A lot of the ones around me are really beefing up their wine aisles.

FANTASTIC! Thank you for this.

Wine ratings are useless. It's all totally subjective. Do you any of us have Mary's taste buds? Drink what you like and don't drink what you don't like.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2002-02-20/news/wine-snob-scandal.php

As a graphic designer, I often pick wines by their packaging/label. I can't help it. If the wine is bad, at least I have something pretty to look at.

Hi to all people!
Becouse i'm italian i don't shout up when I read this post.

I have some suggestion for you, if you have to buy wine.

1) Cabernet Sauvignon was a poor wine, becouse is considred for masses, the wine isn't like coca-cola. is a part of culture for the people who make it.
In america the best wine I know is "Californian Red Wine" but it's taste of industrial wine, not rural.

2) The red wine of south america is like south italian wine, poor of tannics and rich of alchool.
This is a bad mix for Cabernet, but good for other type of wine like Nero d'avola or strong Sicilly Red Wine., if you can chose somthing like this is better.

3) The red wine make the best flavor if it's conserve into Rovere Wood. I don't know if Californian wine make this part of process.

4) At last, I suggest you to "spend many but spend better" don't take poor 10$ wine but spend more 20-25$ to buy wine of little production.
In Italy a good wine can be found for only 6â‚¬ but I don't think is the same things in America.

PS: If you can, buy Italian red wine "Teroldego di Mezzacorona", it's my favurite and i suggest for all with meat.

any such name I was totally thinking the same thing... whats with the new label?

As usual, I'm going to vote to buy from the little guys instead of buying from the big corporation. It's really worth going to the occasional tasting to learn about some of the smaller wineries. Otherwise, I agree that it can be a gamble to fork out $30 dollars on a bottle that you might not like.

So--I agree that it's handy to have a "cheat sheet" like this when you're in a pinch, but I heartily recommend that you explore other options, too.

i have had great luck with two, uh, bottom-shelf grocery store wines that were not mentioned here: Rex Goliath and Cycles Gladiator California Cabernet Sauvignons. plus, they have pretty labels, which makes them fun to bring as a hostess gift. sorry, i totally go for that stuff. i'm not an aficionado here, so if these are either totally played out or lame for some other reason, oh well, i just liked them!

but i agree with molly margarita, i would love a chance to taste some smaller-scale wineries. but then again, my budget doesn't always allow for them, depending on the price.

The CORRECT WINE GLASS can make a world of difference in the taste of a wine.

I never believed that, until I actually experimented.

$4 bottle of Syrah in a cheap basic glass vs. a Reidel Ouverture Magnum Glass (the absolute cheapest Reidel, 4/$40) Since I found them on clearance for 4/$10, I had no "investment" in the glasses, so I felt I could be objective)

Oh. My. Goodness.

The cheap glass tasted like grape juice with shoe polish.

The Reidel was an explosion of berry, chocolate, and pepper.

I know very little about wines. But understanding that the glass can have a big impact on the experience has made my wine education an absolute thrill.

Although I'm just as big a fan of small producers -- I wouldn't be so hard on the "big guys" in wine.

Sometimes they buy the "little guys" so that the smaller producers can continue to make the wine they've always made with financial backing and broader distribution.

Cab Sauvig is my fav wine, so THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for this article.

please tell me I am not the only one. I envy those who can actually enjoy wine. I can't stand it. I think Moscato is tasty as hell, but i cannot stomach anything else. I try wine, try to educate the pallet, but something in my gut says why force myself to like something I don't. Damn my taste buds for not enjoying wine and damn you wine, for being so unattainable!

chusmabilly,
I wish I was with you there, but lol :)

chusmabilly - i'm the exact same, but with sushi ... not wine. i've tried to "like" sushi quite a bit and every single time felt like i was going to vomit.

An excellent post. I will definitely hang on my fridge door.

Speaking of Chilean wine, I've been drinking GatoNegro. Talk about inexpensive! My wine shop sells the 1.5 liter bottle for $8. And it tastes best in those huge wine glasses I bought at CB2.

Cassie, Minnesota isn't the only place you can't buy wine in grocery stores. You can't buy it here (NYC) in grocery stores, either.

I love the 120 Cab Sav (as my sister, newly VINdicated, would say). I saw a PBS program about Chilean wines and how they know how to produce an excellent wine for under $25...and ever since then, that's been my favorite go-to. The 120 Reserve is even better, if you're splurging for a special event (I think it's only about $12 as opposed to the $7 or $8 I usually spend on the 120 Cab Sav).

Excellent post--always good to have reliable info about cheap wines!

Nice post but it's a bit out of date. The 120 Santa Rita now flooding the U.S. market is very irregular in quality. Hess Select (excellent choice) has gone up in price but is still a very good choice. Errazuriz is erratic in quality too.

Very good bets today (2011):
Norton Cabernet Sauvignon or their reserve ($9-11)
Cousino Macul regular cab ($9) or antiguas reservas ($15)
Chateau Ste. Michelle cab ($11, awesome)
Hahn Estates cab ($11)
Black Box cab, best low-price option at $5.50/$22 a box

There are some awesome current recommendations at http://www.bargainredwines.com

Chateau Ste. Michelle