Is Expensive Wine, Beer, Vodka Worth It?

Now that you are stuck at home you are likely drinking more. So let’s talk value given we are in a recession. First off, I don’t think it’s wise to spend more than $10-$15 per bottle of wine for most people. The reason I say that is they won’t be able to tell the difference between a $100 bottle and a $20 bottle in a blind taste test. Think about cost per glass at 4 glasses per bottle. $25/glass? Really? How about $3/glass?

Also, there is no reason to keep a huge wine collection in a wine fridge. Wine is made for drinking not for aging and hoarding. Drink what you have before buying new bottles. Two buck chuck doesn’t age well. : )

Beer is a little bit easier. There is a difference between say Natural Light and Coors Light or Becks. Don’t cheap out and pay the extra few bucks per twelve pack. $2/12 = $0.166/ bottle. Do you want to suffer for sixteen cents? No way. Instead seek a better price at places known for good beer prices like Costco and Rite Aid in my area. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish. College is the time to drink cheap beer not adulthood.

The same goes for liquor. It’s mostly marketing, especially with vodka once you mix it up. Buy the 1.75 L bottle of what you like in reason of a mid priced swill. If you bar is stocked don’t buy more until you’ve drank what you have. Again in blind taste tastes I am not so sure people can taste the difference between mid pricers like Skyy, Smirnoff and Absolut versus Grey Goose, Chopin, Ciroc and Ketel. Leave the cheap plastic bottle, no name hooch to winos and bums. You can taste the difference with those bottom shelf bottles.

With gin you can taste some difference and whiskey or scotch you definitely can. However if you will be mixing not drinking straight keep the cost reasonable. For gin you can get New Amsterdam and Gordon’s cheap as mixers. For whiskey any $25 bottle should suffice.

Conduct your own blind taste tests with friends….it’s fun

1. Get a packet or stack of identical plastic cups
2. Label them sequentially: A, B, C, D… or 1,2,3,4…
3. Have one friend go into a different room and pour samples into each cup and write down what letter or number corresponds to what beverage brand
4. Bring the drinks out for people to taste. Ideally there should be four to six variants
5. Have people rank them from best to worst or order of preference
6. Have people try to identify which are certain brands
7. Then tally the results. Your friends will be surprised by the results.