Which country makes the best wine?

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Portugal, hands down. French and Italian wine have good marketing behind their products and while they produce good wines they are absolutely not worth their price tag most of the time. Very few wines are worth spending more than 30 bucks on them. You are paying for a premium label when you could just get a bottle of Portuguese wine for one third of the cost that will be equally as good if not better. It is the same with Scotch, anything that costs more than $100 will not be better, you are just paying for a "premium" experience.

Anyway, trust the people who are experienced on the subject.

[magicalM]

I know... I have to give my vote to Hungarian wine. We all know that Italy, France and Spain are well known for their wine. Hungarian Tokaj is famous. Apart from that, Egri Bikaver from Eger have some really really high ratings if you are willing to exceed the 6 euro budget ones. Vivino is a good place to start. Here is an example! And if you willing to go up in price, then heaven is waiting for you!

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[magicalM]

I know... I have to give my vote to Hungarian wine. We all know that Italy, France and Spain are well known for their wine. Hungarian Tokaj is famous. Apart from that, Egri Bikaver from Eger have some really really high ratings if you are willing to exceed the 6 euro budget ones. Vivino is a good place to start. Here is an example! And if you willing to go up in price, then heaven is waiting for you!

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And I forgot to mention Szekszárd which given as an example

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[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I know... I have to give my vote to Hungarian wine.

I have been to Eger and I was pleasantly surprised with the Hungarian wine culture. Good stuff.

[Melki]

Just for curiosity .... I went watch which is the most expensive red wine available in ALKO Finland.

It is this one from France:



Now, no doubts there are even much more expensive wines in the World than that one. Plus note that our price incl. huge local taxes, but still? 8999,90eur per bottle. 10 cents under 9000euros for one 0,75l bottle.

Now then, if people are saying here that French wines are the best, are you saying that like saying: Italian cars are best (because of Ferrari etc.)? Or are we saying that because of quality of French wines which normal people are also able to buy and drink ... are the best?

Secondly which price range wines you normally buy? I know what some wines costs with pretty light taxes (have been in Latvia for example).

It may be only wine for you, but oenologists and sommeliers make no mistake about it.

The wine shown on your picture is precisely the most expensive wine in the world: Romanée Conti, a red Bourgogne. As I mentioned in a previous post, two years ago, a bottle of the 1945 vintage was sold at an auction for 558 000 dollars, because 1945 was an exceptional year for that wine, but above all because there are only few bottles from that year left in the world.
A wine is not expensive because it has a French sticker on it, but because of its gustatory quality, its savoriness...

And the most expensive wine doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best. In the case of Romanée Conti, the harvest conditions play a significant role. Burgundy has a harsher climate than the Bordeaux area, therefore there are less exceptional Bourgogne than Bordeaux. Hence the skyhigh price.
The five Bordeaux premiers crus Château Haut-Brion, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux or Château Mouton Rothschild are more praised than the best Bourgogne, although they are less expensive (around 3 500 Euros for a Château Latour in a wine outlet, and from 25 000 Euros for a Romanée Conti).

[Melki]

Portugal, hands down. French and Italian wine have good marketing behind their products and while they produce good wines they are absolutely not worth their price tag most of the time. Very few wines are worth spending more than 30 bucks on them. You are paying for a premium label when you could just get a bottle of Portuguese wine for one third of the cost that will be equally as good if not better. It is the same with Scotch, anything that costs more than $100 will not be better, you are just paying for a "premium" experience.

Anyway, trust the people who are experienced on the subject.

How do you know French and Italian wines are overrated and are just a matter of "marketing"?

Have you ever tried a vintage Château d'Yquem or a Montrachet Côte de Beaune ?
I'm sure not. Because neither you nor I can afford it.

When you look at a wine estate from the Bordeaux area, you immediately understand that tradition means something to the French (marketing, oh my God )



The southern Euro inferiority complex towards the French is a bottomless pit (we make better wine, better cheese, our capital city is more pretty than Paris, we are lighter than the French, look at this blonde judge or at this basketball player, we have less blacks...)

[Faklon]

Portugal, hands down. French and Italian wine have good marketing behind their products and while they produce good wines they are absolutely not worth their price tag most of the time. Very few wines are worth spending more than 30 bucks on them. You are paying for a premium label when you could just get a bottle of Portuguese wine for one third of the cost that will be equally as good if not better. It is the same with Scotch, anything that costs more than $100 will not be better, you are just paying for a "premium" experience.

Anyway, trust the people who are experienced on the subject.

Looks rather dubious mate, Brits here consider wine a semi-exotic drink and Italians are mad for it.

This makes more sense,

The World’s Biggest Wine Drinkers 2017


Portugal again is on the top but the overall breakdown seems more balanced.

[Faklon]

better cheese

That's absolutely true, much healthier cheese on top of that.

[Finnish Swede]

Opinions might vary, but as I come from Scandinavia (not from any wine culture areas) ... for me what I eat at lunch or at dinner is always more important than what I'll drink (that my food is excellent). Of course good right kind of wine will support taste of food ... but still support. Or, that is how I think. Opinions might vary.

Based on my thinking: I would not easily go to buy wine which is much more expensive than food I'll eat. Personally I do not care about wines which are more expensive than 25 euros (here). I rarely buy any over 20 euros either (Christmas etc. maybe). Most of time price range is both sides of 10 euros (+/- 2 euros).

If I would be rich person, all what I wrote above would be fully meaningless. But I'm not. Like most of us.


Plus another question someway close to thread's topic. I have understood that global warming has started to cause headaches to some wine producers (wine areas/ wine countries). How you see future of wine producing/ wine industry? Who will be winners and who not?

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

How do you know French and Italian wines are overrated and are just a matter of "marketing"?

Have you ever tried a vintage Château d'Yquem or a Montrachet Côte de Beaune ?
I'm sure not. Because neither you nor I can afford it.

When you look at a wine estate from the Bordeaux area, you immediately understand that tradition means something to the French (marketing, oh my God )



The southern Euro inferiority complex towards the French is a bottomless pit (we make better wine, better cheese, our capital city is more pretty than Paris, we are lighter than the French, look at this blonde judge or at this basketball player, we have less blacks...)

We can not afford it because it is a collectors item. You are paying for a collectors item, not for what the wine is actually worth or what it costed to be produced.

Most of what you are paying for is marketing and the brand value, that is noticeable in wines that have a price difference of $20, let alone wines that cost thousands of euros. You have to be very naive not to believe that.

An example with two American wines:



All I want is a nice wine to go with a lovely meal I do not want to memorize the lineage of every Chateau in Bordeaux dating back to 1389. Perhaps we also have inferiority complexes in relation to French "sissyness"\pretentiousness but regarding wines I can assure you that there is no complex. Most Portuguese stand by their wine. Nobody consumes imported wine in here, not matter if cheap or expensive because we know we are not missing out, our grapes rival with those of the fancy wine producers.