Comments on: The Cost of a Bottle of Sutter Home at the Times Square Olive Garden + More Booze Facts

By: angry little raincloud

angry little raincloud — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:33:17 +0000

“Germans pay $1.79 on average for a bottle of wine.”
Former very heavy drinker of cheap wine in Germany here!

$1.79 is roughly €1.30: you cannot buy drinkable wine, even in Germany, for that price. As the poorest of the poor students quite a few years ago, I drank my way through most every bottle of cheap swill. There are lots of perfectly drinkable wines at €3, but that is the basement of cheap wine. Really. Truly. I drank a lot. Like a bottle a day, frequently alone, mostly in my bathtub, and I truly had no money (I would buy food with the money from redeeming the deposits on my water & beer bottles at the end of the month). And even I didn’t go below €3 a bottle, after trying out ALL of the bottom shelf. And this cuts across most grocery stores, from Spar all the way down to Lidl, Aldi, and Penny.

There was ONE exception, and it involved a bottle of Italian Verdicchio from this weird Italian-importer in Vienna, that retailed for €1.80 (this was in 2005, mind you). I could drink that stuff like water, and, honestly, I kind of did. No other sub-€2.50 wine ever got purchased twice, and many of them got dumped undrunk down the drain (that’s how bad they were… they would have ruined sauces).

(One of my better stories, that I tell mostly at social situations with strangers that requires ridiculous small talk, involves a “how low can you go” with wine tale. I stand firmly by my €3 rule. And I will not drink with those who also don’t follow it!)

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:29:01 +0000

@j-i-a Drink one bottle of Sutter Home at each place you can find that sells it, then take a taxi home and immediately try to write up the results.

OR, find a period-appropriate recreation of VINE-GLO and tell us what it tastes like and where we can buy it.

(ETA: Or just keep doin’ what you’re doin’ because it’s great)

By: j-i-a

j-i-a — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:31:01 +0000

@stuffisthings OH I’LL DO IT WHAT SHOULD I DO

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:04:23 +0000

@Blondsak I think maybe what annoys me about wine at bars is that getting it by the glass is usually more expensive than getting a bottle, which in turn is more expensive than buying it at the store. If you could get beer at a bar by the six pack for cheaper, I might be reluctant to buy individual beers, too.

By: lizard

lizard — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:59:33 +0000

@stuffisthings i have found some great deals on wine. and its cheaper than beer sometimes because its higher in alcohol and i dont usually want to sip on whiskey all night

By: Blondsak

Blondsak — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:58:32 +0000

@stuffisthings I adore wine, and nobody will ever convince me not to drink it. BUT I do not drink out ever, because ALL drinks out are bad deals generally (or at least you can drink it for far cheaper at home or parties, pouring and mixing your own). I tend to buy box wines for around $20, or the equivalent of $1/drink, which for me is a great deal.

By: Weasley

Weasley — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:50:34 +0000

@stuffisthings

I usually get whiskeys on the rocks or gin martinis. Wine is mostly an at-home drink. But, I should say, I’m not a big drinker. I maybe go out to a bar once a month (or couple of months) and my at-home drinking as dropped down to almost nothing in the last couple of years.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:42:24 +0000

@Weasley The only two drinks I’ll buy at a bar are “your cheapest beer and a shot of rail whiskey, please,” and really fancy rye-based cocktails.

By: Weasley

Weasley — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:33:58 +0000

@stuffisthings

It’s because it’s delicious.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:59:44 +0000

I’m surprised Americans drink any wine at all, it’s such a terrible deal.

Also when I read the headline I was wondering if this column had taken its first foray into field research…