Repeat after me: I only get better with age.
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If you follow me on instagram, you know that just over a week ago my husband and I celebrated five years of never falling in love with each other. In the last five years of marriage, we’ve learned, expanded, we’ve traveled, and we’ve developed a taste for wine!
It being our fifth anniversary I wanted to do something special. It is a milestone anniversary after all. However, I wasn’t really a fan of any of the ideas I found online. They were all either dull, too expensive or just didn’t sound like us. So we turned to wine…
Thanks to my side hustle as a brand ambassador, I went from hardly ever drinking alcohol to a pseudo wine connoisseur (according to my husband.) So when I came up with up with the idea to celebrate the days leading up to the big day by toasting with a glass of wine that has been aged for five years, it seemed like a natural fit. Plus, the traditional gift for the fifth anniversary is wood and corks are kind of wood-ish… My husband wanted to have a glass of wine from all five bottles every night, but there’s no way I could drink that much at once! Of course that would leave the issue of of a bunch of unopened cheap wine bottles but I just used cork stoppers like this one to help keep it fresh as well as refrigerator wine organizers similar to this one.
Surprisingly, it was a bit challenging to find wines from 2013 on a budget. If you are a wine drinker or drink any type of alcohol at all, you know they can cost a decent amount of money, especially if you are buying multiple bottles at once. Considering we’re still saving to move, pay of our debt and travel more, I didn’t want to spend more than $50 on all five bottles of wine. That means I had to stick to a budget of about $10 a bottle. It took me a while but after several trips to my favorite Joe Canals, Bottle King, Buy Rite and local liquor store in town, I finally settled on the following wines all from 2013.
- Gnarly Head Pinot Noir
- Como Sur Bicicleta Chardonna
- Gabbiano Solatio Red Blend
- Canadian Star
- Rouseabout Rousey Chardonnay
These are wines we’ve never had before and selected simply because they were in our price range, cheap wine and aged for five years. We definitely lucked out cause these inexpensive bottles definitely didn’t taste cheap! Despite doing this in our living room, we figured it would still be a fun adventure traveling the world one wine glass at a time and imagine what it was like in each locale that the wine was from. Our wine took us on a adventure from the West Coast to South America and back to North America. First stop Chile…
Day 1: Cono Sur Bicicleta Chardonnay (Chile) – Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Chile, but I imagine if it’s anything like this wine I’m in for a treat. I’m a fan of all things citrus and fruity, and this wine was just that. It was light and had hints of pineapple with just the right amount of acidity.
Price: $7.47
Day 2: Gnarly Head Pinot Noir (California) – Pinot Noir is my favorite type of red wine. I wanted to wait to have it ,alla save the best for last, but the temptation was killing me. Even having it a few days earlier than anticipated, this wine did not disappoint. It’s a highly romanticized wine and for good reason. One sip and you would never think this was cheap wine! This pinot was perfectly light and velvety on the tongue with just the right amount of acidity and lingering flavor. If you are someone who isn’t normally into drinking wines or trying to transition into reds, I highly suggest a Pinot Noir like this. It’s definitely well received by many and a bit easier to take by newbie wine drinkers. We enjoyed this wine with some amazing pizza from a local Italian restaurant and the pairing couldn’t have been better! It was so good I had to skip my normal sized wine glass and instead use my huge 20 oz wine glass to indulge in this baby. I really wish I bought two bottles of this one.
Price: $10.64
Day 3 Rouseabout Rousey Chardonnay (Australia) : Now I’ll be honest. This Chardonnay wasn’t exactly my favorite. It was very light and not too sweet which was great. But it left a slight after taste. I bought it because I’ve become a fan of Australian wines, my husband has always wanted to visit Australia and it fit my price requirements. I actually don’t know if I’ll buy this wine again to drink. However, the title of this post is “5 Cheap Wines Rich With Flavor to Celebrate You Anniversary” so obviously there’s something good about this cheap wine from Australia.
It’s great for cooking! Since I wasn’t a fan of the taste when sipping it, I figured it would be perfect for sautéing and marinating. And I wasn’t wrong. The chardonnay created an AMAZING Fish Francese and was a great marinade for steak. Dare I say it made my meal, rich with flavor?! So I may not buy it again to drink, but it may certainly be my beverage of choice for cooking.
Price: 8.49
Don't let the price tag fool you. These cheap wine bottles are packed with rich flavor perfect for any celebration! Click To TweetDay 4: Gabbiano Solatio Red Blend (Italy) – On the fourth night we chose to go back to reds by indulging in the Gabbiano Red Blend from Italy. Red blends really became popular a few years ago, but with cheap wine this good it’s clearly a trend to stay. It was a heavenly blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese grapes. Unlike the Pinot Noir, this wine definitely was not light, but leaned more on the full-bodied side. It was heavenly in my mouth and actually made me feel super classy for some reason. And it was oh so smooth with just a hint of oakiness and wild berries. Plus, just the thought of drinking wine from Italy makes you sound and feel rich. Though we didn’t eat anything with it, I imagine it would have gone well with cheese and some grilled meats.
Price: Believe it or not this wine was just under $8.00 at my local liquor store. I still can’t believe a wine this good from ITALY was so inexpensive.
Day 5 *The Big Day* Canadian Flower Ice Wine (Canada) Day five was our actual anniversary so we only found it fitting that we celebrate by indulging in a bottle of Canadian Ice Wine since it was the most costly bottle out of the bunch. We had had actually previously purchased it a year ago during our trip to the Niagara Falls and agreed to save it for a special occasion. Five years of marriage was definitely a special occasion worthy of this beautiful bottle. It was actually a coincidence that it was aged since 2013.
If you aren’t familiar with ice wine, it’s typically a dessert wine made with grapes that were harvested in sub-zero temperatures and pressed while still frozen. Only about 10 percent of the juice from each grape can be removed to create the wine, which is why they are usually pretty expensive bottles of wine. However, I’m happy to report that it was well worth the price. (This one was still on the cheaper side price wise in terms of ice wine) Much to my surprise it wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. It was definitely a sweet wine, but not too sweet that I couldn’t take it. And while you are supposed to have it with dessert, we broke the rules a little and enjoyed with a helping of seafood Paella. And it was great!
Price: Because we purchased it a few years back without intentions of including it in a our 5 day cheap wine tour, I’m not sure of the price. However, I think it may have been about $25.00 for 375 ml bottle.
There you have it. Five cheap wines rich in flavor to celebrate your fifth anniversary. All aged five years to perfection in their own way – just like marriage.
So what did I learn from all of this? That 2013 was a good year for wine and marriage. Oh and that you are definitely capable of traveling the world from your couch with good, cheap wine by your side.
TERRIfic Quip: Don’t drink to make the bad times good. Drink to make the good times even better.
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Such a creative idea! I would love to this with Nate! <3
I’m not a wine drinker, but I like to taste them. At these prices I can just have a tasting at home! Thanks for sharing.
Great post!! I love wine, but I haven’t tasted any of this brands. I’m def going to try them out. Great prices
I needed this!!! I’m trying to lean more about wines but didn’t wanna break the bank tryna test them all lol. I’ll be saving this and using it as a guide. Thanks!
I haven’t tried these brands, but it is good to know they are tasty wines that won’t break my pockets. .Thanks for this
Happy Anniversary! Cheers to many more years and thanks for sharing about these wines.
I’m a widow but I drink wine sometimes. I would definitely give low cost wines a try. I’ve had a few that were better than some expensive ones I’ve tried.
I needed this post. I like wine, but I like it at a good price! I’m saving this post.
Love this idea for celebrating an anniversary! I’m going to definitely check out all of these wines. Great price points! Happy Anniversary!
This is good to know. Especially, for times that you want to give a gift or celebrate. I’m a novice at wine tasting and know very little about them so thanks for increasing my understanding.
This was perfect timing because I was just in Target the other day looking at all the wines and thinking I wanted something $20 or under but something that actually tastes good. I will be trying all of these out!
Oh I am so happy these were your typical brands such as Barefoot. I am trying to up my wine tasting game so thanks for these suggestions!
I like to save money on wine and rarely splurge on expensive bottles. I also keep an eye on the Ibotta rebate app because you can earn $1-$2 rebate on wine purchases there too.
Thank you for the list of wines. Any time we want a good wine that isn’t heavy on the pockets, we head to the Trader Joe’s wine shop. They have great options too.
Thank you for the list of wines. Any time we want a good wine that isn’t heavy on the pockets, we head to the Trader Joe’s wine shop. They have great options too!