[aluren]

Lol at 'American wine is better'. It sure feels nice to pay $17 for a much-touted fancy bottle that turns out to be meh at best when in the States. Meanwhile you could just pick anything at random for like 3€ in any French or Italian grocery store and still get something decent. I probably didn't try everything the land of the free has to offer but this offside remark really makes me wonder what is considered good there.

[bmelton]

By no means am I a wine connoisseur, but having just returned from France with a bevy of wine snobs who enjoy French wine (and were hoping for their success) -- this theory, as tested, did not hold true.

I purchased a handful of cheapo bottles (in the 3-8 euro range) from Franprix as a surprise to my wine-loving friends, hid the bottles from them and prepared blind tastings for them, only to discover that they regarded even the best of them to be undrinkable.

Perhaps this is simply due to a discrepancy between French and American palates? Perhaps Franprix is a bad place to buy wines? Perhaps a lot of things, but the notion that any $3 wine in France is universally regarded as 'decent' is not one I can vouch for.

[tarsinge]

> Perhaps Franprix is a bad place to buy wines?

In Paris yes it’s a bad place but in the producing regions they can have a nice local selection.

> $3 wine in France is universally regarded as 'decent' is not one I can vouch for.

You are right, even higher priced wines are hit or miss. Choosing wine in France is very complicated, compared to the US where price is a good taste indicator. But you can definitely find very good $3-5 bottles in France.