Poll: In general, is Bordeaux under $30 worth buying?

[JimHow]

Two thumbs up on 2015 Siran.

[OrlandoRobert]

The Siran didn’t do it for me, glossy. But trusting the palates here, I did buy some and stuck it away. Used to love old school Siran back in the day.

[Tom In DC]

The poll is hard for me to answer because in my experience both options are true.

a) There are many thousands of producers in Bordeaux and I'd guess that the large majority of them produce wines under $30. (A price point, by the way, that was set 7 years ago when this thread started!) With such a wide choice, even AlexR will admit that one must hunt to find the good ones. So I'd say that, in general, under $30 Bordeaux is nothing special.

b) At the same time, we have AlexR going to open house days and various importers beating the bushes to find the best wines in the ocean of low-priced Bordeaux. If a particular bottle hits the shelves at this price point at MacArthur or K&L or your favorite local wine shop or ..., it has been vetted and is likely to be at least good. Some of these will be great deals. So I'd say that there are many great deals to be found under $30 in Bordeaux.

[DavidG]

Hey guys,
My answer is similar to Ken's, but here goes. Generally $30 (at lowest WS price) is about the perfect cutoff, I would say that Most are not worth it but you can definitely find some hidden gems, especially in good vintages. That said, with a little age, a lot of the sub 30 Bordeaux from good vintages will be very drinkable but not blow me away. My rule of thumb is for anything Bordeaux I would rather buy a wine that is that producers top wine, than one of comparable price that is the 2nd or 3rd wine of a different producer. However with an insane amount of good values in the 40-60 range.. I just get those +the hidden gems that are sub $30(or if some retailer offers a below market deal of course). So many better values sub 30 from other parts of the world, especially whites obviously that I'll just pay a little extra for a better bordeaux.

That said, I just bought a case of the 2016 tour saint christoph, for 27 a bottle.
Also I love the capbern 2016, got for around 25 a bottle

As these wines get some time to age, I am sure other deals will pop up for these good vintages and we will know how they have come around after a few years in bottle.

This is pretty close to how I feel about lower-priced Bordeaux. Lots of good stuff around the $30-50 range. Not killer but great QPR that beats Cab or Cab blends from just about anywhere else at that price.

Under $30 the pickings are slimmer but there are some gems. If "in general" means randomly selected, then no. Carefully selected? Sure.