"mary" > wrote in message >...
> Every year or so Consumer Reports rates wines that are not high priced. I
> bought two of their suggestions in the past, and did not like them. One was
> merlot. To me they tasted like "dust."

Strange, isn't it, that good wines taste like asphault whereas bad
wines taste like fruit? I happen to agree, however. Mary, there are
LOTS of people here better qualified to answer this, but it has been
my experience as a once-beginner (I now qualify as an experienced
novice ;-) ) that trial and error is best.

For my taste, very generally I enjoy most wines in the $10-$12 range,
and do not enjoy lower priced wines, although I have found a few
cheaper wines that I like, and some higher priced wines that I hated.
I have never had a $20 wine that I did not like, and the best wine I
ever tasted was pretty expensive. It seems you get what you pay for,
generally speaking. I would say this price point works 90% of the
time.

I have also come to discover what *types* of wine I like. I prefer old
world to new world philosophy, for example. Most $10 Rhone wines are
decent for me, but I dislike most $10 Calif Cabernets and new European
(etc.) merlots. I tend to like most Chardonnay-based wines from any
region, and so forth. My advice, then, is to sample some
wines--consider it a research project--and at least make mental notes,
then re-try those that strike you.

If that's not good enough, someone recently posted the following link.
Time will tell if I agree, or if this is helpful:
http://www.tablewine.com/
It's all about affordable wines. Personally, I prefer trial and
error--it's a calling, I think. Best of luck.

John