The first yuppie poet once said, “The more it costs, the better it is, and that’s the bottom line.” He was talking about art at the time, but he could have been spouting off on people’s opinion of wine.

Is wine better when it costs more

Researchers at Cal Tech did some research and found that people like wine more if they are told that it is more expensive (wish I could have been in that research study group).

I’m going the other way. I’m here to discuss the possibility that the wine I’m drinking is actually better because it is less expensive. I know. I have issues. But I sometimes get anxious when drinking a $100 bottle of wine. I sniff, sip, and analyze. I process, compare and contrast. The wine might be the best ever, but I might not be able to get out of my own head to realize it.

You know what I do with a cheap bottle of wine? I drink it and enjoy life. I don’t over-think it. That gives it the potential to be the best wine in the world. So, maybe the wine isn’t “better” because it’s less expensive. Maybe, more specifically, I simply enjoy less expensive wine more because I allow myself to just drink it and share it with friends.

According to my new-found theory, what’s in my glass today is the best wine in the world. The 2014 Aveleda Vinho Verde is the 90 point, $7 bottle of love and perfection that I drink without hesitation and without pretense.

Vinho Verde means “green wine” in Portuguese, but it translates better to “young wine.” Vinho Verde is not a varietal, but a group of young red or white wines from the northern coast of Portugal that are specifically made to be opened and enjoyed within a year of bottling. They are generally cheap and many of them are sublime.

The Aveleda Vinho Verde is a white blend of loureiro and alvarinho grapes. It is juicy, bright, filled with stone fruit flavors, crisp minerality, and is lightly effervescent from the additional carbonation that is traditional in Vinho Verde simply because the Portuguese people like it that way. Good enough for me.

I will happily go buy a case of Vinho Verde, for the same price as one bottle of something worthy of analysis and contemplation, unscrew the cap and just drink it when I want, with friends, without hesitation. That makes it the best wine in the world and worthy of the theory that, just maybe, the less it costs the better it is.