This has been the second cheapest or third cheapest type of
wine in the
United States for about a
decade now. The cheapest
wine in the
US is
box wine. Jug wine, in comparison, isn't so bad. Usually, it's brands like
Carlo Rossi or
Gallo or some such--certainly
low-cost California wines but above
box wines, which are still above
Boones or
MD 20/20 or other
fortified wines that are seemingly marketed to people on
skid row.
Jug wine--ah, now that brings back memories. The summer before my senior year in college, those of us still on campus lived in an old dorm--beautiful high ceilings, very airy. Nothing else to do on the weekends but drink heavily and party. And, while I was friends with a bunch of people around, I wasn't close with everyone usually, but for the summer we were all friends and would often hang out in someone's room drinking. For budgetary reasons, my poison of choice was a jug of blush wine (can you even buy blush anymore? Isn't it just white zinfandel now?) I would gleefully walk around the halls with my jug of blush (not to be confused with "jug o' chablis") and dole out portions to people carrying those large plastic cups endemic to the college scene and only really useful for jug wine or keg beer or grain punch or some other mass quantity of alcohol.
I don't buy jug wine anymore. Perhaps a bottle of a moderately priced wine (under $15 a bottle is my speed.) I like cheap wine like I can't stand cheap beer.