QPR

  Quality Price Ratio, a wine nerd term.   :)

With wine, this is the best bang for the buck. A quick definition follows on this sometimes misunderstood term, plus how to look for QPR wine.

This one has a comma in the price
so no QPR here

  Definition

QPR is a highly subjective assessment of what wines are just as good as their higher priced competitors. That is, if someone thinks cabernet A and cabernet B are both equally good, but A costs $50 and B costs $25 then cab B is great QPR. 

This doesn't mean that the QPR wine is better than the more expensive wine. It doesn't mean that the more expensive one is bad. It just means there's a similar quality wine at a better price based on someone's opinion.

We all shop this way at the grocery store when we try to decide if the store brand is just as good as the name brand, like the cheaper Safeway mustard vs. French's.

  What makes a wine more expensive?

Costs mostly come from the region, the grape variety and the winery's reputation and production processes. Grape growing areas like Napa Valley and Burgundy are high-priced. In California, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are more expensive than other grapes. Screaming Eagle Winery in Napa and Romanée Conti in Burgundy charge an arm and a leg. 

Winemaking comes in to play. For instance, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris rarely get any barrel aging and are bottled and for sale a few short months after harvest. Any wine that uses expensive oak barrels will cost more. There are less expensive barrels from places like the US and Hungary, and there are very expensive ones from certain forests in France. Wines will sit in barrels, usually for a year or two, or maybe more. The amount of hands-on labor a wine gets will add to the cost.

  How to find QPR wine

Look for Cabernet from somewhere besides Napa, or for a red wine other than Cabernet Sauvignon. Cab from Sonoma, Paso Robles or Washington, for instance. Or select a wine similar to Cab like Syrah, Merlot, Malbec, or Tempranillo. Likewise, California Pinot Noir can be high-priced so check on Oregon Pinot or look for a similar, less expensive wine such as Grenache, Gamay, or Barbera.

Chardonnay is a more expensive white wine, partly because most Chard uses oak barrels. Most other whites do not. There are Chardonnays that do not spend time in oak, so they should be less expensive. You may find, like me, that unoaked Chardonnay is preferable, plus you save a few bucks!