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Originally Posted by TrumPockets
I'm not experienced with wines, but I understand that the quality of a certain year has a lot to do with climate, soils and the winery itself. So is there such thing as a consistently good wine? (Like, one that is pretty indistinguishable from one year to the next) Are there companies/wineries that anyone just implicitly trusts?
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Most large production wines are made to achieve taste consistency from year to year--in fact, a "2010" bottle will likely include a small amount of wine blended from earlier years in order to maintain that consistency in spite of changes in growing conditions.
You will find much more variation in consistency for small production wines/wineries. They are also, typically, of better quality than the largest production wines.
Another rule of thumb: you are more likely to see consistently quality across vintages in the New World: California, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand.
You are more likely to find good wine at bargain prices from the (somewhat) less celebrated regions: Chile & Argentina are good options, as are New Zealand, South Africa, Australia. California, other than Napa and Sonoma counties, has good wines at bargain prices. You can do very well in Europe, too:
France: Jura, Languedoc, sparkling wine from the Loire Valley
Italy: Veneto, Sicily, Emilia-Romagna, Puglia
And more. You'll need a good wine shop/access to online wine shopping (depends on state law) in order to get to some of these regions, though.
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