What Does A Bottle Of $1.50 Red Wine Taste Like?

As you may know, I've been on a never-ending quest to find the best bottle of red wine in Prague for $5 or less. I've written about my search in previous posts, such as here and here.

So you can imagine that my curiosity was piqued when I saw a bottle of Spanish red being sold in one of my favorite wine shops for 29 Czech crowns, or about $1.50. It was also resting in a nest of fake straw in a wicker basket, as if it was a bottle worth noting.

(By the way, what's the profit margin on a bottle of $1.50 wine. Is anyone actually making any money on this?)

I had to buy a bottle, just to see what it would taste like.

I remember another bottle of Spanish table wine I bought last year, Sol de Espana, that proved to be literally undrinkable. Could this Las Meninas be as bad? Or maybe I had discovered a treasure trove of drinkable, and very cheap, red wine -- a dream come true.

The vintner takes its name, for reasons unknown, to me, after the famous painting of the same name by the Spanish painter Velázquez. A reproduction of the painting is on the label.

Not that this is a sign of quality of anything, at least not anymore, but it should be noted that the bottle had a real cork. No screw top for Las Meninas!

Daisy and I opened the bottle with dinner the other night. Neither of us had high expectations. In fact, I figured we'd be pouring it down the drain after a couple of sips. But lo and behold...

It was surprisingly unbad. That is to say, it wasn't good, but it was just on this side of drinkable. We ended up draining most of the bottle.

It had the color of raspberry soda, and absolutely no character whatsoever. It was hardly there. Daisy described it as the Corona of wines. Nothing to offend. Nothing to commend. She also thought it was slightly fizzy, something which I did not detect.

It was inoffensive, almost flavorless table wine. But most importantly, it didn't taste bad. If you'd made this wine yourself at home, you'd probably be pretty proud of it.

Not bad for $1.50, I have to admit. Although it's not good enough to claim the crown of the new Best Red Wine In Prague For $5 (Or Less).