Like many of you, I’d seen the Barefoot Cellars wines in the store for years and never gave them much thought. I don’t expect that a $5 bottle of wine is going to be any good, so I always just walked past them. But a couple of years ago a friend’s mom died, and he invited some of us over to his house for a meal after the funeral. He had beaucoup Barefoot wines on hand; red wines on the table and white wines on ice in the sink. I tried a couple and they surprised me. I didn’t buy any of their wines after trying them that day, but my mind was opened a bit. Fast forward to Christmas 2019. We had some friends over for a charcuterie board with cheese and fruit. I served a Lamarca Prosecco, a Barefoot Prosecco, and a Moscato from Italy (at the request of one of our guests. I don’t remember the brand, but I think paid about $13 for it). Anyway, the Barefoot Prosecco was the favorite wine of the night. 6 of 7 chose it as their favorite of the 3 wines I served.

So starting earlier this year I’ve been trying some of the Barefoot Cellars wines. Several of them are surprisingly good if you’re looking for an inexpensive, everyday wine. Btw, all of their wines are non-vintage (NV), but you can assume that all of them are blends of the two most recent vintages.

I pay $4.40 a bottle for these wines after getting a 20% discount for buying at least 4 bottles. These are nice wines to have on hand if you want to open a bottle that doesn’t cost much but delivers pretty well on quality-to-price.

Barefoot Cellars Pinot Noir

My clear favorite of the reds. As with all of the Barefoot reds, this wine isn’t really indicative of the varietal. I’m not sure what I’d think it was if I tasted it blind. Maybe Beaujolais, with a little Barbera added. But it is surprisingly good. Wine Enthusiast rated this wine at 90 points, so clearly they liked it too.

Barefoot Cellars Pinot Grigio

My clear favorite of the whites. This is a delicious wine and it is typical of the varietal. Interestingly, my wife and I went to a restaurant recently for our anniversary. My wife ordered a red with her meal, but I had a dish with scallops and shrimp so I wanted a white. They had half bottles of the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, so I got that. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the Barefoot Pinot Grigio is better than the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. Wine Enthusiast liked the wine too. They rated the Barefoot Pinot Grigio at 87 points, and it’s one-fourth the price of the Santa Margherita.

Other Barefoot wines I sampled:

Reds:

Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rich Red Blend

They’re all good. They’re all perfectly drinkable. At under $5 a bottle, they’re great values.

Whites:

Chardonnay, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. I especially liked the Sauvignon Blanc, although it was just a tad watered down on the finish. The Riesling was a close second. I had it with Jambalaya, and it was a great pairing. Like the reds, the whites are great values.

This post was edited on 6/5/21 at 5:26 pm