A lot of it depends on what your local wine shop has, and "good" depends on what the friend likes. There has been such an explosion of winemakers, it's hard to track them, and the big boys seem trite, even when they're good.

Consider a gift certificate, if the recipient cares about "good" wine. If the real gift is someone choosing for her and delivering it to her hands, that's another story. There are several online buyers' guides you can see on your phone while you're shopping. Try to find out if she likes white, red, rose, sparkling; dry, sweet, tannic, etc. One person’s great is another person's "good only for soaking paintbrushes".

The legendary Two-Buck Chuck (which is now three bucks but varietal) from Trader Joe's (Charles Shaw), is blended from bulk wine, but totally palatable, which is the point. It tastes good. Not top quality wine, but if you like wine rather than water with your dinner, and don't care whether it pairs well so long as it tastes good, it's good enough. I use it for cooking with unless I'm making a reduction (need better wine if it's going to be concentrated).

Among my friends a not expensive wine (California prices, which aren't high for wine) is about $45 per bottle. IMHO, you can get some really good gems for the $13-18 range, and some deals on exceptional unknowns for less than $10. But I can't tell you a specific, findable bottle in those lower ranges.

For California wines, Ironstone Vineyards has a wide selection in those lower ranges which range from decent to pretty good, but they're not consistent, year to year, and you'd still have to check with a review.

"One persons great is another person's "good only for soaking paintbrushes"."

So true!

WalnutCreek, do you have any idea of the preferences plllog mentioned...white, red, dry, sweet...? Otherwise it's pretty wide open.

Depends on what you have access to. We have a local mom-pop family run insainly stacked to the rafter dealio with no room to navigate the store...packed. No website so difficult to do curb-side. (fun shopping pre-covid) If you can get 1/2 pints or 1/4 bottles they can be good gifting. 4-6 small bottles instead of just one. Might be nice to know the preferred white or red.

One of our most memorable employee gifted this past holiday was a small bottle of proseco, a few 1/4 pound variety of cheeses, some crackers. I like a sip of bubbly or a 1/2 glass of wine. A full bottle often sits unused but fine for cooking later.

Really depends on your budget.

One local wine store in your area may not have my wine store selections.

This one is interesting...

maybe a few crakers and snacks like nuts, etc. dried fruits....

My gut feeling, since you said it's a friend of your grand daughter, is that she is a quite young woman, likely early 20's and a "good bottle of wine" Is white or possibly a rose, not too dry with just a hint of sweet. Not too likely she has developed a taste for a dry and tannic full bodied Petit Sirah. And there are wines out there designed to appeal to just such a wine drinker. Brands like Cupcake and Menage a trois....you can't go too far wrong with a Cupcake Chablis.

And if you want to be a wee bit more sophisticated a German Rhine wine can be very yummy...look for an Auschlase or a Berenauschlase....the last will be sweeter but not cloying.

And ther are some very good Chilean and Australian wines to be had for surprisingly low prices.

You should be able to get her a bottle of something she will think is yummy for about $12 to $15....or even less. However I don't know where you live and the prices of wine varies a lot from state to state because of the taxes imposed.

Wine is as personal as perfume. I think Plllog's idea of a gift certificate is the way to go.

It depends on whether or not she's going to eat while drinking it, or have it as an apéritif....what food she likes..... a real mindfield. Go to your local shop and ask them for an average price for a decent bottle then buy the certificate.

Oh Linda so ageist! 😉

Yes it would be nice to know at least red or white. If white I’d go cliché with Santa Margherita Pinot, similarly Whispering Angel for rosé. Can’t really be faulted for those. For a red I’d go to the store and see what they have. Try to find a place that seems more geared to nice wine than half pints of blackberry brandy, and look around. They’ll often have tasting notes and ratings displayed, or just ask if it seems like someone knowlegable is there. Also have phone available to google.

I wouldn't overthink it, it's a bottle of wine, I would get a bottle of good Burgundy because I love it and if she hates it she can always make boeuf bourguignon

Agree with Linda on the sentiment.

A bottle of Pinot Grigio would be nice if she likes whites. These are a few I have on hand right now.

Drive an hour west to Sonoma County and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a winery! (just a saying, folks!) Even your area has some great wines! We went on a wine tour in the Livermore area and were pleasantly surprised!

Find out her preferences, and go to a wine tasting place that serves wine from several wineries.

Believe it or not, even Bevmo employees are supposed to take a wine tasting class in order to help customers with their questions! Good luck!

I can't remember if it was BevMo or one of their competitors, but I was shopping for a party a few years ago, and trying to choose for a variety of tastes. It was pretty darned obvious that both of the employees I talked to were trained to ask for a price range and then show you to those bottles and didn't know anything useful about the wine. The guy at Whole Foods was a lot more knowledgeable, and they had nice little reviews on cards, but that was pre-Amazon. If WalnutCreek is actually in Walnut Creek, even Safeway should have a guy who knows the wines they sell. :)

I confess to being a wine peasant. And I'm always looking for good and cheap. I like a white wine with a little crispness but not too dry. Our little wine bar has a great (cheap!) house California chardonnay....Coastal Vines. Even red wine drinkers like it.

I'm also partial to a pinot grigio from Trader Joe's - Villa Borghetti Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie.

Katie, a lot of wine snobs are into the labels rather than the contents and can't tell counterfeit (quality like Two Buck Chuck in a fancy bottle) from the real thing. if you genuinely enjoy what you're drinking, it's good wine.

As a former wine and spirit shop owner, what is "good" for one is "rot gut" to someone else. There's red, white and pink and often you favor only one so if you're a pink drinker, you're not going to like the red and the red drinker is not going to think much of the white. Then there's sweet, semi-sweet and dry. Same as with colors, ifyou're a sweet drinker you might as well be drinking vinegar as the dry and ifyou're a dry drinker, heaven forbid, the sweet seems like drinking liquid sugar. So your granddaughter either needs to find out more information about red, white or pink and sweet, semi-sweet and dry or give her a gift certificate. And instead of asking here, your granddaughter should go to a local wine shop and ask them. They are experts -- most here are just consumers and they are biased as to what they favor.

Chianti is always a good choice. Rule number one: you can't eat Italian food with water. Regular table Chianti runs around $15 a bottle. The good stuff will go over a hundred.

"if you genuinely enjoy what you're drinking, it's good wine."

Wise words, plllog. If I like it, it's very good. :-)

I think this thread is proof that you can't choose wine for someone else unless you really know what they like LOL

You really can't choose without knowing. I still remember the wine that was left for us by the sellers of our house. It was undrinkable but I so appreciated the gesture and lovely note they included. I still think about it occasionally.

Someone with a refined palate would not request ”a good bottle of wine” and leave it at that. Find out red or white or rosé, go to the store, see what they have in your price range and google if it’s rated decently. Done.

I think this has really gotten OTT! As FOS said, if she were a wine connoisseur she wouldn't have requested a "good bottle of wine". Find out if she prefers red, white, rose, etc. Go to a reputable liquor store and ask for a recommendation or a bestseller. Done!

LOL! Chloebud, you remind me. My people are split between wine people and water people. When wine people bring a bottle to an occasion with several different botlles open, I'll usually have them put it on the table for all to share. I rarely know anything about this new thing, but wine people can usually be trusted to bring something some will like. this once, however, I wasn't seated near such a bottle, which was about three quarters gone when I got some. It was SWILL. Tannic, tes, but also acidic, sour, nasty...maybe a bit uric? Just awful. I was so embarrassed! and worried that so much was gone and my guests would be thinking I'd lost my mind. Until I found out that one of the ”plus” people of one of my guests had accounted for most of the bottle, with the guy who brought it on the rest. The former lady apparently is more into drinking than wine. ;)

Thanks to all of you. My granddaughter never got back to me as to whether the young lady preferred red or white. If there is a next time, I will know to get that info before posting a query.

Rather than asking red or white, your granddaughter could reply to the request for a good bottle of wine, "Gladly! What's your favorite wine?" Even if she can't get that particular wine due to availability or cost, a specify reply will tell her everything she needs to know to get help from a good wine clerk, sommelier, or the great and wide Internet.