You’re right that there isn’t a right wine but I will caveat that with the statement that there are absolutely wrong wines.

Basically, no wine should make you grimace when you drink it and I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who would say that they really enjoy that bottle of sickly sweet and flabby plonk pinot noir that’s been sitting on the bottom shelf at the liquor store for the last 18 months. Anybody who says they do is probably more interested in getting drunk and the wine is just the vehicle.

Say what you will about differing tastes but there are certain characteristics from really bad wine-making (lots of sugar added post fermentation, etc.) that will absolutely make a bottle objectively bad.

That said, as a former wine collector I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. Since I stopped buying expensive bottles, my hobby has really shifted towards finding affordable wines with quality that belies their price. These bottles are what wine is really about…super tasty to drink and cheap enough to be opened just because it’s Tuesday.