My friend Jack, knowing that I am the self-declared chair of the Philistine Liberation Organization, sent me this link which pokes fun at wine reviewers and especially wine snobs.
My general experience has been that no matter what the meal is, I have a slight preference for flavourless white wines (e.g. pinot grigio usually fills the bill, but some sauvignon blancs are okay, too). I'll drink reds if they are being served and, to tell the truth, in the end I don't really care all that much.
Recently Jack persuaded me to try some $40 bottles of chardonnay. I don't much like chardonnay, so I have no idea why I succumbed. And despite the big build-up, I didn't like either one of them.
What I have learned, through trial and error, is that I don't care for most wines that are less than $10 a bottle (in Canada , that is. In the US they'd probably sell for about $7 in most states). Put bluntly, flavour matters a bit to me; I'm not just looking for the biggest drunk for the buck. Yet I don't notice much, if any, improvement in the wines once we end up paying more than about $17 - $18 a bottle. So I buy what others might call "table wines" or "plonk", which is just fine with me. I prefer the taste and I don't spend a whole lot of money on wine that doesn't matter to me.
In economics jargon the extra utility from the more expensive wines is not much and is certainly not enough to justify spending the extra money. As one friend says, "Once you've had a glass or two, who can tell the difference anyway?"