I've met more than a few wine fans who can afford to drink 300 dollar bottles of wine, that will be as excited about a particular 12 dollar bottle as you'd expect them to be over something in the 300 dollar range.
In California alone, there are over 4,000 wineries [1]. It's hard to buy genuinely bad wine here.
If you can spend ~$8/bottle and take the opportunity to sample stock from stores like TJ's, you can find delicious wines with excellent (enjoyment/$) values.
