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I am somewhat of a wine snob and I would like to disagree about the cork issue. The current thinking among some of the snobs is that up to 10% of the corks are contaminated with a mold that negatively effects the taste. Some of my favorite non-plonk pinot's (~$25) currently come with a screw top.

I'm pretty ok with wine in a box too, especially from Australia. Argentina is doing some nice inexpensive wine as well.

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I agree with everything you said. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "snob" (I certainly never meant to imply that doc1019 was a wine snob). What I was trying to convey was that there's so much je ne sais quoi (tradition, ceremony, mystique, display) associated with wine that it can get in the way of the practical realities. I am, unfortunately, quite familiar with cork taint. Screw-tops don't get tainted; and that's one of the reasons that screw-top bottles are actually superior to the corked type -- despite that considerable advantage they are still considered somewhat déclassé.

I don't consider myself a "snob", and am certainly not a "connoisseur" of fine wines. However, I have learned what I can to educate my palate. I can't afford to spend more than about $30/bottle -- and prefer to spend a lot less. My wife and I keep one of those wine journals (in dead tree form, although it might be time to switch to an app). We like to search for value-priced wines -- from whatever region. We rank each wine according to: bouquet, taste, colour, legs, etc.; and keep track of the best deals. It's a money-saver, and adds to the enjoyment too. We age some of the bargain red wines in our wine cooler too.

I remember when "Two-buck Chuck" was the rage (we never got those prices here in Canada). Several reviews said that blind taste tests rated it above wines costing over 20 times more. We haven't gotten nearly as good a deal; but we have sluiced quite a few nuggets out of the gravel.

As for the containers -- I prefer a good boxed wine as an everyday table wine. As I mentioned before, it comes down to: price, convenience, and preservability. A box with internal bladder is the superior packaging on all counts. Next is the screw-top bottle. The most economical is the 1.5 litre size (two ordinary bottles). I keep a few 1/2-size bottles handy and transfer what we won't drink in a setting to them -- immediately after opening the big bottle. I've found that approach cheaper, and a lot less fuss than using argon (or nitrogen, or other inert gas) in the big bottle.