For high abv check out beers from Weyerbaucher and Foundry. Merry Monks from Weyerbaucher is also a Triple like the Monkey. Stouts has a triple but it doens't come in their variety case. I really like Victory's Golden Monkey - great high abv triple for a good price. And their variety case comes with three other good beers (we have to buy by the case here in PA).

Sorry dude, but good wine costs more than ten dollars.

That said a bottle of D'Alessandro 2009 Nero d'Avola can be had for about $15 apparently, and that's very nice.

Wine? I like Jacob's Creek. It's Australian.

Beers? I don't know where you are in the world, but in the UK we have CAMRA, the CAMpaign for Real Ale. Any beer they recommend is probably pretty damn good.

My personal preference: "Spitfire" - Kentish Ale. "T.E.A." (Traditional English Ale) - Hogsback Brewery.

There's a wine that comes out of California, I think it's called Bearfoot or Blackfoot, something like that, and it's usually $5~10. I think it is a good wine (and Forbes has a nice little article saying that the price of good wine doesn't matter except in your head - link at end). I buy the Merlot by them most often and have been extremely pleased. (But don't go less than $5 when trying a new wine. They're /very/ watery below $5.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katiebell/2012/07/09/is-there-really-a-taste-difference-between-cheap-and-expensive-wines/

Its barefoot. BF is a pretty good deal for being so cheap, I think its pretty good.
here is chocolte wine though that you should prolly try, it goes for around 10$ I think its mazing. I think its called chocovine but Im not sure

@Obi Glad to hear you're finally drinking sherry; it suits you.

@OP Barefoot and Yellowtail you really can't go wrong with for good cheap wines. I'm also a big fan of Relax Riesling.

Wolf Blass for red wines - red or yellow label or try Chianti. Drinking a lot of Pinot Grigio white at the moment.

While i'm new on here, I am not new o drinking wine! :-) I suggest a Pinotage... a red wine that is just a very good South African wine that is generally not expensive.

Thanks guys, tons of suggestions I'm going to follow up. As far as my location in regards to regional availability, I'm in northern Florida.

Philippe De Rothschild Chardonnay cost me $13 Cdn and had a very nice fruity flavour.

Lately I've been making my own wine for less than $3 a bottle. Although there are some equipment and supply start-up costs, and you need to do some research on wine making so you know what you're doing. What I do is buy my own juices (must have no preservatives/sulphites), mix up my own recipes and make it. I'm going to make an apple cinnamon wine for Christmas. It takes about 3 weeks to make my wine.

You can also buy kits that have all the ingredients and you just follow the instructions, these have the benefit of guaranteed results. Kits are often $75 or around there, more for premium. It seems expensive, but a $75 kit makes 23L of wine which is 30 bottles at $2.5 per bottle. Kits have their own clearing and aging instructions and can take from 4-8 weeks to be ready.

>>So I'm starting to drink wine on the reg
So that explains your alias. ;)

@Moondust, I'm not sure I follow.

What I'm currently looking for is a relatively dry, not particularly sweet wine. A little sweetness is good, and not super dry, as I am currently drinking the entire bottle in one sitting.

I was joking with you. Puddle - peeing a lot, puppies create a "puddle" when they pee. Drinking makes you want to pee. Somehow the humor is lost in the explanation. But fortunately, I'm not an entertainer and my jokes are apparently not funny. :)

You should ask Yellowjacket, he's an expert on unpretentious wine.

Mark West Pinot Noir - $11. One of the better Pinots I've had.

Winking Owl - $4, can get it at Aldi's. Pretty good for how cheap it is.

Apothic Red isn't too bad either, another $10 wine.

As for cheap spiced ales. Goose Island's IPA is the best one for the money I think.

Tell us where you live or we can;t talk about beer effectivey

<<<< lando's had one too many at the bonspiel tonight eh

Charles Shaw wine, available at Trader Joe's for $2 a bottle (I think a little higher in some regions). It's affectionately known as "two buck Chuck" and it's pretty hard to beat the price.

Northern Florida... okay, it may not be easy to find (or available at all), but there are two beers out of Mississippi's Lazy Magnolia Brewery that I recommend. Southern Pecan and Jefferson Stout. The Louisiana Abita brews are usually pretty good and readily available in the southern states I've visited. I don't know of any AL, FL, or GA brews to recommend. If you get up to the Tennessee area (ever), I can give you the name and number of my moonshiner. Any trip I make to the South, I stop in and see him. Worth every penny.

I'm with Hyperactive Jam - look into making it yourself (wine or beer). Besides being cheaper it's a great way to impress your friends and makes a terrific holiday present or housewarming gift. If you can find ingredients (fruit or flowers) for free locally it's even cheaper, and if you have kids it can be a fun way to spend a saturday morning, picking dandelions or elderflowers or whatever.

ghug is right. I'd recommend Domino Merlot if you like reds. It comes in a big bottle for 8.99 and its really a damn fine unpretentious wine.

It makes women want to move too fast though, so be careful.

In retrospect, I should have just done it. It would have made an even more amusing story.

Wine - I'd always go for a Rioja. Never had a bad bottle. A decent bottle starts at around £7

Beer - as a Brit, I'd suggest Theakston's Old Peculiar, Caledonian IPA or Innes & Gunn, although we have a lot of fine beers. In the US, Shiner Bock is pretty nice, although I'm not sure how well it would travel from Texas

Some suggestions from South America that you can probably get at around $10 in US if you can find:
Concha y Toro - Casillero del Diablo - from Chile - either the Cabernet or Carmenere are excelent. You can get even a cheaper one from the same wine maker with good quality (Travesia or Sunrise).
Norton Malbec - Argentina - Great wine and not too expensive.
Malma Malbec - Argentina - Another good deal for a good price.