I wish that I couldn't tell the difference between expensive wine and cheap plonk. While there are plenty of expensive duds, there are very few cheap good wines. The wine industry might not be able to make good wine on demand, but they can certainly make sure no good wine is cheap.
The only real exception that I know of is Hunter Valley (Australia) wines. The Hunter Valley is a very unreliable wine region and it only gets a really good vintage every 5 to 10 years. Wine makers just can't charge the correct price for hunter wines in the good vintages because they have to be able to shift their production the rest of the time. In a good year you can get totally amazing wines for a very reasonable price - the only problem is the long wait.
The only real exception that I know of is Hunter Valley (Australia) wines. The Hunter Valley is a very unreliable wine region and it only gets a really good vintage every 5 to 10 years. Wine makers just can't charge the correct price for hunter wines in the good vintages because they have to be able to shift their production the rest of the time. In a good year you can get totally amazing wines for a very reasonable price - the only problem is the long wait.