How Much A Bottle Of Wine Cost The Year You Were Born

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price of 1 liter of wine appreciated by 334.23% from 1963 to 2023. Meanwhile, mathematician and oenophile Neal D. Hulkower compiled the notes he made about 348 bottles of wine from 1969 to 1979 and found that the average price per bottle was $7.96. Today, 92 of those wines are still available, with the average price now at $577.65 a bottle.

Why the difference? This data indicates something distinctive in wine, making researching its cost in any given year complicated: Wine often gets produced with the intent of cellaring to age before its consumption. Simply googling "how much did a bottle of wine cost in 1980" generally led to results of what that bottle of wine was worth today, not when it was bottled. While we did discover a few archives of prices noted in newspaper grocery ads, most of the pricing we found came from historical restaurant wine menus.

So how much did a bottle of wine cost the year you were born? We're taking a look at wines beginning in 2002 for all of you 21-year-olds and going backward to 1968. For each year where information was available, we provide data about a cross-section of wine varietals, white and red, to give some perspective on what was being consumed and how the tastes of American wine drinkers have changed over the years.

Our wines for the year 2000 come from the menu of the Blue Mesa Grill restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. This restaurant, which still exists today, served food with a Tex-Mex flair. While you might expect it to specialize in top-shelf tequila and margaritas, it boasted a particularly well-stocked wine list that leaned California-heavy particularly. The menu notes that Sauvignon Blanc complements dishes with peppers, Fumé Blanc pairs well with grilled foods, Pinot Noir is great with spicy foods, and grilled pork or beef shines with a Syrah grape. Of the three Fumé Blancs on their menu, the Dry Creek Reserve was their higher-end wine at $29.00 per bottle. The most expensive red wine was the Clos du Bois Pinot Noir, which sold for $30.00 per bottle.

Moving back to 1995, we look at the menu of an Italian restaurant called Spageddies Pass the Ciao. There is no indication of where this restaurant was located, but the menu is relatively typical Italian fare with pizzas, pasta, and the usual main dishes of Chicken Marsala and Eggplant Parmigiana. The wine list is relatively modest, with only a few options on the menu. What is interesting about this particular wine list is that not only were wines available by the glass and the bottle, a few were offered by the 1.5-liter bottle. The Fontana Candida Frascati is a light, white Italian blend that retailed for $4.25 a glass, $14.95 a bottle, and $22.50 for the 1.5-liter bottle. The Mezzacorona Merlot, which is also Italian, retailed for $3.75 a glass, $13.95 a bottle, and $21.00 for the 1.5-liter bottle.

For 1991, we can see the difference between grocery retail versus wine sold during the Stars Bordeaux First Growth Festival in Sacramento, California. The grocery retail from New Jersey is for a 4-liter bottle of Gallo wine. It doesn't specify red or white, but it was $7.99. For reference, a 4-liter bottle of wine is known as a Rehoboam. The wine festival offerings don't have an equivalent-sized bottle of wine. The highest volume bottle sold was a Magnum, which is 1.5 liters. In this case, the bottle of Château Mouton-Rothschild Pauillac vintage from 1978 sold for $300.00. This is a notable example of how wines can appreciate in value over time, making comparing prices from one to another somewhat of an imprecise science.

Our 1989 selection of wines comes from Mike's Marine restaurant in San Pedro, California. The restaurant is no longer functioning, but the seafood grotto boasted a white wine-heavy, all-domestic wine list. White wine with seafood is typical, and a buttery Chardonnay tends to pair well with shellfish, like lobster and scallops. Having three different Chardonnay selections on the menu makes sense. The top-shelf Chardonnay came from Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley and sold for $28.00 a bottle. Its Chardonnay selection was rounded out with a modest Colombia Crest from Washington, retailing at $13.00 a bottle and $3.25 a glass, or a slightly more expensive option from Callaway Vineyards & Winery in Temecula, California, selling at $17.00 a bottle and $4.50 a glass.

For our 1987 selection, we found a menu from a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada. Its name is Earl's, and its menu reflects relatively straightforward, no-frills items. Its wine list, however, is fascinating. It indicates that the staff of Earl's took a trip every year to one of the world's finest wine-producing regions to explore and learn about what the region had to offer. The wine list reflects this with its diversity and attention to detail, including the grape varietal, winery, location, and a description of its primary characteristics. Prices reflected are presumably by the bottle and in Canadian dollars, which means they would cost less in U.S. dollars. Standouts include the Ardeche Latour Chardonnay from France at around $22.00 a bottle and a Drouhin Beaujolais Villages from France at about $19.00 a bottle.

Another bit of nostalgia is this nugget from 1984. This menu from the still well-respected Hyatt Regency of Long Beach, California, reflects a seafood-centric classic French-inspired culinary tradition that is no longer typical in Southern California. The wine list is notably divided between California wines and European wines. This list also features several higher-end wines that reflect a more affluent and worldly clientele. Of note is the Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley of California — one of our favorites. Then it retailed for $34.50 a bottle. Today it can easily retail for more than $100.00 a bottle, especially if the vintage is from the early 2000s. This menu also features a spendy Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac Bordeaux from France, at $138.00 a bottle, which currently retails for $1,194.00 a bottle on average. Yet another stark example of how wine can appreciate in value.

Our 1982 menu comes from a restaurant called Daddy's Money in Clearwater, Florida, which no longer exists. The food menu is abundant. This is one of those typical touristy places with so many different menu items, trying to appeal to so many different tastes it feels overwhelming. Its wine menu, however, is a bit more restrained and streamlined. While it has several wines by the glass, its offerings by the bottle represent a healthy cross-section of both domestic and imported wines. Of note are the Robert Mondavi Chardonnay at $19.00 a bottle and the Simi Cabernet Sauvignon at $15.00 a bottle, which hail from California and are the two priciest options on the menu.

The Pelican's Catch seafood restaurant in Venice Beach, California, had a great selection of fresh seafood in 1980. Its wine list was affordable and serviceable. We noted the ability to order house wine by the carafe for $4.95, ½ carafe for $2.95, and a glass for $1.00, although we aren't clear where this wine came from. Its premium wines included a Beaulieu Vineyards Estate Bottled Chardonnay for $13.50 a bottle and French Macon Blanc for $11.00. For reference, Estate Bottled means the wine must be produced and bottled at the winery using grapes cultivated by the producer within the same geographic jurisdiction as the winery. Macon Blanc is a wine from Macon, France, made from chardonnay grapes. Unless a page is missing from the menu, this restaurant only served white and sparkling wines and no red wines.

This 1977 wine list from The Terrace Club in Minnesota has some fascinating characteristics. First, it notes pricing for large bottles and small bottles. We can only surmise that this means the difference between a standard 750-milliliter bottle versus a half bottle, which is 375 milliliters, but we cannot be sure. The second thing of interest on this list is that most of the wines came from Paul Masson, a Frenchman who established a winery in California in 1878. While Masson was initially known for making affordable, respectable wines, he eventually branched out into making brandy which became his signature beverage. The most expensive wines on this list are sparkling varieties at $7.50 for a large bottle. The remaining wines run between $3.50 and $4.50 for a large bottle and $1.95 to $2.50 for a small bottle.

This 1974 menu from the famed Mamma Leone's Italian restaurant in New York City was a find. Listed as one of the iconic restaurants that first put Italian food on the map in 1906, it was at one point the largest in the city, serving on average 700,000 diners annually in its expansive 11 dining rooms until it closed in 1994. Classic Italian fare required a wine list featuring Italian wines. While this menu had expanded to include a few French, German, American, and Portuguese selections, bold Italian reds were the stars of the wine list. Wines were listed by grape varietal rather than by winery, suggesting the degree to which American diners were somewhat naive about wine. One could get a Barolo, Chianti, Valpolicella, Verdicchio, or Orvieto for $7.75 per bottle or $4.50 for a half bottle. Cost being the same, all that mattered was individual taste.

The 1972 menu is from the historic Nut Tree Restaurant, an early proponent of California cuisine in Vacaville, California. This expansive and eclectic menu highlighted abundant locally grown fruits and vegetables. What is distinct about this menu is its wine focus. Every dish listed has an accompanying wine suggestion, like the Nut Tree Tamale Plate is paired with the Oakville Zinfandel, and the Fresh Broiled Salmon is paired with the Beaulieu Riesling. The Oakville Red Zinfandel is listed as a California-type wine that is fruity, zestful, aromatic and has a berry flavor, costing $4.50 per glass. The Beaulieu Riesling is advertised as straw color, dry, and fruity, costing $4.25 per glass. The menu also offered a daily red and white stoneware cruet for $1.50. A cruet is a container with a broad, level bottom, and a tapered neck, topped with a cork stopper historically associated with ritual religious ceremonies.

The 1968 wine list from the Carriage House restaurant in Walnut Creek, California, stands out immediately for being dominated by wines from two wine purveyors — Paul Masson and Almaden, some of the first wines produced in California. Yet again, the rosé wines are called Pink. We also noted a Champagne Cocktail for Two on the menu for $1.50 a split advertised as A Toast to Pleasure. This wine list is incredibly affordable, with wines ranging from $2.75 to $3.00 a bottle and $1.50 to $1.75 a half bottle. The sparkling wines were roughly double that at $6.00 a bottle and $3.00 a half bottle. Anecdotally, while you may still pay a pretty price for a true champagne from France today, like a Veuve Clicquot, sparkling wines are far more in line with the pricing of other wines on restaurant menus, reflecting savvier consumers.