It's a very tough question, especially as wines, even the same wine for the same vinyard, can vary dramatically year-by-year.

Price is rarely a determinant either. Sometimes expensive wines are dull. Sometimes extremely cheap wines are very good.

What's your budget? That's also a big question.

But here's what I generally recommend.

1) Drink Chianti.

I know that it's not a cabernet, but Italian wines are subject to very strict requirements. And anything labelled as an offical Chiani, will at least be very drinkable.

2) Taste wines, and then buy what you like in quantity.

If you can get out somewhere to do wine tasting, that's great. If not, buy a sampling of wines at the super market. Try them one by one, and if you find one that you really like rush back to the store and buy a case.

I used to regularly go to Trader Joes. They carry super-cheap wines ($2), but in limited quanties, so they sell out quickly. I'd bring a corkscrew with me, and taste the wine directly from the bottle in the store. If the wine was no good, I'd buy just the one that I opened. If it was good, I'd buy a case or two of it.

There are some thoughts for you.