I know there’s a ton of interest in super-cheap wine. My review of the $1.97 Oak Leaf wines is one of the most popular pages on the site.

Unsurprising then that Food & Wine’s Lettie Teague undertook a unique experiment: Ordering the very cheapest wine on a number of wine lists around the country to see if any were worth drinking. (Conventional wisdom holds that you should never order the cheapest bottle on any wine list… if not out of fear for its quality than for fear of simple embarassment.)

Her verdict: Mixed. In cases where the wine list was more thoughtful and personally crafted, the cheapest wine was good. On lists that treasured names and pedigrees over actual drinkability, they were swill.

And either way, yes, it’s embarassing.

That said, I’m now really curious… even though I may not actually order it, I’m going to start scouring wine lists just to see what the cheapest bottle is.