Well I am a Fitou fan and living about half an hour down the A9, we all go and buy from the producers direct in the village there and a lot cheaper than the supermarket wine sections. Just stocked up for xmas with plenty over for next year from laying down for a while. I also live close to LaFarge, one of the big producers locally.
As I heard it, Mateus Rose is the stepping stone, or gateway drink, from Coca Cola to wines.
And it was of that I heard the Mateus Rose exported was more than the entire Portugeuse grape harvest.
More a joke about popularity, and asking what the wine is really made from.
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Everyone in the 70’s who went to a Berni Inn would ask for the bottle to turn into lamps. I preferred the raffia covered Chianti bottles myself but only as a decoration in my bedroom as was not married then
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Don’t forget Black Tower with the bottle modelled on a ‘stone crock’ as the label described it. Great with candle wax trails down the side. 
Oh, it was Schooner Inns back then - took my girlfriend, now wife, to the Tavern In The Town in Croydon aged just 17 and 15, and we probably did have a bottle of something between us without even thinking about it.
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Ooo, expensive date in an Italian restaurant 
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Iceland when they became more of a supermarket sold Black Tower as my parents used to buy it sometimes. Then they became a bit like Lidl today with lots of foreign regional wines at decent prices. Going to the Spanish supermercados at La Jonquera twice in the past two weeks was like being in Aladdin’s cave but I got my Bols Advocaat for xmas for exactly €10/ 75cl bottle (it is interdit here due to the egg contents)
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I worked in a wine and spirit warehouse at a time when you could buy Spanish claret, burgundy and Sauternes. German wines were a good introduction to wine drinking. I remember Piesporter Michelsberg, and it was easy drinking. I wonder if German wines have got drier over the years.
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Yes they have become drier. Back in the 70s and 80s around 30% of Germanic wines were.sold as dry now it’s over 60%.
Market demand for drier wines has been the main reason for the increase along with climate change. Higher temperatures allow the grapes to ripen more (and sooner) this provides a lower acidity making drier wines easier to achieve. This is currently happening in France, the increasing sustained heat moving up from the south is creating higher alcohol levels in wines. . The climate change in the champagne region has unreliable adverse impacts on harvests thus a number of them are buying parcels of land in southern England transplanting existing vines from France.
Posh hippy juice
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I spoke recently with producer in Vosne-Romanée who was concerned about the changing nature of the wines, the Bourgogne Grand Crus are loosing their subtly and alcohol percents could hit 15% this year, the 2026 quality will be good but yields are down.
Up in Chablis some producers are saying that 2026 vintage will be very different to other years, skins were tough, there was very little juice and some grapes were burnt.
May be not classed as cheap, but an alternative. 
Naw - Bulgarian Cab Sauv.
We have been buying english sparkling wine (aka champagne) for many years now. Our favorite is Nyetimber and thankfully bought several boxes a while back as price has rocketed, so no longer a cheaper alternative to our favourite French champagne which is Boizel.
We worked out that the cheapest alcohol per percentage was ruby port, so sat around being posh with schooners of the stuff.
When I met my wife to be (in her final year as a dental student) I told her I was too poor to visit the dentist whenever I was suffering from toothache, a cheaper solution was a couple of bottles of vintage port. She immediately asked “any particular vintage”? I found that very funny as a port enthusiast.
Apparently for the dental students it was Yate’s Wine Lodge for schooners of cheap sherry and port in times of dental pain.
I stay true to my region and it’s cremant Loire
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We do the same, Crémant de Limoux for us. 
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Moillard crémant de bourgogne.
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I was invited to a luncheon at Pol Roger many, many years ago. Six of us round the table hosted by the Chairman of P Roger.
A few months earlier the chairman had been in the news in the UK as he was tasting English sparkling wines at an event and they had included a NV P Roger wine. When asked which was the best wine he actually chose a Nyetimber above all others including his own. Embarrassed!!
Anyway as the champagne was being served at lunch for apéro my friend asked the chairman “is there any of that decent Nyetimber stuff?”
Oh how we laughed.