One word: Chile.

That's the answer when someone asks where to dispose of a bit of his or her dwindling disposable income while scanning shelves and bins in search of a wine to pour with dinner.

No, no bottle of wine, regardless of the stature of its provenance, comes with a guarantee that the person who buys it is going to like it.

But during a three-month stay in Mexico last winter, I made the quite happy discovery that when I picked up a bottle of Chilean wine, I was delighted far more often than disappointed, in both quality and value. In short, Chile is providing more punch for the wine buck than any other nation during these economically precarious times.

I'd hauled to Mexico a stash of California wine. But as that inventory shrank, I found myself drifting more and more to the Chilean wine section at the supermarket – at first tentatively, but soon eagerly.

As an experiment in frugality, I imposed a limit of $10 in U.S. currency on my wine purchases. I discovered that a sawbuck spent on a Chilean wine today can buy you several refreshing and occasionally even exhilarating glasses of "vinos tinto, rosado, clarete o blanco."

That's a phrase, incidentally, I ran across while reading the list of about 90 U.S. products on which Mexican authorities in March abruptly slapped retaliatory tariffs. This was after officials in the Obama administration put the brakes to a pilot program that over the past two years allowed Mexican trucks to haul goods on highways in border states. The angry tariff worked out to a 20 percent increase for the price of California wine shipped to Mexico.

For us and our Mexican, American and Canadian neighbors in Baja California Sur, this international trade snit elicited little more than a big yawn between sips of Chilean wine.

California wines have decent distribution on store shelves and restaurant wine lists in the sister cities of San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula. But when you see so many California wines selling for two or three times what you would pay in Sacramento, you laugh and move on, generally to the Chilean section.

It's large. The Chilean wine trade pretty much has the Mexican market locked up, at least in Baja California Sur. Argentine and Spanish wines also are popular and accessibly priced, and Australian, Italian and French releases share a fairly strong presence in the area.

For diversity and value, however, no country is as dominant in Los Cabos as Chile.

I never caught the first wave of Chilean wine when it surged into California a couple of decades ago. The wines often were uneven, frequently thin and not particularly exciting. I couldn't get with the excitement they generated among several other wine scribes.

Clearly, over the past couple of decades, Chilean wines have progressed dramatically in consistency and quality. For 60 to 130 pesos per bottle ($4.50 to $9.75), we enjoyed clean and vigorous chardonnays, zesty sauvignon blancs, and herbal and lithe cabernet sauvignons.

I was aware that Chile is widely respected for those varietals, but felt I was pushing my luck when I picked up a bottle of the Agustinos 2008 Valle Bio Bio Winemaker Selection Reserva Pinot Noir, a varietal for which the country isn't customarily recognized. And while it was light in color, light in body and young, it nevertheless delivered sweet and tangy cherry fruit.

I vowed that upon returning to Sacramento I'd keep an eye out for it, along with the snappy Vina Morande Pionero 2008 Valle de Casablanca Chardonnay, the round and limey Concha y Toro 2008 Reservado Sauvignon Blanc, and the spicy, concentrated and exceptionally well-balanced Gran Tarapaca 2007 Valle del Maipo Cabernet Sauvignon.

They may be around here, though I haven't spotted any of them yet. Nevertheless, we have been savoring several other attractively priced Chilean wines found locally. Two recent delights: The smooth, tangy, sweetly fruity and alluringly herbal Santa Ema 2006 Maipo Valley Barrel Select Reserve 60/40, a youthful blend of 60 percent cabernet sauvignon and 40 percent merlot ($7.59 at Costco), and the fresh and sprightly Viu Manent 2007 Valle de Colchagua Reserva Carmenere, all raspberries and blackberries showered with a julienne of sage and mint ($11.99 at Taylors Market).

Let's hope United States and Chilean authorities don't get in some trade dispute that results in the price of the imports here jumping 20 percent or so.