Expensive wine is wasted on me. I can't tell the difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle
I hear this a lot from folks who usually have never had a $200 bottle. I used to do a blind tasting with wines ranging from $5 ti $100 with folks. Many were surprised at how good the latter wine was. It really doesn't require some unusual experience or palette to discriminate.
I've quite often found that price and whether or not I like a wine don't correlate very well. I like what I like. Sometimes I find a $25 bottle that I love.
Back in the old days I went to Napa to Beringer, and did their specialty tasting. I was a big fan of their Knights Valley Cab at the time (not sure if they still make this, it was 2001-02 timeframe) at about $25. The specialty tasting were their ~$100/bottle wines. They were all delicious, but I didn't like them more than the Knights Valley. And they weren't $75/bottle better, at least to my palate.
If I like a wine enough, I won't let a $60-80 price tag scare me off. But as I've said, there are wines that I like and would buy at a $20-40 price point, but that I don't like enough for that higher price point.
I find wine pricing isn't always about quality as much as it's about the production capacity of a winery. When I go tasting, it's completely common to hit small wineries that might have a specific wine listed on their tasting sheet with a total production of 1000 cases. You're not getting that wine for $19.99. They didn't make enough to sell it that cheap. So then you have to decide whether it's worth it at say $50 vs a higher production winery that CAN sell the same varietal for $19.99. Those higher-production wines can be very, very good, but they're often homogenized because of the scale and where they must get their grapes. Sometimes the unique flavor of a wine that is more local and has growing conditions for the grapes that are expressed in the final product are worth it.
But I never assume I'm going to enjoy a $50 bottle more than I'll enjoy a $20 bottle based on the sticker price. The only difference is that if I find that $50 bottle that I like, I'll buy a couple bottles. If I find a $20 bottle that I enjoy just as much, I'll buy a case lol...