Costco and Global Wine (2007)

I don't think that's what the Old New Thing post is suggesting. Do the Germans buy a lot of 60€ white label wine? According to the article,

The average “bottle” of German wine is sold in a discount store, often with a house brand name, and costs about a Euro per liter. I put “bottle” in quotes because sometimes it comes in a juice-box type container. Decent quality for less is what the German market seeks and the discount chain’s reputation for value seals the deal.

My experience matches the Old New Thing analysis: There are plenty of good inexpensive wines, but a randomly chosen $10 bottle from a typical 200+ vintage seller is unlikely to be one of them. As you get closer to $50 the ratio of good wines to bad wines rises quite appreciably. After that it's hard to identify the added value beyond variety of experience.