What are you willing to pay for a good bottle of wine? The answer, I assume, depends on your budget.
The occasional splurge wine aside, the sweet spot for the vast majority is somewhere between $10 and $30. In that price range there are a surprising number of excellent options provided by wineries that aspire to overdeliver.
I’ve identified five of my personal favorites for this week’s "Wine Talk." Most of them are distributed nationally and widely available. All were chosen because they compare favorably to wines that are far more expensive. I think of it as affordable luxury! Here are the fabulous five:
Centine is an entry-level wine that hardly acts the part. Produced by Castello Banfi from indigenous Italian and international grape varieties, the centine rosso is the best Super Tuscan-style wine for the money, bar none. It retails for around $12 and compares favorably with other Tuscan red wines at three to five times the price. The bianco and rose are very good, too, but the rosso is the clear-cut star of the lineup.
Dry Creek Vineyard wines are cheap by bargain standards, but they definitely punch above their weight in the $18 to $40 range. The sauvignon blanc and fume blanc are as good as any made in California, and the cabernet sauvignon is remarkably consistent, drinks well when young and has the structure to improve with age for up to 10 years. Pick up this Sonoma County winery and put it down in the Napa Valley and it could double its prices without anyone blinking an eye.
Louis Martini produces one of California’s most coveted cabernet sauvignons from its stunning Monte Rosso Vineyard in the Sonoma Valley, but that one will set you back $100 or more. The basic Martini cabs bearing either the Napa Valley or Sonoma County AVA are superb red wines that stand out in their own right in the $25 to $35 price range. This historic Napa Valley winery has long been a standard-bearer for affordable quality.
Rodney Strong is another Sonoma County winery that always delivers a top-notch product at about half the price the wines could fetch if they were made in the nearby Napa Valley. Rodney Strong’s grape sources are primarily the Russian River Valley, the Alexander Valley and the Chalk Hill area, but their basic Sonoma County chardonnay and Sonoma County cabernet sauvignon are always near the head of the class in the $20 range.
Wagner Vineyards isn’t seen much outside of New York’s Finger Lakes winegrowing region, and that’s a shame. Its dry riesling, which costs a mere $15, is a superb example of the high-quality riesling being produced in upstate New York. Wagner’s entire lineup is outstanding, but the dry riesling is my favorite because of its exquisite balance, scintillating minerality and remarkable ability to improve with age.
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