Finding Good Wines at Great Prices

Yesterday, after reading that red wine can be an important key to cognitive acuity late in life, a regular reader asked me if I could recommend a red wine for under $20. The fact is that there are lots of good ones. And, if you are willing to go into the $20 to $30 range, the number grows significantly. But, in order to find them, you need to largely get out of the mold you are stuck in.

Note that in my title, I said finding good wines at great prices; I did not say finding great wines at great or even at good prices. On rare occasion, we might get lucky and find a great wine at a great or even good price, but for the most part, proprietors of great wine learn pretty quickly that it is great and with that greatness comes rapid increases in price.

So, what is the secret? First, stay away from everything you know. That's right, fuhgeddaboutit!!

In the US, when casual, or even somewhat knowledgeable wine drinkers talk about red wine, inevitably, they are talking about Cabernet or red bledns using primarily or exclusively the classic Bordeaux grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot). Stay awya from them. Because they carry with them the aura of being excellent, their prices are high. You want some other things to stay away from? If you see Napa or Sonoma on the label, stay away. The wines might be spectacular, but if you are looking for value, it is rare to find it there. 

Understand that there are lots of wines made of the grapes that I mentioned from those areas that I mentioned that I just love. I own a bunch of them, some of them from the days when they were much less expensive. But, this is not where you find value.

Look instead to wines, often in simple bottles, made of grapes you don't often see coming from grapes that if you have ever experienced them, it's likely been vicariously through this blog.

So, without getting into specific wineries and specific wines, if your favorite wine shop has really diverse selections, here are some things you might look for, in no particular order other than that in which my fingers hit the keyboard.. 

Tannat -- While you can find it in other areas, the two primary Tannat-growing regions in the world are Madiran in southern France and in Uruguay where it is the national grape. It's healthy. It is loaded with resveratrol and polyphenols. It's tannic, really tannic, but is often softened with other grapes. And, it's not expensive. You can find a very good bottle of Tannat for under $20 and a great one for rarely as much as $30.

Central and Eastern European red wines -- Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and many of the other small countries around there. All of them produce lots of excellent red wines. If they are sold in the US, chances are they are not pedestrian. Remember, the US distributors need to find labels that they can sell year after year. Nobody knows these labels, so they tend to be inexpensive. And, in some cases, you can find the grapes I told you to stay away from at excellent prices. I'll give you an example. Where is the best Cabernet Franc in the world? Many would tell us that we would find it at legendary Cheval Blanc and it would be tough to argue with them. You want a great value Cabernet Franc and frankly yet surprisingly ones that have fared extremely well in blind tasting against the Libournais (right bank of Bordeaux) Cabernet Franc-based wines, find some from Villany in Hungary. Or, if you love the lush fruitiness of Zinfandel, but don't want to pay $80-$300 for California's finest, try some Plavac Mali from Croatia.

Italy -- When many of us think Italian wines, we think Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Amarone. I do too, but if I attempted to drink them every night, I would be out on the street destitute really quickly. Italy, however, has well more than 1000 wine grapes that t uses. At a minimum, several hundred of them are red. More of them than not are medium-ish-bodied and very food friendly. They tend to have nice acidity which makes them a great pairing with Italian food and frankly lots of other foods. And, if you pick one that has no words on the label that you recognize, you can probably escape for less than $20. Want a tip? The highest designation for a region in Italy is Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita or DOCG. If you see DOCG on a bottle, you are paying for the classification. Next down is Denominazione di origine controllata or DOC. There you are paying less for the classification. But, if you are looking for value, look for Indicazione geografica tipica or IGT. This is where without any other knowledge, you are most likely to find the value wines.

I could go on, but I don't like to make these posts too long. But, this should give you some clues as to places you might look to find great value red wines. And, don't forget that once you metabolize the alcohol out of your system, there is research that says that it's a healthy food group.