Great Wines Under $30
After an 8 hour day in the office and you inch along the freeway in your car. All you can think about is getting home. Sitting down with your partner over a nice meal. Sharing a great bottle of wine.
You park. Hunch your shoulders against the coming night’s cold and start across the parking lot. The doors to the wine store slide open and you walk into brightness. Your eyes adjust and you are standing in a warehouse-sized store with bottles upon bottles of Cabernets, Pinots, Merlots, and every other grape known to the world.
Mix a 6 and gAet some money off? Ask a wine store employee? Many times you probably just pick out a wine you have drunk and liked before.
Next time go in with confidence. Expand your wine palate without spending a fortune.
You’re in luck. We are all in luck. What makes the wine world daunting is also what makes it great. It is so vast that if you know what to look for, there are incredible wines available at low prices. Drink in style and keep your bank intact.
What follows is a list of incredible wines. All of these wines are available at the Big Box wine stores. All of these wines are priced under $30. You may be familiar with some of them. Some of them may not be familiar. Cheers.
RED WINES
Cabernet Sauvignon will be the toughest on this list. Why? It’s the most popular grape in the world. A grape that needs a long growing season and a soil that allows the roots to reach very deep into the ground. The areas where Cabernet Sauvignon grows well are all rock star status. Status equals cost. So our trick, and yours, is to find those hidden spots or hidden producers. Here are a few.
B.R. Cohn Silver Label $19.99
You might be familiar with B.R. Cohn. This bottle mixes grapes from their Olive Hill Vineyard in Napa, with other areas on the North Coast of California. We want to take advantage of when wineries use world-class grapes and blend in other areas. This equals savings.
J. Lohr Cabernet Hilltop $24.99
If Napa is the high end of California wine real estate, Paso Robles is that up and coming hidden gem neighborhood with cute homes and great schools.
Rodney Strong Knights Valley $24.99
Knights Valley. Knights Valley. I’ll say it one more time. Knights Valley. A sub AVA (American Viticulture Area) in Sonoma. Sonoma is just over the Mayacamas Mountains from Napa. To the West is the Pacific Ocean. It’s the closest sub AVA to Napa and is dedicated to great wines and not tourism. So again, the hidden gem region.
PINOT NOIR
Everyone’s favorite fragile grape, the thin-skinned Pinot Noir. Of course, we would all love to be gulping Pinot from the famed Cote d’Or in Burgandy, but this article is about “under $30” not “under $3,000.” So let’s get to work.
I won’t mention names, but there are some big-name Pinot Noirs out there that aren’t really location specific and just blend, blend, and blend some more to make a sort of sweet grape juice. Let’s steer away from that and get into some more delicate and nuanced Pinot Noirs. Sometimes, as it goes in life, a wine hits the big time, and a big company swoops in and buys it, and then mass produces the heck out of it. And like so much Top 40, you quickly turn the station and realize the music is formula just to sell records. The great thing about Pinot Noir in the United States is that there are so many small vintners putting out great juice. And Willamette Valley in Oregon is world-class as a region for Pinot Noir. So let’s dive in with some Oregon’s and a few from sunny California.
Adelsheim Pinot Noir $21.99
In 1978 Adelsheim became the first winery in the Chehalem Mountains region of Willamette Valley. At the time this region was unknown and planting Pinot Noir was unheard of. Today, the winery still focuses mainly on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Although, they do make some sparkling and rose. While they have higher-end single-vineyard bottlings, their entry-level Pinot Noir is delightful and affordable. It shows what this grape in this region can be.
Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara $24.99
This heavy hitter slips under the radar for some, but it really shouldn’t because it’s California legend. Winemaker Jim Clenendon grew up in Ohio in the ’50s and went to college in Santa Barbara. What so often happens in these stories, he spent time in France around wine and got bitten by the bug. Au Bon Climat focuses on Burgundian style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is quite simply one of the best, most consistent wineries in America, if not the world. And, to be honest, the fact that you can go get a bottle of this for around 20 bucks is astounding.
Rex Hill Willamette Valley $29.99
This bottle is admittedly at the top of this price range at pretty much $30. Although, if you mix this sucker with some other values, maybe the store gives you some bucks off and it’s a win-win. Am I right?
This wine is kind of like a gateway drug. You may find yourself self-talking into purchasing higher-priced Pinot Noir after drinking this. It gives you everything a great Pinot does with complexity at a lower price.
SANGIOVESE
Who doesn’t love Sangiovese? This is one of the ultimate food wines. Sangiovese is very high in acidity and has decent tannins. This equals a great food pairing wine because is it strong enough to hold up to bigger flavors but soft enough not to drown out more delicate foods. Sangiovese has come a long way from the straw basket (fiasco) that doubled as a candle holder.
We should all thank the crazy out of the box thinking Italian winemakers who made Bordeaux blends called SuperTuscans. Long story short, the government in Italy would not certify these blends even though they were world-class. They were labeled as Table Wine. So the winemakers called them Super Tuscans. They blew up in popularity. This forced the winemakers in Tuscany, hint Sangiovese, to up their game. So now we have wines made with Sangiovese that are top-notch and affordable. Before most top-notch Sangiovese were Brunellos.
Sangiovese makes Brunello, Vino Nobile Montepulciano, and Chianti. The differences lay in the amount of time aged and locations. Unfortunately, you won’t find under $30 Brunello, but you can find “Baby Brunello” which has less age. Since Brunello, by law has to age so much, “Baby Brunello” or Rosso di Montalcino is sold to make money while the big boys age.
Avignonesi Vino Nobile $21.99
Avignonesi is a winery focused on showing the world how great Sangiovese can be. The Vino Nobile is organic wine with bold red fruit and smooth tannins.
Antinori Peppoli $23.99
Antinori is another legendary producer on this list. Their Super Tuscan Tignanello is well known. Peppoli is Sangiovese from Chianti Classico. The Antinori family has been making wines for 6 centuries.
Banfi Rosso di Montalcino $24.99
This wine is considered “Baby Brunello.” It has the same grapes and comes from the same vineyards, it’s just not aged as long as Brunello. It has surprising power and goes well with meat dishes.
MALBEC
If there is a big and bold red that is rivaling Cabernet Sauvignon right now, it has to be Malbec. Malbec is dark fruits and smoky spice with good tannin. We mostly know Malbec from Argentina but it makes its home in France.
Catena Malbec $19.99
Catena is a legendary Argentine winemaker that focuses on single varietal wines. They do have high-end Malbecs, but their entry-level is superb and layered. It will open up and change in the glass.
ZINFANDEL
Zinfandel is California’s grape. Superb Zinfandels are produced in California. Zinfandel produces a robust red wine with higher alcohol content. Some people may be familiar with White Zinfandel, also produced from the Zinfandel grape.
Ridge Three Valleys Red Sonoma $27.99
Ridge is another legendary producer. They specialize in Zinfandel but are most well known for their Cabernet blend called Monte Bello. Monte Bello is one of the beasts of red wine, up there with any great red from around the world. We are sticking under $30 though, so let’s be thankful that another legendary producer is releasing great juice for a good price.
TEMPRANILLO
Tempranillo, especially from Rioja, may just be my favorite wine going right now. The key to knowing Rioja is understanding the aging laws and the differences between Crianza, Riserva, and Gran Riserva. With Spanish Tempranillo, it’s all about the oak, mostly American oak. I prefer the middle of the road Riserva because I think it lets the grape shine through. These are incredible food wines with good layers of cherry and leather. Crianza requires 2 years of age with 6 months in oak. Riservas are aged 3 years with 1 year in oak. Gran Riservas are aged 5 years with 18 months in oak.
These wines could be good for your “Taco Tuesday.”
La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi $21.99
This wine is 100% Tempranillo and is an excellent food pairing drink. Roasted coffee bean, plum, and leather. Yummy.
All of these red wines are of high quality and great representations of the grape varietal. The best part is they are all affordable. If you haven’t tasted around, just take your pick and find great wine at a great value.