By Matthew DeBord
HQ 111 | AUTUMN 2020
When I first started seriously drinking wine, not long after college, it was the early 1990s; and while the California wine boom of the 1980s had brought an astonishing amount of great vino to budget oenophiles, you still took your chances when the price was less than $30 for a bottle.
If you were willing to invest some time and energy, however, it was happy days, as the costs of some incredible wines — mainly from France, but also from California and other regions — hadn’t yet gone crazy. I remember finding countless winners for around $30, which in my 20s was a real splurge.
Those days are long gone. But because quality is so much higher in 2020 than it was in the 1990s, you can’t find a bad wine for $30. You can find some real gems.
My list is made up of five white wines and five red wines, all priced more or less at $30 and widely available at stores and online.
Whites
Au Bon Climat Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard
This bottling comes from my favorite Chardonnay producer, located in the Santa Barbara region. It’s a notch up from the winery’s entry-level Chard, itself a spectacular value. What distinguishes Santa Barbara Chardonnay and Au Bon Climat especially is a richness of fruit combined with acidic crispness that blends slight tropical notes with apple and pear tones, creating balance.
Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne
By the standards of French bubbly, this sparkler, produced in large quantities to satisfy demand for the famous name, is one to keep around for everyday celebrations. It’s my idea of an educational Champagne. I’d pour a glass, present it to a guest, and explain that this is why French Champagne has its reputation for reliable house styles. Here, we have creamy, bright lemon flavors, some nice acidic zing and fizz that lingers.
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc
This is the wine that put the New Zealand wine industry on the map. Cloudy Bay was about $11 when I discovered it, but it’s now among the pricier, widely available bottlings. That said, it’s still completely worth it, with flamboyant citrus flavors and a vibrant, youthful personality.
Frank Family Chardonnay
More of a textbook California Chardonnay, with rich pear and ripe apple flavors, plus some succulent vanilla aspects, this wine is a good way to learn exactly what good American Chard is all about. Some folks dislike the bold and fruity attitude, but I think it’s held in check by carefully calibrated acidity and freshness.
Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé
I don’t personally like rosé that much, but I like this one, which is imported to the U.S. by Kermit Lynch. It’s full-bodied and flavorful, but also refreshing. Rosé, in my book, should taste like something, and this wine does. This is also the only rosé that I think you can plausibly drink year-round, rather than simply in the summer.
Reds
Bernard Baudry Chinon
This wine also comes from importer Lynch, a Northern California legend who has roamed France to find the offbeat and the excellent. Chinon is made from Cabernet Franc, the main red grape variety of the Loire region. It’s not a lush or rich wine, but it has marvelous complexity for the price and goes well with different foods, making it an appealing dinner-party red.
Benton-Lane Pinot Noir
This is a modern marvel from Oregon, where American Pinot Noir truly gives French Burgundy a run for its money. Or in this case, trounces the mother country. The “red label” estate Pinot from Benton-Lane might be my favorite Pinot on the planet and a fine example of Oregon’s refined yet fruity style.
Hartley-Ostini Hitching Post Cork Dancer
From the winery made famous in the film Sideways, this Pinot Noir is among many that the operation produces, but it’s accessible and relatively inexpensive, and an ideal wine to tote to a restaurant that allows you to BYOB or charges a modest corkage fee. Not terribly complex, it nonetheless has an unmistakable richness and crispness that Santa Barbara Pinots are known for, with lovely aromas and a mellow finish.
Francis Coppola Apocalypse Now
Created to celebrate the anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic, this forceful red — a mainly Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend of grapes from the Alexander Valley — was released in 2019 as a 2016 vintage. Coppola’s winery is first-class and among the only ones associated with a big, entertainment-industry name that’s actually got some heritage. The winery’s reds are wonderful, and this commemorative bottling would make the perfect gift for the cinephile in your life.
Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon
This is the basic Mondavi red, from the Napa Valley, made with the red grape that created the entire premium California wine industry, which founder Robert Mondavi himself brought to life. If I had to choose a single bottle of wine from the Golden State, and all I could spend was $30, and I wanted to experience the generous, fruit-forward, luscious California style of Cabernet for which the region is renowned, I’d pick this one.
