Sonoma County, though it's a premium wine region, has many wineries offering exceptional wines at reasonable prices. Sure, Sonoma still has plenty of expensive wines, and some wineries listed will also have some higher-priced bottles, but the ones listed below all have at least several good bang-for-the-buck wines.
Alexander Valley Vineyard
Their Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot, and Syrah all sell for about $20. The Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that you can find for $20-$25 punches well above its price class. If you don't know about Cab from the Alexander Valley growing area, it often over-delivers for its price.
Family owned, AVV has been in business a long time and has lower overhead than many of the newer, fancier wineries.
Balletto Vineyards
Another family-owned winery that's been around for a while. Located in the Russian River Valley.
They have several white wines that retail in the upper-teens into the $20s. The stars are the many Pinot Noirs selling in the $30, $40s, to low $50s. For me, the best deals are the Gewürztraminer, Teresa's Unoaked Chardonnay, Russian River Pinot, plus the Sexton and Cider Ridge Pinots if you want to splurge a bit ($46 retail). If $46 seems a little high for a reasonably priced list, these wines would probably sell for $60-up elsewhere.
Carol and her husband started their own winery after she spent a couple of decades of making wine for Rodney Strong Vineyards. They are set up in a no-frills light industrial business park.
Carol's thing is Zinfandel, though she makes many other wines now. Her whites and several of her reds, sell in the $20s or teens. Her most expensive wine is a $50 Cabernet from the prestigious Rockpile growing area. Carol's most popular wine is the $20 Wild Thing Zinfandel from old vines in Mendocino County.
Cline Cellars
Long-known for their quality and good prices, they make a lot of wine, all priced from about $20 to $60. About half sell for $20-something. Cline's Ancient Vines Zinfandel is their most well-known wine and retails for $26 though I've seen it in stores on sale for half that.
Another family-owned winery that's been around for several decades. You're seeing a trend here.
Foppiano Winery
A family vineyard and winery started in 1896.
They have a couple whites and a few reds priced in the $20s. With the estate Petite Sirah and Zinfandel, you will be tasting a lot of family history from their piece of land. Both of these wines are old school. If you don't know what that means, well, I'm not going to ruin it for you. :)
Korbel has been around since the late 19th century, but in the current family "only" since the 1950s.
Korbel makes a lot of sparkling wine, and it's in pretty much every store in the country that sells wine. They have over a dozen different sparklers ranging from very dry to too sweet for me, with almost all priced somewhere in the teens. My favorites are the Natural and the organic Brut, both retail for $17, but I always find them for several dollars less. FYI, the organic Brut is different from the less expensive "regular" Brut you find everywhere.
Pedroncelli
This family has been here since the 1920s. Yes, during Prohibition. John Pedroncelli must have gotten a good deal for the small vineyard he purchased in Dry Creek Valley.
This has been a favorite bang-for-the-buck winery of mine for quite a while. Most of the wines are in the $15-$30 range. The ones I usually pick up are the Mother Clone and Bushnell Zinfandels though they have a couple new, more expensive Zins I'll have to try next time. If you visit, don't miss the Cabernets and the Port.
Rodney Strong Vineyards
It was long ago that Rodney Strong sold his namesake winery. It was purchased by Tom Klein, a businessman from a multi-generation California farming family.
The Sonoma County-labeled wines sell in the $20s. They have lots of higher-priced wines, ranging up to $80 for their top Cabernets. The star of the show may be the $30 Alexander Valley Cab. They also have a new one I'm not familiar with, a $36 Knight's Valley Cab. Knight's Valley is a little-known, but excellent area for Cabernet.
Simi Winery
The first wines under the Simi label are from the 1876 vintage. The family sold the winery in 1970. In 1999 it wound up with its present owner, Constellation Brands, so this is a corporate-owned winery. It seems they've been mostly left alone to do what they do well including hiring outstanding female winemakers going back to the days of superstar Zelma Long. Simi was in the hands of the founder's daughter, Isabelle Simi, from 1904 until 1970!
Simi makes several under-$30 wines labeled as Sonoma County wines. The $25 Sonoma Cabernet is my favorite of this group; many love the $15 Sauvignon Blanc. Another great wine for the price is the Alexander Valley Cabernet at $35; sometimes found for as low as $20.
No comments:
Post a Comment