I had meant to do this yesterday to augment the Liquid Assets column, but anytime we can talk about red-wine bargains is a good time, eh?

I asked several merchants to name their best under-$15 reds, and they cited a couple that I had tried and liked.  Here are some others:

The two most widely available nicely priced reds that I recommend are blends from Europe: the Falesco Vitiano from Umbria and La Vieille Ferme from southern France. They are widely available and have been consistently tasty and interesting for a decade or more.

My favorite “weeknight” U.S. red for a long time was also a blend, Marietta Old Vine. But two things have happened to move it just a bit down my list: Marietta started making a lot more of it and allegedly became less discriminating about its grape sources, and I went on the South Beach diet (yeah, I know, it didn’t exactly take) and lost my taste for wines that fruit-bomby. For those with a sweet (wine) tooth, it’s still a swell option, as are two similarly flavored merlots from Australia, Hardy’s and Banrock Station, and the shiraz from McWilliams.

And hey, I still like the Marietta as well as several other red blends from California: Folie a Deux’s Menage a Trois, Cline’s Oakley Five Reds, Steltzner’s Claret and Rosenblum’s Chateau Le Paws.

As several folks in the article mentioned, South America is producing some great bargain reds. I’ve been a fan of Trapiche’s malbecs for a dozen years or more, and recently have really enjoyed both the malbecs and cabs from another Argentinian winery, Piattelli. Ditto the camrenere and cabernet from Santa Rita in Chile.

Finally, the reds from Portugal are coming on strong, and one especially good (and frustratingly hard to find) option is the Quinto do Coa.

That’s a lot of wines, I know. But hey, there’s always room for a list of great values to grow. So I’d love to hear some suggestions in that realm — under $15, red and delicious –  from y’all.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.