Good Wine Buy – a Northern California Cabernet for $30.00!

Here’s a low-priced Cabernet from Sonoma — it’s the 2010 Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet, and it’s priced at just $30. This AVA is only seven miles north of Calistoga; and, if you drive north from there, you might not realize that you’ve left Napa Valley. The tannic structure on this wine is such that, if you drink it now, it will be best with food or appetizers or decanted. The production is large enough that it should be available in many outlets, and it’s a value worth pursuing and a bottle worth aging. You could buy three bottles and drink one now, one a year from now, and one down the road. The 2009 vintage of this wine made Wine Spectators’ top 100 list. Will this one make it? I dare not say, but maybe.

Just a note about Wine Spectator’s top 100 list. There are specific criteria that the magazine uses to determine what is worthy of the list. Specifically, they consider, of course, wines that are well crafted; but they also consider wines that are well priced and have a certain level of production. Kudos to them, because it would be a shame to highlight only expensive, limited production wines.