The Best Wine I’ve Ever Recommended

Summary

• I like quirky wine deals and I hope you’ve liked them too.
• Here’s the best wine I’ve ever mentioned.
• If you are any sort of wine drinker or bargain hunter, get this:

I love finding wine bargains. Wine Access has been one of my favorite sources. If you have not ordered from them before, get ten bottles of their 2020 Angeline Pinot Noir Reserve Mendocino County 750 ml. It retails for $25 and is a good wine at that price. Wine Access has it for 40% off to $15 and free shipping for those ten bottles. They are currently knocking off another 12% for their end of summer sale (and that discount doesn’t appear to interfere with the free shipping). And with this $50 sign up bonus, you get another $50 off. That saves you a total of $168. Net, you pay less than a third of retail. It is a terrific value for a serviceable wine that makes for good drinking or gifting. From the retailer:

The Pinot Noir that Scooped Sonoma

Angeline is based in Sonoma County, which is chock full of Pinot Noir vineyards that keep winemakers stocked with first-class fruit. But the #1 wine in the Angeline tasting room doesn’t come from Sonoma — it comes from up the coast in Mendocino County.

North of wine-rich Sonoma County and below Oregon-like Humboldt County, dramatic Mendocino is dotted with rustic towns like Boonville, Hopville, and Laytonville. The area has long been better known to brewers and beer fans than wine-lovers, but all that has changed — and it’s largely because of its stellar Pinot Noir.

One sip of the 2020 Angeline and you’ll understand why the area deserves respect equal to any other Pinot Noir region in the Golden State. For this bottling, proprietor Courtney Benham and his team leaned heavily on hillside vineyard plots — spots where Pinot Noir vines soak up the sun’s rays after the chilly morning fog pulls away, priming the grapes for lithe concentration. The deep, mineral-rich alluvial soils serve as the staging ground for grapes full of intensity.

The 2020 vintage, with its fluctuating temperatures and shorter hang times, limited yields, increasing competition for fruit from the best plots. It also made for a crop of lively, light-footed Pinot, without a trace of high-alcohol heaviness. This bottle shows a gorgeous ruby-violet hue, with a nose centered around plush berries, plums, and Bing cherries. The voluminous, buoyant palate and fine, velvety tannins befit a wine that definitely belongs in California’s Pinot Noir big leagues.

Wine Access Tasting Note

Deep, ruby-violet center with violet overtones. The nose is dark and centered on plush berries, plums, and Bing cherries. While wild violets and stone-fruit blossoms surround the periphery, so do tiny hints of cinnamon and anise. The voluminous, buoyant palate and fine, velvety tannins make this expression of Mendocino Pinot high on pleasure. Drink now–2025.

Critic Reviews

92 pts

James Suckling

A concentrated pinot noir with aromas of dark berries, red plums, dried herbs, sweet tobacco and baking spices. Medium-bodied with crisp acidity and fine tannins. Sharp and crunchy with a spicy finish. Drink now or hold. Screw cap.

More recently, I’ve been enjoying Last Bottle (click here for $10 off a first order). It is a fun, strange process with a single wine available for sale at a time and $50 of credit if you buy literally the last bottle (no luck yet with my first four orders).

But here is the best wine I’ve ever recommended. By far. Pricier than I usually mention. Buffett once said that,

It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

I typically buy the wine version of the latter — fair wines at wonderful prices. The above Wine Access pick is $8 a bottle for a nice wine. A recent one (now gone) I found on Last Bottle was $2(!) for a bottle. So brace yourself for a different price point. What comes next isn’t an adequate bottle at a low price. What comes next are wonderful bottles at a fair price.

Killer Cab Sampler Critically Acclaimed 6-pack — Shipping included

From the retailer,

Wine Details & Tasting Notes

de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon Competition Winners

This phenomenal six-bottle sampler features a wide range of top-scoring Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon’s (plus one stunning Walla Walla Cab-based Meritage) from the recent Critics Challenge and Sommelier Challenge and LA International Wine Competitions.

A Great Deal Gets Even Better

The wines in this sampler would retail for over $500 under their original labels — purchase them all for just $149, shipping included.

N.17 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet: 94-points/Platinum

N.25 2018 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon: 94-points/Platinum

N.250 2019 Rutherford “Hillside” Cabernet Sauvignon: 93-points/Gold

N.80 2018 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon: 92-points/Gold

N.82 2018 Walla Walla Meritage: 94-points/Platinum

Lot 198 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: 94-points/Platinum

These are each different but top-rated wines worth $500 retail. The retailer has them at 70% off for $149. Click here for another $25 off a first time order. That gets you to $124 or less than 25% retail. It is still a lot of money for a half case of wine but this wine is essentially as good as I can appreciate. I’ve been to a lot of broker dinners where people show off how much money they spend on wine and these are as good as $2000 bottles as far as my palate can differentiate and the net cost is just over $20 per bottle. So if you like great red wine even a little bit: buy this half case. Please comment below with your opinion, but it is my most confident recommendation since I started sharing these ideas.

Conclusion

Underpaying is good. Wine is good. So underpaying for wine is great. And it doesn’t even matter if you drink it. It is good to drink, but also good to have a wine collection for last moment gifts. Either way you win.

TL; DR

If you have not already done so, save $85 on wine between $10 here, $25 here, and $50 here.