What $30 Red Wine Provides the Most Pleasure?

Reading a few of the recent Zinfandel threads on the Board a question came to. As you know may know, I'm a huge Ridge Zin fan - particularly Geyserville and Lytton Springs. I've bought 6-24 bottles of each wine in every vintage since 1985 and I've tasted these wines from before 1985.

There is no other $30 or less red wine on the planet that provides as much pleasure to me as a ten year old Ridge Geyserville.

So, the question is this, what $30 or less red wine provides you the most pleasure after some years in the cellar?

For somewhere around $30, the Houillon/Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Poulsard rocks my world. For a couple of bucks more, Occhipinti's Il Frappato is highly pleasurable. I admit that neither is easy to find, so maybe not in the spirit of what you were asking??

For somewhere around $30, the Houillon/Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Poulsard rocks my world. For a couple of bucks more, Occhipinti's Il Frappato is highly pleasurable. I admit that neither is easy to find, so maybe not in the spirit of what you were asking??

There were no rules on availability!

Can you tell me more about these 2 wines?

Who actually has Overnoy?!

Hard to say. Lots of options between Clos Roche Blanche Cabernet ($18), Gonon St. Joseph (mid-high 20s), Baudry Chinon (Franc de Pied, Grezeaux or Croix Boissee in years when it's under $30) and whatever Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blend Steve Edmunds has to sell.

This is soooo subjective. The Lytton Springs would be near the top of my list. I would also list Sokol Blosser Pinot Noir Dundee Hills (the 2007 is right around the $30 mark at several shops on wine-searcher.com) If we don't confine it to domestic (USA) reds there would be a number of basic Riojas or even crianzas that would be worthy of consideration and also some Amarone del Valpolicella. Some of the lesser Bordeaux wines I like are around the $35 mark.

I could agree with Ridge, Baudry, Breton, Gonon. I usually love the Occhipinti SP68 -cheaper than the pure Frappato. Montevertine Pian del Ciampolo, Felsina, Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco, Vissoux Poncie, assorted Brun, ESJ Rocks & Gravel (or OBM).
Some choices in Burg or Bdx too, but maybe more vintage variability

+1 on what Dale and Salil have put forth, and I'll add that many of Steve Edmunds's Syrahs will come in below that price point. His '01 Wylie-Fenaughty delivered about as much pleasure for under $30 as any other wine I can think of. Horses for courses, though, and it'll depend on what food I'm eating. Also, I have a cellar stocked with 10-20 year old wines that I purchased back in the day for under $30. Does an '86 Ch. Gruaud-Larose St. Julien count?

Mark Lipton

ETA: My all-time greatest pleasure derived from an under-$30 wine may have been from a mixed lot of Cornas from '86/'87 from Nöel Verset and August Clape that I got at auction a few years ago.

Chateau LaGrange.

6 bottles of Yellow Tail on discount?

A case of Two Buck Chuck?

A three case run of assorted bottles only slightly 'off vintage(s)' at Grocery Outlet? (Sometimes referred to as "The Filigenzi Option")

Are we only talking about age-worthy wines?

Hmmm....a Clos Du Val 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet was pretty darn delicious. Def. available for below $30 in some places.

As for recent discoveries, there is a chianti imported by Louis/Dressner that I love-the Montesecondo Chianti Classico 2007 is full of earthy, leathery complexity yet has very nice chianti "cherry" fruit and some fun funkyness. Whether it would age well...I don't know.

This is soooo subjective.

90% of the stuff on this Board is subjective!

Like some of the folks above I used to like Loire cabernet franc or Northern Rhone syrah at this price level. Unfortunately prices go up (as they do) so it can be tougher to find good Northern Rhone syrah at $30. But Beaujolais has risen to the challenge. I used to think of it as the $20 wine that provides the most pleasure. Now it has that honor in the $30. Foillard that is.

Unfortunately prices go up (as they do) so it can be tougher to find good Northern Rhone syrah at $30. But Beaujolais has risen to the challenge.

So has M. Texier!

(And wines like Barou and Gonon St. Joseph are also great buys under that price point. Graillot Crozes is in a similar range.)

For somewhere around $30, the Houillon/Overnoy Arbois Pupillin Poulsard rocks my world. For a couple of bucks more, Occhipinti's Il Frappato is highly pleasurable. I admit that neither is easy to find, so maybe not in the spirit of what you were asking??

Can you tell me more about these 2 wines?

The Louis-Dressner website tells you more, and more accurately, than I can about both wines. But both are pale-colored reds that are bursting with delicate flavors that are completely outside the paradigm of modern industrial wine. The first is from the Jura, the second from the slopes of Mt. Etna in Scicily. Both are entirely "natural", which is to say somewhat fragile and only lightly sulfured. Both are drinkable young; I don't have the experience to say if they age, but I have read that the Poulsard grape is ageworthy. What made me think of both was your word "pleasurable". There are many wines that I find delightful, but some seem to reach deep into the pleasure centers of my brain, including these two. (Steve Edmunds' wines do as well.)

Steve,

Thanks! They sound very cool.

The Louis-Dressner website tells you more, and more accurately,

Well, not in my case. I've used both IE and Firefox and I get nothing when I try to click on the list of producers on the left side of the page.

The Louis-Dressner website tells you more, and more accurately,

Well, not in my case. I've used both IE and Firefox and I get nothing when I try to click on the list of producers on the left side of the page.

Most odd, Tom. I just tried using FF 4.0 on a Mac (OS X 10.6.7) and it worked fine. Try this link instead.

Mark Lipton

1998 Jadot "Clos des Ursules"
2002 ESJ "The Shadow"

2002 ESJ "The Shadow"

You mean 3 of them?