The Best Inexpensive Wines Available Now

Incognito (Red) is pretty amazing at $15ish/bottle. Also from the same winemakers is 7 Deadly Zins at about $15, a very good zin. Even better zin is Joel Gott 2002 $16 or the Estate bottle of same for about $26--it doesn't get much better than this! Hahn meritage (2001) is darned astounding at $12ish. Anyone tried these?

Cpdunn99, I don't often run into people who've had this group of wines. And I agree with your 7 Deadly assessment. Although, I do really enjoy it. The Hahn being my sub $15 reference, I'd like to hear what you prefer. Do you have some suggestions for a meritage in the same range?

Cpdunn99, sorry to hear about your job loss.

Most of the the wines I am into lately are, in fact, meritages. Meritage being a made up word to denote a blend, generally a Bordeaux-style blending, as opposed to a standard varietal. If you want to check a good one out, I'd refer back to the previously mentioned Hahn Meritage 2001 (now 2002?) for about $12.

The meritages I am into tend to favor a blend of cab franc, malbec and petit verdot. All rich and jammy, not unlike the Incognito we talked about before.

California, in particular central CA, has some astoundingly good wineries and grape production is so strong that prices are low. Good for us!

Let me know if you try the Hahn and what you think.

What do you like in Portugese wines?

Bob, yes, I believe those would count as a meritage. As the term is made up, I think the bottler could slap the name on any blend. It's supposedly a term created by blending the words merit + heritage, but I find it a stretch to apply those terms more than any other. I think they just liked the "Frenchness" sound of the term the marketing folks came up with!

Don't know if anyone's mentioned Rabid Red? $13.99 and darned good if properly decanted.