Best Value
Some deals are just too good to pass up. Our Best Value category digests that rarest of breeds: Top-rated products at prices that are incredibly appealing. We include products across the board in this section.
Top Best Value Posts:
Top 10 Bourbons Under $20
Wines of Lula Cellars, 2018 Releases
Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut
Australia is a country and a continent. It’s big. Really big. Not surprisingly, it has a number of wildly diverse wine regions. So, while lots of people in the U.S. are familiar with Australian wines, particularly Shiraz, there are significant wine regions that remain generally unknown and which are better suited to different grapes. Today…
History is written by the victors. The telling of the story of controversial historical characters is typically filtered through the lens of the triumphant, such as Carrie Amelia Nation. Carrie Nation was truly an eccentric advocate for sobriety and the banishment of alcohol in America. While it’s easy to paint her as nothing but a…
Furmint is a classic Hungarian grape most noteworthy for its use in sweet Tokaji wines — but it’s also used in dry winemaking, as in this example from Disznoko. If you like American viognier, you might want to give a Hungarian furmint a try! Extremely aromatic and very floral, this wine is one of…
Two new wines from Tuscany’s Banfi — which, unlike some of the stuff we review here, you should be able to find anywhere you live. 2021 Banfi La Pettegola Vermentino Maremma IGT – This Maremma-born expression of vermentino is surprisingly fruity and creamy, showcasing a mix of lemon curd, vanilla, and marshmallow up top that…
As one of the Loosen brothers, Ernst Loosen has a name that should need no introduction, and his Pfalz-based operation, Villa Wolf, produces a wide range of German classic wines, including riesling, gewurztraminer, dornfelder, and more. And he also makes a rose out of pinot noir — a style I can’t ever recall tasting out…
Mendoza’s DiamAndes de Uco shares prime acreage and co-production credits with Michel Rolland on Clos de los Siete, a wine that hits the bullseye in the quality to price target, and a Malbec blend I keep amply stocked and will reach for on weeknights to accompany whatever might be on the evening’s menu. DiamAndes de…
A lot of people hear Scharffenberger and immediately think chocolate. But John Scharffenberger — before he launched the Scharffen Berger Chocolate brand, now part of Harry & David — was a winemaker, and the brand that bears his name is still around, producing some of California’s best-quality sparkling wines. We recently received a pair of…
A quick look at a map of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York reveals a scatterplot of wineries, especially around the perimeter of gorgeous Seneca Lake. However, for this review, we are narrowing the aperture slightly south of Geneva and Seneca Lake on the small village of Hammondsport (population of around 600) and…
Until quite recently, high quality Marsala wine rarely made its way to the USA. Some mediocre varieties were imported, most intended merely for cooking purposes. But Florio Wine Cellars, the dominant producers of the style, is trying to change that. I previously reviewed one of their dry, well-aged Marsalas and was very impressed. Today we…
Italy is a world of wine with twenty different official wine regions, each of which deserves serious attention. Naturally some get more than others, and today we are trying four wines from three regions in the south that are often overlooked by wine drinkers in the U.S.: Sicily, Puglia, and Abruzzo. Let’s give them a…