Collectible Highlights: Current Favorites for Over-Delivering Wine Buys
At the heart of it, most of us are looking for wines that simply outperform their price point. Whether it is the everyday $20 cellar defender that goes head to head with the trendy $50 blue chip, or the First-Growth rival at a Super-Second price. Admittedly, I spend most of my day trying to find these wines, whether personally or professionally. Here are some of my favorites…
Château Canon
What more could this property achieve? Consensus wine-of-the-vintage-caliber releases in 2015, 2020, and 2022, with best-in-class examples from every other vintage in the past eight years. Where else in the world can you find wines with this kind of pedigree, acclaim, and singular nature for these prices? I go back to these wines again and again, and I don’t think a cellar can have enough of modern-era Canon.
2018 Canon, St-Émilion (Pre-Arrival, Elsewhere $175) $139.99 98DC 98JA 98JD 98JS 98VN 97WA 97TWI 96WE 95WS
2016 Montrose and 2019 Pichon-Lalande
These $220 wines will easily rival First Growths, and are reference-point releases for their respective properties. 2016 Montrose is “a monument in the making” and will easily challenge whatever vintage you want to list. 2019 Pichon-Lalande tops the 1982, according to one of its biggest fans Neal Martin. These are two what-more-could-you-want wines that will deliver for decades to come.
2016 Montrose, St-Estèphe (Pre-Arrival) $219.99 100JA 100JD 100TWI 99WA 98 98JS 97VN
2019 Phélan Ségur
Anybody for a triple 96-point Left Bank gem for under $50? This is rare air, but more than deserved for a singular release from Véronique Dausse’s Phélan-Ségur. The wines at this address are better than ever, but it is the 2019 that every vintage will have to live up to. Simply stunning…I can’t recommend this one enough.
2019 Phélan Ségur, St-Estèphe (Pre-Arrival) $49.99 96JS 96TWI 96VN 95DC 95JD
Piedmont
This is a bit broad, but where else can you find a historic, Old World region at the top of their game, driven by singular terroir, where everybody but a few elusive producers are offering their best wines for well under $150? I’ve always been terrified about the potential Burgundization of Barolo and Barbaresco, but we’re still at a golden age of this region for collectors. Whether you want to find banner vintage examples or sneaky-upside renditions from any vintage, there’s so much to offer from these wines. It also doesn’t hurt that the wines seem to be at once true to their roots, but more approachable and refined than ever.
2020 La Ca' Növa "Montestefano" Barbaresco (Pre-Arrival) $49.99 96KO 95VN
2020 Ca' del Baio "Asili" Barbaresco $54.99 95VN
2016 Einaudi "Cannubi" Barolo (Pre-Arrival, Elsewhere $100) $69.99 96JS 96WE 95W&S
2016 Sottimano "Cottà" Barbaresco (Pre-Arrival) $74.99 97WE 96W&S 95VN
2020 Sottimano "Fausoni" Barbaresco (Pre-Arrival) $79.99 97VN 95JD 95KO
2020 Massolino "Albesani" Barbaresco (Pre-Arrival) $79.99 96DC 96VN
2020 Elio Grasso "Gavarini Chiniera" Barolo (Pre-Arrival) $99.99 97VN
2019 G.D. Vajra "Ravera" Barolo $99.99 97KO 97WA 97W&S 96VN 96WE 96WS 95DC
2016 Cavallotto "Bricco Boschis" Barolo (Pre-Arrival) $109.99 99WE 98WA 95W&S
Jadot Clos St-Jacques
How about a producer who is crafting one of the finest examples of one of the most popular, near-Grand-Cru lieu-dits in all of Burgundy and selling it for a fraction of the price of their competitors? Jadot has often been an afterthought for a lot of collectors because of their broad portfolio, but they’ve been knocking it out of the part as of late. Neal Martin recently rated their 2019 Clos St-Jacques 98 points in a vintage retrospective where they were right at the top of the class (and yes, Rousseau and Bruno Clair were in that mix).
2020 Domaine Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru "Clos St-Jacques" (Pre-Arrival) $219.99 95DC 95WS
2021 Domaine Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru "Clos St-Jacques" (Pre-Arrival) $2249.99 95TA
Oregon Chardonnay
Clean, focused, electric, and detailed Chardonnay for a decent price. For many, that is the holy grail of the incredibly variable varietal. For me, the search starts and ends in Oregon. Sure, you can find it with ease in Burgundy, but not for these rates. Names like Martin Woods, Arterbury Maresh, and Walter Scott are making world class wines for all-too-reasonable prices, and they all deliver at such a high level. This isn’t news for most collectors, but it still remains one of the most refreshing categories in the world of fine wine.
2019 Martin Woods "Havlin Vineyard" Van Duzer Corridor Chardonnay (Elsewhere $45) $29.99 94WA
2021 Tan Fruit (Arterberry Maresh) "Cuvée Tan Fruit" Willamette Valley Chardonnay $34.95 97WA
2022 Walter Scott "La Combe Verte" Willamette Valley Chardonnay $34.95
2021 Martin Woods "Yamhill Valley Vineyard" McMinnville Chardonnay $49.95 96RP 95JD
2019 Martin Woods "Koosah Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay $49.95 97WA
2021 Walter Scott "Justice Vineyard" Eola-Amity Hills Chardonnay $79.95 96-98JD 96IWR 96VN