Drinkward Pecshon in the 80 range smokes a lot of those over $150 wines for me.
I thought MacDonald smoked Harlan, Bryant, SE, for less than 1/2 the price.
Christopher Tynan - one of the few I get at that price point now.
HSS, Scarecrow as mentioned.
I don’t buy Schrader anymore.
I generally don’t associate the term QPR with anything over 100 though unless it’s BDX and champs.
I don’t want to dip my toe into the whole ‘QPR’ thing and what that exactly means (is it linear, geometric, etc), particularly as I’m a relative newbie here, but I have just started drinking some Blankiet wines. I notice that there isn’t a lot of ‘love’ for them here on WB, but oh my, I really have loved what I’ve drank so far from them.
Rereading this, it strikes me that you’re starting from the wrong place altogether. You seem to be assuming that wines in this price range tend to be better than cheaper wines and you want to get the most bang for your buck. Unless you’ve tasted widely and come to that conclusion, I’d reexamine your premise.
What you should be asking is, “What’s the best wine for my tastes under $X (whatever your cap is)?” You might find wines you like a whole lot for a whole lot less.
Would you ask, “What’s the best car I can buy for $100K-$200K?” Or “What’s the best camera I can buy for $2,000-$4,000?”
Realm SV all damn day! But if you’re leaning on $300, I’d go with Scarecrow but you’ll need to purchase at least two vintages of M. Etain before getting an offer. However, in two more years, those wines will probably be $400 a pop. So if you’re thinking of dropping $400, I’d stretch for Hundred Acre, now $500 but easily accessible direct.
Greer. And you’ll save yourself some money (I think current release is $175).
I opened one by mistake. WOW.
Wow good or wow bad? Lol
Thanks for the input. To clarify, the reason why I’m asking is to diversify my cellar portfolio to accommodate 1-2 new producers each year that fall within that price range category. Of course, there’s no way for me to often pop open wines at this price point on a random weekday night, but it’s nice to have some selection of Napa Cab/Cab blends (currently the only region I collect) to take out for a work outing or a date night on occasion.
I do have my fair share of Napa cabs that I enjoy between $30 to $50 (e.g. Hall, Frank Family), $50 to $80 (e.g. Becklyn, Myriad), $80 to $120 (e.g. Realm The Bard, Dakota Shy), $120 to $180 (e.g. Carter, Fait-Main), $180 to $225 (e.g. Maybach Materium, Fantesca), $225 to $300 (e.g. Memento Mori, Vice Versa SVD), and $300+ (e.g. Scarecrow, Abreu, Colgin, BOND).
I guess I’m not really asking what’s the best wine for my tastes under a certain budget, but instead I just wanted to get an idea on what everyone else is drinking at certain price points and see if there were certain wines specifically that performed better in each price category. I do want to try out Kata (in my $120 to $180 category) and Scarlett (in my $50 to $80 category) this year to see if I can add some to my collection.
I hope that clarifies things…
Frank, have you had the opportunity to try any Bordeaux?
When I go out and I don’t bring a bottle from my cellar, I’ll usually lean towards Burgundy, so unfortunately, my Bordeaux experience is limited.
With that being said, however, I have had some limited tastings of recent vintages of Bordeaux (2011-2015) that people at K&L have recommended (e.g. L’Arrosee, La Tour de Mons). To be honest, it’s not because I don’t like Bordeaux that I haven’t explored it much; instead, basically my collection of Napa kind of satisfies my Cabernet cravings (depending if I want fruity or earthy, etc), so I never really dove deeper to learn more about Bordeaux wines.
Would you have some recommendations that you would suggest me looking into?
Send me yours, so I can double check . . . and I have Scarecrow back to 2005 and MacDonald to 2010 so I have a basis for comparison.
There are a lot of great suggestions on the board. I’ve personally been purchasing the 2014, 2015, and 2016 vintages, but you’ll get a lot of advice here to source older vintages which are ready to drink. What I’m finding is that I can buy a Bordeaux wine of comparable quality to a Napa cab for a lot less, which is why I started to diversify a few years ago. Some suggestions include Domaine de Chevalier and Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. I’ll defer to others to comment on which Bdx more closely resemble Napa cabs. Good luck!
My two cents on this is that too many Left Bank wines in the price ranged mentioned are trying to do what Napa Cabernet does better. At least within the past 15 years or so.
This is not to say that I don’t like Bordeaux, but for me the wines are much more “old world” in the way I like at much lower price ranges.
Yes (if I were actually willing to spend $100K-200K for a car).
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I’ll be right there. Fire up the decanters
For Bordeaux suggestions, it looks like your taste is to the riper side of the continuum. Best bet for Cabernet would be Pichon Baron and Palmer. Look at their 2015s, I don’t think you will be disappointed.
Almost none of the Napa wines being discussed on this thread are going to increase in value.
Not sure what constitutes “almost none” but a WS review of many HSS shows it tends to maintains or increases its value.
Maybach increases in value the minute it is shipped.
Here are my favorites in this range, based on what I have actually bought, have in my cellar AND enjoy (have others in the cellar that we’re not highly fond of, but they are not listed below):
Inside $225-300:
- Cardinale ($250)
- Joseph Phelps Insignia ($225)
Outside of the $225-300 range:
- Del Dotto 887 ($200)
- Del Dotto The David ($175)
- Hall Kathryn Hall ($200)
- Hall Jacks Masterpiece ($150 and the best QPR of my list)
- La Jota ($150)
- JCB The Surrealist ($350)
- Del Dotto The Beast ($350)
- Lokoya ($375, Diamond and Spring Mountain if drinking young, Mt Veeder if drinking 10+ years out) [note: these are monster wines are built for the long haul]
FYI, all prices are off the top of my head and might not be exactly accurate.