Almost all my favorites have been mentioned but I’ll also give a nod to both Navarro and Birichino who make inexpensive wines some of which I like very much
The Navarro late harvest wines in particular are world class sweets but their dry wines might fit the simple country wine paradigm mentioned above better than most
But yeah, a cellar full of Baudry, o raffault and luneau papin would give pleasure for many years to come
Wow, 160 posts in and Carlisle not yet mentioned. I know they are retiring, but there is still time to put it in the cellar.
Are they old-world inspired? (Personally I’ve no experience of their wines, but that caveat in the title might explain their absence).
Such a great thread and from skimming it looks like all mine have already been suggested.
Raymond Usseglio “Cuvee Girard” is a good addition for CdP.
So much good stuff in this price range - a real sweet spot.
They really are not, which is why I have shied away from chiming in with Zin-focused producers, even faves like Bedrock, Carlisle, and Once & Future.
I was thinking about Hardy Wallace’s wines, but I think the Dirty & Rowdy Mourvedre bottlings fit better in this area, but they are no more. His current venture, WineCo Yeah!, is more off world inspired than old world! 
This is I’m sure a very significant blocker for entry into our hobby, and over here 3x retail is pretty standard. The most likely situation people will experience more expensive wines, they’re indeed expensive, but the same or lower quality than they buy in the supermarket but 2x, 3x or 4x the price. Similar with our wine bars (and by that I mean genuine wine bars, not the more common pre-nightclub drinking bars selling lagers and alcopops), where the wines are too often dull cheapies, priced at eye-watering levels. By contrast Italian enoteche are an enduring joy, with fair prices a regularly revolving selection of interesting wines, plus often lovely lighter yet tasty food.
I agree, Carlisle does not fit the bill for my palate , although I think you know, bedrock and sky do very well. I would imagine most folks with an old world inspired palate would enjoy these Zins.
I was thinking more of the Syrahs and didn’t think they were any different than the myriad of CA/NY/US producers mentioned. But whatever.
Hey, it’s a tasty wine and I know a lot of people love it, I was just explaining why I didn’t have it on my original list.
No worries.
Well, there was a tasting notes under $20 thread just created too.
Exactly, Levet is a perfect example. No good reason to cellar their entry-level wine when the top wine isn’t far off in price. Paying attention to this ratio is probably the best way to get a cellar that outpunches its cost. In Burgundy you might pay a 1,000% premium to jump from the village wine to the grand cru, so when you see the same jump elsewhere at like a 25% premium, it’s a no-brainer. Along similar lines, in Margaux, my favorites right now are Brane, Durfort, and d’Issan, all over the $50 cutoff but not by a lot. Accumulating Giscours and Cantenac Brown when the prices of the others haven’t caught up to their quality yet would be a big mistake.
D’Issan and Brane are under $50 at www.intertwines.com. I thought I had them both on the list, and I concur, they are outstanding. And I also agree, Durfort Vivens has become a major superstar, but I think it’s around 75 to 80 bucks. I agree it is well worth the upgrade in price if you can swing it. 2016 and 2019 are outstanding. Along the same lines, we could make that case for DDC as well.
Good calls!
Cellar psychology should be factored in here. Speaking only from my own/personal experience, I started out “cellaring” under 12 bottles (wanting to have bottles available for a dinner, without instead having to head to the wine store after work that day, etc.) and slowly started accumulating more and more. But that was a very slow moving process - limited budget, spending priorities as young parents, etc. - and I suspect those same considerations exist for most younger folks starting out in this world of cellaring fine wine. Given all of this, I also think there is a certain bottle number threshold where it’s so much easier to keep one’s hands off that wine that needs or really benefits from 7 or 8 years of sleep, or 10 to 15 years of sleep, and so on. For me, I think I reached that threshold at about 200 or so bottles (but even then I managed to slaughter almost all of my Northern Rhodes way too young). Until that threshold is reached and maintained, I think targeting the category of “this bottle will be singing anytime within the first five years in my cellar” will be important.
Or something like that . . . . 
I do think storage is certainly an issue for younger people, especially living in apartments.
Even a little wine fridge may be a significant bridge to cross.
That all being said, I do think this post is very useful.
Those are pretty nice Old World style wines. The trend there has kicked to fairly low alc levels but often done in tank or concrete these days whereas Patti has just kept his traditional ways of old wood going. Solid value.
Easily one of my Timorasso favorites. Not sure why but he doesn’t get the frequency of mention as some others that I don’t think are as good.
Piling on a bit…but “Building a High Quality…”, I just purchased 12 x Cantemerle 2016 for $36 a bottle. This is a ridiculous value and like many others mentioned can serve as a corner stone for building a cellar. Where else can you find values like this outside of bordeaux?!
This is such a fun thread. A ton of good suggestions. Wish I could add more, but it is hard with the premise as a European.
I also think that it sometimes makes sense to go a bit above a personal threadshold at the cost of quantity if we are talking about building a collection, and not focusing on single bottles. This was also mentioned above. But thats a bit outside the premise of this thread I guess.
Another fun thread could match price brackets (25-50, 51-75, 76-100…) with somewhat expected drinking windows.
That is a lot more complex, but it would be great for newcomers to understand the mix of wines required to have a “drinkable” cellar. I certainly made a lot of mistakes early on where I only had everyday drinkers and wines that needed a long sleep… now I have a much better mix of wines even though my collection isn’t very old.
While I am not based in US, I just saw that the Taurasi Radici Mastroberardino 2019 is currently on sale at Zachy’s for $39.99 USD; which is an absolute steal IMO. This will give anyone who has it in their cellar immense joy in some years time.