Great wines don’t have to cost a fortune. Even in world-class winegrowing regions such as Champagne, Chianti Classico or the Sonoma Coast, there are outstanding examples to be found at wallet-friendly prices. In fact, every corner of the wine world offers discoveries for bargain hunters, if you know where to look. That’s why, for the third year in a row, we’ve enlisted Wine Spectator’s team of editors to select the top values of the past 12 months. This process of selection homes in on producers whose wines express the distinctive character of a specific region or category while keeping prices down through innovative methods in the vineyard and cellar.
The list of the Top 10 Values of 2023 is capped by our choice for Wine Value of the Year. All of the wines on the list rated 90 points or higher on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale, cost less than $40, and were made in large-enough quantities to be widely available. These selections are meant to encourage exploration, helping you chart new paths through the ever-changing world of wine. Read on for our Top Wine Value of the Year!
View the full list of the Top 10 Values of 2023!
LA CREMA
Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2021
91 points | $28 | 203,000 cases made
Leave it to the company behind America’s best-selling California Chardonnay to supply the masses with great Pinot Noir. In 1993, Jess Jackson and his wife and business partner Barbara Banke purchased a fledgling Pinot Noir brand—then dubbed La Crema Viñera—co-founded by Joseph Swan winemaker Rod Berglund. Jackson, who died in 2011, and Banke believed in the grape variety’s potential to stand on the same level of excellence as Cabernet Sauvignon. La Crema would be the brand to underscore that theory, exploring cool-climate sites through the lens of Pinot Noir.
Fast forward to today and Pinot Noir has met Cabernet at the pinnacle of popularity among Golden State red wines. However, as the grape has become more successful, small-volume, expensive bottles have become more prevalent, while high quality yet affordable offerings have mostly eluded the category. Bucking those trends, La Crema has been riding Pinot’s wave over the past two decades to become a ubiquitous brand on retail shelves, delivering exceptional value at an impressive scale.
Growing your own grapes is always a recipe for controlling quality and prices, and Jackson Family Wines is among Sonoma County’s most significant vineyard landholders. Winemaker Craig McAllister credits the wine’s quality and growth partly to California vintners’ freedom to blend across AVAs, citing the vastness of the Sonoma Coast appellation, which includes the Russian River Valley and Los Carneros subregions.
“The Russian River component is just shy of 33 percent of the blend,” says McAllister about the Sonoma Coast bottling. “Historically, those vineyards have been a major component, sometimes up to 50 percent or 60 percent, but as new coastal vineyard plantings have increased, that percentage has come down.” Estate vineyards near Annapolis in the northern reaches of the Sonoma Coast and the Petaluma Gap area at the southern end help anchor the 2021 bottling, with additional grapes from contracted growers. “We’re lucky to have vineyards throughout the county, because they offer a spice rack of different flavors, aromas and textures.”
Add the accelerant of a great vintage and you have a winning formula for a large-volume, value-priced wine. McAllister notes that subtle changes, including picking earlier, made the 2021 bottling shine.
Because of the 2020 wildfires, he explains, “We learned it’s OK to pick a week or so earlier.” Thanks to the even 2021 vintage, which ended with a leisurely picking window, McAllister opted to try the same tactic on certain vineyards. “It gave us more blending options for red fruit versus dark fruit and so on,” he adds. The wine was aged for six months in French oak barrels, just 19 percent of which were new, allowing the wine to maintain a bright, racy frame.
With its 200,000-plus case production, La Crema’s Pinor Noir Sonoma Coast 2021 makes a compelling case for California Pinot at scale. Although McAllister makes plenty of higher-priced, single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, he enjoys making broad AVA blends. “One of the beauties of making wine at a scale like this is you’re not limited to the specific terroir of a single vineyard,” he says. “In some cases, it’s more fun to put together, because we have a lot to play with.”
Tasting Note: Offers a friendly mix of loganberry and damson plum allied to a bright, racy frame, with a nice piercing savory thread running through the finish. Drink now through 2028.—James Molesworth
Issue: June 30, 2023
WineSpectator.com members: Find more great Sonoma Pinot Noirs.
- California Pinot Noir Tasting Report: Pinot Powers On (Sep. 30, 2023)
- Vertical Tasting: The Promise of Pinot Noir with Four Leading Sonoma Winemakers (Oct. 27, 2023)
- Tasting Highlights: 8 Outstanding 2021 California Pinot Noirs (May 22, 2023)
- Wine Ratings Search: Sonoma Pinot Noir, 90+ Points (rated in the past 12 months)
- Wine Ratings Search: Sonoma Pinot Noir, 85+ Points and $50 or less (rated in the past 12 months)
