Good cheap wines

Cheap doesn’t mean necessarily undrinkable. No doubt you can be rarely disappointed by a 20 dollars and plus bottle of wine, but you may pay a little less for many good wines too.

You don’t need to split wine into two categories: special and ordinary ones. On the grocery store shelves there are many excellent Italian red wines and there is no reason not to buy them. You have just to discover them.

Let’s try to write a list so you can get the best cheap red wine as soon as you see it in the supermarket or grocery store. 

We can begin from Northern Italy with some Piedmontese wines, Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera 2014 (14 $) and Michele Chiarlo Le Orme Barbera d’Asti Superiore 2014 (13 $) and, going on, Cline Lodi Zinfandel 2014 (14 $).

In Tuscany the price choice is so wide to please any budget request. There are many good and cheap wines too: Banfi Col di Sasso 2015, Cabernet and Sangiovese (9 $), Badia a Coltibuono Cetamura Chianti (10 $), Caccia al Piano Ruit Hora 2013, Bolgheri (16 $), Birillo Costa Toscana 2013, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (18 $), Santa Caterina Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Trerose 2013 (18 $), Morellino di Scansano Riserva Bronzone Mazzei 2013 (16 $). Casamatta wines, made by the artist Bibi Graetz in Fiesole, are cheap and very appreciated (7-12 $).

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a very convenient and good Italian red wine: for example Cantina Zaccagnini (14 $), Valle Reale Vigneto Vigne Nuove 2013 (12 $), Bisanzio Citra 2013 (8 $).

Southern Italy offers many good surprises: Di Majo Norante Sangiovese Terre degli Osci 2015 (10 $), Cantele Salice Salentino Riserva 2013 (11 $).

Sicily and Sardinia have important wines too: Cantina Santa di Grotta Rossa Carignano del Sulcis 2012 (14 $), Cusumano Nero d’Avola 2015 (12 $), Tasca d’Almerita Regaleali Nero d’Avola 2015 (13 $), Tenuta Rapitela Nuhar 2013, Nero d’Avola and Pinot Noir (18 $), Stemmari Nero d’Avola 2014 (10 $).   

To finish with, recognizing good wine is what matters most.

If you can taste wines with someone who helps, you can learn how and what to drink, which is better and to distinguish colors, flavors, perfumes as a sommelier.

If you want to enjoy a full immersion in wineries and vineyards you can decide to have a wine tour  in Tuscany in the Chianti, the best Italian red wines land.

It will be a wonderful experience and will help you to know the fabulous and mysterious world of wine.