Forgive my laziness, but I'm curious to know some recommendations for California red wines. I hear there were some fantastic vintages currently on the market, and wondering what to look out for?
I love Cab Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Petite Syrah, Zinfandel and Merlot, probably in that order roughly speaking. I hope @ulackfocus can contribute but I know he's not the only one who appreciates the grapes.
I'm fortunate to live 40 minutes from Napa, so if you have "winery only" recommendations I welcome those too!
Just visited Castello di Amorosa and picked up some Il Barrone. And their Alexander Valley Pinot Noir was very full bodied and delicious.
I used to enjoy wine much more in the late 1980's (when a first-growth Bordeaux was under $100), but what little money I had at the time was split between wine, watches, pens and cameras. I've narrowed it down to watches, but could diversify a bit to the bottle.

 

There are so many great wines up in that region. One of my favorite wineries to visit up there is Cakebread. If you like cooking, you should look into the cooking classes that they host there.

I like drinking wine, and visiting wineries, but am certainly not even qualified to give any official recommendations. I would love to find a first growth Bordeaux for under a few hundred!

 

If you're devoted to Napa wines then what I'm about to suggest is utter heresy:


Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez Valley
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We like the reds from these wineries enough to participate in their wine clubs:

Consilience: Purple Beast (blend)
Only available now from 2011 vintage; about $40
(2007 vintage could be purchased [and enjoyed!] last year, which is an indication its robustness.)

Lucas & Lewellen: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone 6 Vineyard; about $50.
(So far, nothing from Lucas & Lewellen has been disappointing)

 

A few currently of interest to me in the zones I think they do best in:
Quivet, Cab, Napa
Carlisle, Zin, Russian River Valley
Knez, Pinot, Anderson Valley
Have fun!

 

Oakville Estates Franciscan in either the Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. It's one of my favourites

 

Chateau Montelena Estate Cab.
Chateau Montelena Zin (serious old vines)
Dunn Howell Mountain Cab
SilverOak Napa Cab (or the Alexander Valley in a pinch)
Coppola Claret
Duckhorn Merlot
Dominus Cab

Enjoy them.

 

Chappellet
Silverado
Melka
Honig
Del Dotta

All in your area and all popular in my house. They all seem to have the same side effects though, too much consumption leads to impulsive ebay purchases. Remember, BIN is not your friend after midnight...

 

I spent almost 15 years in the restaurant business. We usually had between 1200-1500 bottles of wine on hand and all of these are standouts. I'd be happy drinking any of them.

-- Bob

 

A couple places that I would recommend would be: Gargulio (Cab&Merlot), Merry Edwards (PN), MacLaren (Syrah). These are more towards the smaller end of producers and a couple would fall under winery only perhaps. I'm not a big Zinfandel drinker but Talty is what I reach for when I'm feeling zinful. Good luck!

 

Lots of good recommendations here so far.

Dominus is a favorite at our wine club dinners, but if you're looking for something a little less expensive thats still good they make a second bottling called Napanook. Go for the 2012.

Shafer Hillside Select is one of the big name cult wines, and they also make a second bottling called One Point Five. Personally, I like the One Point Five better than the Hillside Select and it's 1/3 of the cost ($80-ish versus $250+).

Chappellet is the best $50 bottle of Napa Cab you'll find. Not only is it our house favorite, it also beat out 4 other well known brands in a blind tasting we had at one of our wine dinners. If you want to go upscale, get their Pritchard Hill.

Silver Oak is still decent, but not the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago. If you can get your hands on a 2001, try it.

There was a mention of Dunn - their Howell Mtn is very strong fruited, as with most mountain Cabs, so look for an "off" vintage like 2008 or 2011 to tame the raging berry tastes. I'd recommend Outpost, particularly their True Vineyard, over Dunn.

If you can find some aged bottles on winesearcher.com you should try Arrowood. Their 1995 and 2001 Reserve Speciale is my absolute favorite Cab multi-vineyard blend. There's a bottle on auction on Wine Bid: https://www.winebid.com/BuyWine/Item/5338943.
The primary fruit comes from the Monte Rosso, Lassiter, and Smother's Remick Ridge Vineyards. Their 2005 and 2007 are pretty good too.

If you REALLY want to see how a mountain Cab ages, look for Lokoya Diamond Mtn, Spring Mtn, Mt. Veeder, or Howell Mtn 2005 or before. Just don't have a heart attack over the price. They're all single vineyard Cabs - for instance, Diamond Mtn comes from the Reverie Vineyard, and Mt. Veeder from the Veeder Peak Vineyard. In 2001 Chris Carpenter took over the winemaking duties so search for '01 to '05. Personally, 2002 is my favorite year for most of their wines.

For a red Bordeaux style blend, Joseph Phelps is one of the best if you don't mind dropping a couple C-notes. Mark Ryan's Dead Horse is pretty good too, around $50-$60, and much more approachable young than Phelps products.

I've heard good things about Chateau Montelena and Quivet but never tried them.

Now for the harder part: the bargains! Anyone can buy a hundred dollar bottle and be relatively sure it will be decent. Finding a good Cali wine under $30 is a different story. Here's the best of what we've found:

2009 Hagan's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2012 Textbook Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
2012 Hardin Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

For Zinfandel, look for Bedrock's products. Their Old Vine Zinfandel is under $30, and their Monte Rosso Zinfandel is almost twice that. These need a few years of age though. I just opened a 2013 OV Zin and felt like I was a baby killer. 2010 is just ready now. Heard good things about Carlisle too but never had them.

Merlot is not my forte. The only ones I bother with are a Right Bank Bordeaux from Pomerol (La Conseillante) and Arrowood's Reserve Merlot which they don't make anymore. If you can get your mitts on a bottle of the 1994 though, snap it up. Excellent!

Now here's the part that's gonna possibly irritate some people: there are no top notch domestic Pinot Noirs. I can tolerate some, and there are decent values, but if you want PN done right look to France. The Village level wines and Bourgogne blends are so much more refined than any New World PN. Latour and Jadot make some pretty nice bottles for $20 and under. You can even score a good Premier Cru for $50 to $75 from some producers...... but this is a whole new can of worms.

 

For me it would be Dominus hands down.

Other than that you can't go wrong with some of the following:
Shaffer
Joseph Phelps Insignia
Chateau Montelena
Stags Leap

 

Nailed it on the Textbook. One of the best value California cabs I've run across.

 

Try the Hardin then - you'll enjoy it.

 

Still trying to figure out a way to send you a Montelena without violating several federal regulations. Working on it.

 

Did you know that you can send "cooking supplies" or "balsamic vinegar" without any issues? I just sent a wine pal (like a pen pal but better) a bottle of 1995 Ambroise Corton le Rognet "maple syrup" along with a spatula and a wooden spoon in a box that was full of "kitchen utensils".

 

So it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. I'll PM you.

 

I just gotta tell a story about the first truly fine wine I ever tasted.

As I stated above, I spent 15 years in the fine dining restaurant business. During that time I tasted hundreds of wines. Some were great, some were simply horrible and most were just okay. I came to believe that to be a successful wine maker you must be a great marketer. Some of the most expensive wines were disappointing at best and some blew me away. I was at a trade tasting and tried a sangiovese made by Di Majo Norante that was off the charts delicious. At the time it was 6 bucks or so a bottle.

One year I was invited to play golf in a member-guest thing at our local country club. It was grueling. The actual tournament was Saturday and Sunday with a practice round on Friday. What they didn't tell me was that there was a party Thursday night, Friday and again on Saturday. How these guys managed to get up in the morning and play golf amazed me.

So here's the story. I'm a beer guy. Give me a Bud light and I'm happy. Every once in awhile I'll live large and have a Stella. I've done the wine thing and I'd rather have a beer. As a matter of fact, there is a Bud light in front of me now. Bud light has bubbles and you can drink more than one and still have your wits about you. Given the current alcohol content of wine, I'm toast after one glass.

So I'm invited to this party the Thursday before the practice round and I know the host and I also know that his favorite wine is from Woodward Canyon from Washington. I also know that his wife's all time favorite wine at the time was a cab from Woodward Canyon, 1993 Special Select to be precise.

I had a six pack of Woodward Canyon Old Vines '88 and decided to bring a bottle to the party. (This was around 2002 so the bottle had some age in it.)

I remember ringing the door bell and Gary opened the door, greeted me and I gave him the bottle. He took one look and said in no uncertain terms, "Let's go downstairs. Nobody here will appreciate this." I'm looking around for some Bud light and thinking I probably won't appreciate it either.

We went downstairs to his wine cellar, (another story) opened the bottle and GAWD DAM!!!!! I could have downed that glass in a New York minute! It was unlike anything I'd ever had. Sort of like the 5 buck bottle of balsamic vinegar vs the 25 year old stuff. It was the first time I ever tasted wine that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, would actually make a steak taste better.

From that day forward I've become a bit of a wine snob, albeit a novice, and on a budget.

If people ask me what kind of wine I like I tell them I prefer cabernets that are old enough to drive.

Thanks for letting me share.

-- Bob

 

I'm going to owe you royalties because that's a line I plan on using often this holiday season.

 

The discussion by @ulackfocus is one of the most cogent wine recommendations I've read in a long time. I have a higher opinion of Cali pinot, but his cab recommendations are spot on. I spend a week every other year in Sonoma to stock up on Pinot from Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros, including Davis Bynum and Dutton Goldfield. And Zin from Mazzocco or any Dry Creek producer. Cheers!

 

I could hear Denis' shorts getting tight from all the way up in NYC when I read this thread title.