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You have proven your love for Cabernet sauvignon, accepting it as a staple at restaurants and at home. Producers around the globe took notice. They lifted the Cabernet banner and brought the grape to vineyards just about everywhere.

Because of different clone selection, different climatic conditions, and different ways of handling the grapes and resultant wine, Cabernet comes in all shapes and sizes, from soft and fruity, to lean and tannic, to booming and overripe, and all manner of other adjectives. Prices vary as much as the wine styles do.

Today we highlight affordable choices. We have found that even the lower price range offers styles for all. Remember, our case discount makes good deals great. With the economy like it is, we should all snap up the bargains when we can. Can’t go wrong with a wine rack full of well-priced and delicious Cabernet, can you?

Casey Stengel once told his Yankees team to line up in alphabetical order according to height. We won’t challenge you with Stengel-type logic with this list of Cabs but simply arrange them by ascending price.

Santa Rita 120 (Argentina) $7.99
Argentina has excellent grape growing conditions: warm, dry, and sunny. For years, this led wineries to make oceans of the ordinary stuff. Now we see waves of great values coming our way. A weak peso and a worldwide demand for new sources of excellent wines helped transform Argentina’s wine industry from jug wine to fine (and affordable) wine. Santa Rita’s 120 Cabernet bears this out with its ripe fruit, light tannin, and crisp finish. It’s an anytime wine with surprising depth.
Castle Rock (Paso Robles) $9.99
Castle Rock gathers grapes from here and there to make their value-packed lineup of wines. Paso Robles (North of LA, South of SF) has begun to uncork as one of California’s most important wine regions. This medium-bodied delight shows the region’s typically bright fruit and gives the price-conscious unexpectedly great value.
Excelsior (South Africa) $9.99
An impressively bountiful wine, well-rounded with distinct oak presence. The Dutch brought vines to South Africa more than three centuries ago. The U.S. only started seeing wines from South Africa twenty years ago when sanctions were lifted but the country boasts a mature and settled wine industry. South Africa produces delicious wines at affordable prices. This is an intense, mouthfilling wine with a potent but well-handled 14.7% alcohol. Amazing value!
Irony (Napa) $14.99
Two brothers from a winery-owning family chose different career paths (tech and accounting), and end up returning to the family business. Thus the winery’s name. The wine itself is pure Napa goodness, with deep resources of fruit. The accountant in the family obviously helped keep prices down, which accounts for the wine’s popularity.
Avalon $14.99
Alex Cose previously made wines for the prestigious Peter Michael Winery. Those wines settled in the triple digit price category, also known as Yikes! Now he makes wines priced almost 1/10^th that price, which elicits a happier sort of Yikes! Cose aims for wines of good extraction and supple character. He succeeds with this excellent and appealing Cab, priced for enjoyment.
Toasted Head $14.99
The name of the winery comes from the practice of toasting barrels, or heads. Toasting sanitizes and readies the barrel for the wine to come. The char also adds flavor and complexity to the wine, as Exhibit A here demonstrates. The label’s bear with flaming mouth derives from a poem, in case you wondered. A pulled cork delivers a big, meaty wine that satisfies your Cabernet craving.

And just to remind you that the high-priced spread can taste pretty good too, here’s one of the major stars of California, and the world:
Chateau Montelena $49.99
Montelena’s Chardonnay won the famous Paris Tasting in 1976 but the winery’s legend grows with its Cabernets. As casualty of Prohibition, the estate long lay quiescent until Jim Barrett bought it in the early 1970s. The winery has seen but four winemakers, with Cameron Parry recently taking the day-to-day reins while Barrett’s son Bo moves up to Master Winemaker status. Bo basically grew up in this prestigious winery and knows intimately all aspects of making world-class wine. You truly can liken Montelena’s Cabernet to Mouton-Rothschild or Latour, as blind tastings have proven: sturdy, powerful, yet amazingly graceful. If you have come within glancing distance of a Bordeaux price list, you know that Montelena stands as a comparative value. With its utter balance, this Cabernet drinks surprisingly well now, and will remain ascendant for a good 10+ years. A true Napa classic.