America’s Best-Selling Premium Wines

An offshoot of Napa Valley’s merlot-centered Duckhorn Vineyards, focused on Sonoma County, Decoy entered the market in the 1990s with just one wine. a Bordeaux-style blend. It has subsequently become known for other varietals, and especially its hearty cabernet. The 2016 vintage was considered stellar in Sonoma.

This luscious, violet-hued Central Coast cabernet sauvignon, with small percentages of cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot blended in, “drinks like a more expensive cab,” according to one reviewer.

Onetime rock band manager Charles Smith (he still looks the part) has a small empire of Washington state wineries. Though he produces merlot and sauvignon blanc under his Substance label, he has written that he established the brand “with a single minded vision to produce the best value-priced Cabernet Sauvignon in America.” This rich, full-bodied wine is a good example of his success.

While the 2016 harvest in Washington state was record-breakingly large and also of good quality, the somewhat smaller 2017 vintage left winemakers “thrilled,” according to the trade publication Wine Industry Advisor. Wine Spectator called it “smooth, long, compelling…”

Tenuta Folonari’s landmark Nozzole property in the heart of the Chianti Classico zone has plenty of fruit and good body. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate suggested that “This is the kind of wine that immediately puts you in a good mood…”