We Asked 15 Wine Pros: Which Red Wine Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? (2025)
Words: Hannah Staab
Photography: Markus Spiske via Unsplash
Published: March 9, 2025
The topic of red wine might bring to mind some of the great wines of the world: bold Napa Cabs, elegant Pinot Noirs from Burgundy, or structured Sangiovese from Brunello di Montalcino. But there’s a lot more to the category than these pricier heavy hitters.
Here, we asked wine pros from across the country to share the hidden-gem reds they look to when they’re searching for a good value. These wines tend to be from under-the-radar regions and made with lesser known grapes, but what they lack in prestige they more than make up for in value for the price.
From obscure Italian varieties to America’s best kept wine secrets, here are the red wines that offer the best bang for your buck, according to wine pros.
The best bang-for-your-buck red wines, according to wine pros:
“Piedmont, despite it giving us some of Italy’s most expensive wines, is still a perennial source of value. Nebbiolo will always carry higher price points, but the other Piedmontese red grapes are the first places I look to for a ‘bang-for-your-buck’ bottle. A go-to of mine is the Barbera d’Alba from Punset. It’s a wine with tons of character that speaks directly of its place, from a family committed to a particularly strict method of sustainable agriculture, that typically retails close to — or even under — $20.” —Stefanie Harris, head sommelier, Zimmi’s, NYC
Denny Bini Lambrusco dell’Emilia ‘FESTA’
“For us, if we’re crushing red on the cheap ($20ish), it’s Lambrusco. We pour Denny Bini or Famiglia Carafoli by the glass and it feels ‘in season’ pretty much year round being in the Carolinas. ‘Brusco justifiably got such a bad rap there for a bit, but small growers and good Grasparossa grapes have brought it all the way back.” —Matt Green, owner, Substrate Wine & Vermouth, Charlotte, N.C.
Click here to read the original article
Click here to learn more about Punset Barbera d’Alba
Click here to learn more about Denny Bini Lambrusco dell’Emilia ‘FESTA’
