25 great reds under $30

There’s more chaff than wheat. I recently emerged from a long season of heavy duty tasting for the upcoming Halliday Wine Companion book and if there was one lasting impression, it was a negative one: the number of faulty or fault-effected wines. At the end of many tasting sessions, I went straight to the dog and bone and booked myself in for counselling. As a wine drinker, if you don’t tread carefully, you’ll end up with a glass half-full of muck. Or so it could easily seem.

I’ve been writing about wine for more than 15 years. Every year I taste more wine than the previous year and at times, I wonder what it’s all for. These past few months though, I’ve felt like I earned my keep. The wines selected here – all for $30 and (sometimes significantly) under – are all bona fide brilliant. They are the wheat. Track them. Hunt them. Celebrate them.