There comes a particular moment with wine when a bottle stops being merely good for the money and starts making you question why the famous bottle costs quite so much.
That is the territory I’m interested in here.
I’m not here to slate the legends of the vines, or to peddle cheap wine for cheap sake. Knock-offs are a no, and I’m certainly not one to parade bottles described as “the next X” simply because a marketing department needs a comparison.
The world of wine is considerably more interesting than that.
Some of the most compelling bottles being poured now come from places, grapes, and producers that would once have sat outside the traditional fine-wine conversation: English sparkling wine alongside Champagne; South African Chenin beside Loire; Etna reds beside Burgundy; serious Soave alongside white Burgundy; and Alvarinho and Coonawarra Cabernet earning space on lists where the usual heavyweights once dominated.
The best restaurants and sommeliers have understood this for some time, if you’ve taken the time to listen to them. The pleasure is partly in knowing the classics, for sure, but also in knowing when to look elsewhere.
So, for this inaugural edition of The New Classics, I went looking for bottles that can hold their own in that company without requiring a collector’s budget. I wanted wines with:
- provenance,
- personality,
- and serious critical regard.
- Bottles that speak to where wine is going (something I seek in my culinary journeys, too) rather than merely what has always been famous;
- and, ideally, something that makes a person pause before reaching automatically for the prestige label.
The ceiling is roughly $50 at retail, although prices naturally vary by country, vintage, and availability.
Some of these are wines I have encountered myself; others earned their place through the weight of independent critical opinion, competition results, and their standing in the wider wine world.
The common thread is simple: these are bottles that make the established hierarchy a little harder to take for granted.
1. Can Sumoi Muntanya 2024
Penedès, Spain
If Raventós represents the grand historical end of Penedès sparkling, Can Sumoi is its more exploratory cousin.
Set high in the Montmell mountains, Can Sumoi works old vineyards at roughly 400-700 metres and has built its identity around indigenous varieties, mountain conditions, and a distinctly less ceremonious approach to wine.
Muntanya is a traditional-method sparkling made from Macabeu and Xarel·lo – with altitude providing the natural acidity and lift that genuinely makes for one of the most refreshing sips I’ve ever had. With enough texture and lees character to keep it from feeling like merely another crisp aperitif, a glass of this is fresh and titillating.
Can Sumoi Muntanya, with its indigenous grapes, altitude, and profile so suited to a late-afternoon meal stacked with vegetables, is a useful reminder that the future of sparkling wine may be more about letting different landscapes speak.
2. Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe Nebbiolo 2023
Piedmont, Italy
As a travel writer and lifestyle blogger, let me tell you: There is a certain pleasure in knowing where the good stuff hides!
Produttori del Barbaresco’s Langhe Nebbiolo, for example, takes the grape associated with some of Piedmont’s most expensive bottles, and presents it at a considerably friendlier level.
It isn’t Barbaresco – nor should it pretend to be.
Instead, it offers an accessible introduction to Nebbiolo’s perfume, acidity, and savoury structure – with critics finding red fruit, flowers, and mineral character in the 2023.
For anyone who thinks fine Italian red wine starts with a three-figure price tag, this is a useful correction which I began when traversing Italy a few years ago.
And in true Italian style, this wine goes as well with pizza as it would with truffles or anything savoury, to meet the Nebbiolo’s acidity.
3. Nyetimber Classic Cuvée
West Sussex, England
For years, English sparkling wine was said to be introduced with an apologetic “surprisingly good”.
That qualifier is increasingly unnecessary.
Nyetimber has helped establish English sparkling wine as a serious category rather than a novelty – working with the Champagne grapes in England’s cooler southern climate. Its wines have accumulated enough competition and critic attention that the more interesting question I’ve been ruminating on is no longer whether English bubbly can resemble Champagne, but what it can do differently.
Classic Cuvée is the obvious entry point in my experience: elegant, fine-boned, and structured enough to make the comparison through one’s palate, without depending on it solely.
The point isn’t that England has somehow replaced Champagne. It hasn’t. The point is that Champagne is no longer the only reference point when serious sparkling is being discussed – and the incredible sommelier at the Langdale Chase Hotel showed me this during a tasting in their cellar, laden with an exquisite wine manifest.
If a Nyetimber Classic Cuvée bottle happens to find its way into your orbit, treat yourself to a glass along with a smoked salmon dish, or heed English traditionalism with some fish & chips.
4. Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2024
Stellenbosch, South Africa
There are newer Cap Classiques with flashier labels and seemingly more collector appeal, but sometimes the more interesting bottle is the one with the history.
Simonsig’s Kaapse Vonkel was South Africa’s first Méthode Cap Classique, made by Frans Malan in 1971. More than half a century later, the category he helped establish has become one of South Africa’s most convincing fine-wine propositions, which I wholeheartedly support!
The history matters because through my research and years of experience, I’ve discovered that Kaapse Vonkel isn’t trying to be a South African Champagne impersonation. It is part of the reason South African traditional-method sparkling exists as a serious category in the first place.
Recent international attention on Cap Classique has reinforced the value proposition: good examples are ones which offer bottle-fermented complexity, freshness, and ageing potential at a fraction of the price of prestige Champagne.
The next time you’re faced with a serving of oysters, salty snacks, or some crispy fried chicken (Vonkel at Simonsig is a great restaurant pick for this), order yourself up a bottle of the Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2024 for a tasty pairing.
5. Domaine Huët Le Mont Vouvray Sec 2023
Loire, France
Chenin Blanc has become one of wine’s great shape-shifters: dry, sweet, sparkling, ageworthy, mineral, textural, and occasionally all of those things at once.
Domaine Huët has been making the case for serious Vouvray for generations.
Le Mont, I’ve discovered, is the sort of wine that makes “white wine” feel like an inadequate description. The 2023 has attracted heavyweight critical scores, with James Suckling & Vinous being among those finding remarkable precision and concentration alongside wet-stone minerality and freshness.
It also demonstrates why Chenin deserves to sit closer to the centre of the fine-wine conversation…and closer to me anytime I’m spoon-deep in cream dishes.
6. Simonsig Langbult Steen Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2024
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Let me be the first to say that the South African Chenin story has moved well beyond “promising”.
Langbult’s vines date to 1987 and now qualify as certified Old Vine material. The 2024 vintage received 96 points and Gold at the Decanter World Wine Awards – where the wine was noted for its floral character, melon & white-fruit profile (which I’m always thankful for), bright acidity, and long finish.
It is precisely the sort of bottle that makes the phrase new classic useful rather than decorative.
Chenin has long been important to South Africa, but the global conversation around the grape has pleasantly enough changed. At the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards, South African Chenin produced one of the country’s major successes, and the judges specifically praised:
- regional differentiation,
- and the variety’s capacity for precision, freshness, and site expression.
Chenin is showing us how interesting the grape becomes when different places are allowed to speak their truth using it – and the one sipping is made better for it.
Perhaps on your next foray into the world of Simonsig wines, you match your poultry dish or roast pork with this testament to old vines & SA’s fine wines in their own right.
7. Pieropan La Rocca Soave Classico 2023
Veneto, Italy
Soave has spent enough time being dismissed as the default Italian white at restaurant tables that it is almost satisfying when one turns out to be genuinely profound.
Pieropan’s La Rocca is one of those bottles – from a historic Italian appellation at that!
Made primarily from Garganega, it showcases what happens when the grape is treated as a serious vehicle for place rather than a generic white-wine workhorse. The wine has earned substantial critical attention, and offers the combination of texture, minerality, and ageing potential that makes the white-Burgundy comparison suddenly less absurd.
No, it isn’t Burgundy.
That is rather the point.
Got a risotto ready? Even a plate of antipasti or asparagus would have your taste buds dancing with the Soave.
8. Soalheiro Alvarinho 2024
Monção e Melgaço, Portugal
As far as I can see, Alvarinho has all the ingredients of a modern favourite:
- freshness,
- regional identity,
- food-friendliness,
- and enough personality to avoid tasting like the wine equivalent of background music.
Soalheiro is one of the producers that has popped up on my radar and helped make the grape and the Monção e Melgaço sub-region impossible to overlook.
The 2024 has attracted strong international recognition, including a 97-point Decanter assessment, and truly lays out why Portugal increasingly deserves to be considered among the world’s serious sources of value-driven fine wine.
From such a highly specific Atlantic terroir, there is appeal for this premium-tasting white wine laden with citrus and stone-fruit brightness, as much as it intrigues and satiates with its texture and saline freshness.
I’ve yet to dine with the bottle accompaniment, but when the day comes: perhaps spicy prawns or sushi will do, right?
9. William Fèvre Chablis 2023
Burgundy, France
William Fèvre’s Chablis isn’t here because it is obscure. Quite the opposite.
Chablis remains one of the world’s most recognisable names for mineral Chardonnay, and Fèvre provides a useful benchmark for the bottles elsewhere in my list that are trying to persuade you to look beyond Burgundy.
The standard Chablis is also an important reminder that “icon” doesn’t necessarily mean Grand Cru.
There are levels within famous regions, I’ve come to learn in my travel and lifestyle experience – and sometimes the sensible buy is the bottle that gives you the house style without requiring your actual home’s price tag.
Enough quality wine tastings will show you that to truly grasp whether the heavyweights are worth it, you need to try a medley of wines at every level, for reference points.
So, perhaps make your excuses and grab a bottle of William Fèvre Chablis along with a cheese board, and begin your journey.
10. Craggy Range Te Muna Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Martinborough, New Zealand
Sauvignon Blanc has suffered from its own success.
There is an ocean of it, and much of it is perfectly pleasant, mind you – and almost all of it immediately identifiable. Te Muna is more interesting because it makes a case for Sauvignon as a site-specific fine wine rather than a varietal shorthand.
The Martinborough vineyard’s cooler conditions and distinctive soils produce a wine with citrus, stone-fruit, and mineral character, with critics having found considerably more structure and persistence than the generic “New Zealand Sauvignon” stereotype suggests.
For all the oversimplification of its category, the Craggy Range Te Muna Sauvignon Blanc is a delicious counterargument – best paired with a green veggie, fresh ceviche, or a really good, rich goat cheese. Veer away from notions of fruit salad with this one!
11. Tenuta delle Terre Nere San Lorenzo 2023
Etna, Sicily, Italy
Etna has graduated from fashionable to formidable.
My trend analysis reveals that its appeal is partly geological. Vineyards on the slopes of Mount Etna bring altitude, volcanic soils, and dramatic variations in exposure, while Nerello Mascalese gives the wines a naturally lighter, more perfumed structure than the stereotype of southern Italian red wine might suggest.
Terre Nere’s San Lorenzo has been receiving the sort of scores (and critics’ attention) that would make the same wine from a more established appellation considerably more expensive.
Its draw, for me? I’m not much for the wood-heavy wines, and this kind of red parries with them – countering the notion that fine wine has to be dark, powerful, and oak-heavy.
Based on its profile, this is a pick so ideal for menus with vegetarian appeal, whether that’s an order of charred aubergine, mushrooms, or – for the carnivores – anything from the grill.
12. CVNE Imperial Reserva 2020
Rioja, Spain
Some “new classics” are not new at all.
CVNE’s Imperial is one of Rioja’s historic names, and the Reserva remains an unusually persuasive example of what happens when traditional fine-wine culture doesn’t become completely detached from drinkability.
The 2020 has earned strong scores from critics, and brings together Tempranillo with smaller proportions of other Rioja varieties, followed by extended oak, and bottle ageing.
There is structure here, of course, but also that unmistakable Rioja pleasure: red and dark fruit, spice, tobacco, cedar, and savoury development.
I love encountering an actual classic that hasn’t forgotten the value proposition; it’s why people around the world enjoy it even today with the likes of a Sunday Lunch or a simple mature cheese.
13. Yalumba The Cigar Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
Coonawarra, Australia
Cabernet Sauvignon has a serious image problem when it comes to price. I’ve seen the variations on shelves around the world.
Mention Bordeaux or Napa and the numbers can become absurd very quickly. Coonawarra serves up another version of the wine conversation (from terroir to price tag), with:
- terra rossa soils,
- a cool maritime influence,
- and a long-established reputation for Cabernet.
Yalumba’s The Cigar takes its name from the cigar-box and tobacco character traditionally associated with Coonawarra Cabernet. The 2020 has received strong reviews, and anyone sipping it would be able to appreciate the cedar, blackcurrant, and savoury character expected of the variety – all without requiring the usual icon tax, thankfully!
If you’ve got any kind of beef (or lamb), this is the bottle that may settle it well, by the way. Drink away!
Australia’s recent international competition results also reinforce the broader point: serious Australian wine is no longer synonymous with big, ripe Shiraz.
14. Alheit Vineyards Hereafter Here 2023
Western Cape, South Africa
The goal in winemaking should never be to simply become collector trophies. Hereafter Here is interesting in that they believe this, and garner a whole different fanbase through Alheit’s compelling approach: site, old vines, texture, and restraint.
The 2023 draws on vineyards including Paardeberg and Tygerberg – and, subsequently, has earned serious attention from international critics.
It sits comfortably in the conversation around the world’s great dry whites without needing to imitate Burgundy or the Loire…and that matters.
South African wine’s most interesting future is not about producing local versions of European classics – we don’t do that in wine, gin, or whisky. Our future should be about demonstrating what these landscapes of ours can do in their own wine language.
15. Pheasant’s Tears Rkatsiteli
Kakheti, Georgia
If there’s one category every serious wine-trend forecast agrees on right now, it’s this one: amber, or “orange”, wine has stopped being a natural-wine curiosity and started turning up on genuinely ambitious lists.
Pheasant’s Tears is one of the producers that made that happen.
Made from Rkatsiteli, Georgia’s most planted white grape, and fermented on its skins for months in buried qvevri – a method that predates almost every other winemaking tradition on this list by several thousand years – it comes out deep amber, dry, and gripped by real tannin. For me, it can be described in terms of black tea (my favourite), sandalwood, and orange rind – which is about as far from a generic Sauvignon Blanc tasting note as this list gets.
It won’t be for everyone, in truth! It wasn’t built to be.
However, it is precisely the kind of bottle that makes a wine list – or a marvellous get-together – memorable, rather than merely adequate. With roast chicken on the table, or some fermented dishes, this wine is choice, particularly when paler white wines are being overwhelmed.
16. Raventós i Blanc De La Finca 2022
Conca del Riu Anoia, Spain
The bottle that started this particular rabbit hole remains one of the clearest examples of what I mean by a new classic.
Raventós i Blanc has been rooted on the same estate for more than five centuries – farming its vineyards biodynamically and working toward a distinct identity for the Conca del Riu Anoia, interestingly, rather than relying on the Cava designation. De La Finca comes from estate vineyards and is built around the classic Penedès trio of: Xarel·lo, Macabeu, and Parellada.
The 2022 is dry, serious, and quietly complex – with the sort of saline, mineral character that makes sparkling wine surprisingly good company for food, rather than merely a crisp, bubbly opening act.
There is also something satisfying about the restraint, in my experience. It doesn’t need to dress itself up as Champagne to feel important. As a fan of distinctive terroir and a historic estate, I find popping any one of their bottles a pleasure that’s both credible & nearly equal to fine wine without the price tag.
Best have a delectable cheese board at the ready to indulge in this one – especially solo!
17. Quinta do Crasto Reserva Old Vines 2022
Douro, Portugal
If the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection is right that Douro reds are quietly becoming Portugal’s calling card in serious dining rooms, this is the bottle that explains why!
Quinta do Crasto’s Reserva Old Vines is made from old-vine field blends averaging around 70 years old, drawn from 42 vineyard lots across one of the Douro’s oldest winemaking estates. That mixed planting – dozens of varieties growing together in the old vineyards – gives it a layered, old-world complexity that its price has, blessedly, never quite caught up to.
It has been praised for its dense black plum and mineral structure, and has been a consistent “outperforms its price” pick across vintages for over a decade.
You aren’t asked to know Port to appreciate it; in a way, it reminds me of brandy that way. For all its old-vine field-blend complexity, it is a table wine that just requests you to take it as seriously as the fortified wines that made the region famous in the first place.
Settle down with some grilled lamb and root vegetables, and enjoy the Quinta do Crasto Reserva Old Vines.
So, what makes a new classic?
Perhaps it isn’t the critics’ score
…or the price
…or how difficult the bottle is to find.
The wines that interest me most are the ones that make the old hierarchy feel less…inevitable. They don’t need to dethrone Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, or Barolo. They coax you towards the realisation, one reasonable & tasty sip at a time, that those names aren’t the only way into serious wine anymore.
Where is this particularly evident, from my perspective? In the rise of South African Chenin, English sparkling, Etna, Portuguese indigenous varieties, and increasingly site-driven wines from places that once occupied the margins of the fine-wine conversation.
The good ones offer something better: their own sense of place, personality, and occasion – all without requiring the price tag of an icon.
The restaurant world has been moving in this direction for a while. The best sommeliers have an advantage over the rest of us: they can see what happens when a bottle meets a plate, a room, and a particular kind of diner. The result is rarely just a list of the most famous labels. It is a search for bottles with personality, provenance, and a reason to be there.
And perhaps that is the more useful definition of a classic: Not a bottle everyone already knows.
A bottle you are going to want to know for a long time.
Prices and availability vary considerably by market, importer and vintage. All editorial opinions remain independent.
