re: Give me your best wine under $50...

Nobody mentioned - try Rose (Whispering Angel or any rose from Provence). Most rose's are under $30 and are great when paired with pizza or Italian food. Also, a great summer wine in hot weather and on the sweeter side. When I was in Provence, France, I drank my first rose and subsequently had several different varieties of rose while we were there. Some people say it is merely trendy, but I recommend that you try it based upon your wine preferences mentioned above.

Agree on earlier comments - if you like a lighter red, try Pinot Noir. Most Oregon Pinot's are good. I like high-end Pinot's, so I don't have any recommendations in your price point, but look around and taste and you will find several. Pinot Noir is great with Italian food.

Also, try a Malbec. Argentina makes the best Malbec wines, but the Wagner family (makers of Caymus wines in Napa) makes a great Mablec in Napa called Red Schooner sourced from Argentina malbec grapes. Look for Voyage 7 or 8 now. Priced around $40-$50. Can be served with any meat, including steak and also seafood.

Try Faust, made by the Huneeus Vintners family (makers of Quintessa that sells in the upper $175+ range). Price is steadily rising, but should be able to find it around $50 or $55. Great Cabernet for the price. This is my second favorite red in that price point. Great with steak.

Try Caravan by Darioush. A Napa cab blend. Around $40-$50. Favorite red in your price point. Great with steak or any meat.

Try white wines with fish or any type of seafood. Also, works well with fowl or duck. I recommend mostly French white wines from the Burgundy region, especially from the town of Puligney-Montrachet. I thought Burgundy meant red wine before I visited that region. The region has the best white wines on the planet, mostly chardonnay's. Louis Jadot distributes a lot of wine from this region, ranging in prices from $20 to $90.

I echo the other comments on finding a good wine store. Look for Total Wine in a larger Metro area or most towns have a local liquor/wine shop. Get to know the owners or best employees and try as much wine as you can until you find something you like.

Get the ViVino app on your phone. With it you can take a picture of the bottle (including in the store or in a restaurant) and find out the average price and rating of the wine. It is rated by normal wine drinkers (not Sommeliers). On their 5 point scale, anything over 4.0 is normally very good. If it is rated 4.5 and above, it is normally excellent. It also stores all of the wines that you have taken a picture of and the ratings. It helps in restaurants to see how bad the restaurant is gouging on price.

In Louisiana, most good restaurants allow you to bring in your own wine with a $25 corkage fee. Most wines are priced 200% of retail in a restaurant. If you pay $40 for a bottle at a liquor store and then pay $25 corkage, that $65 total price is normally less than the $80 the restaurant would have charged. We can't bring wine into restaurants in Texas.

Warning - wine tasting and drinking is addictive. Before you know it, you have 100 - 200 bottles and spend $4,000 on a great wine refrigerator (EuroCave) to protect your $25,000 wine investment and your kids develop very expensive wine tastes. Which is also very fun. I buy wine to drink it, not to save and invest in it. I buy wines that I enjoy and from places that I have visited. It brings me back to that vineyard when I open a bottle. When I pair it with a great home cooked meal, my heart is full.

Cheers.

Prisoner or Palermo

I like Machete as well. I have a bottle of 8 years in the desert haven’t gotten into yet, normally not a Zin guy, but its Orin F’in Swift so I’m sure it will be amazing

Three Amigos by Sinskey and Del Dotto Pinot are the only two I really care for

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Caravan by Darioush

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Did we just become best friends?

I love the Darioush Signature Cabernet Sauvignon (2011 was especially good), but it was out of her price range. Yes, we could be wine drinking buddies. Good taste.

Just got this from LastBottle - anyone know what the LA thing is based on? It's a 2016 red blend from Cerro and brags about Caymus connection.

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Louisiana, this one's for YOU!! Go Tigers! OK, it’s for everyone, really, who is savvy enough and fast enough to grab some (you saw that price, right? For a gusto-filled powerhouse Napa blend? Bit of a head-spinner, yeah??), but we have some hardcore Cerro fans down that way, and rightly so. And whether you hail from Lettsworth, Sacramento, Boulder, or anywhere in between --- do EVERYTHING in your considerable power to grab some of this outrageously rich, silky and deeply satisfying bottle of vinous goodness --- get it NOW, hurry, and come back for the deets!

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Sounds like something I wouldn't like, but for those who like Conundrum, Caymus, etc. it might be a buy

I love Joseph phelps cabernet. It can range from 55-60. It is superb. Big bold cab

I've recently taking a liking to the Emmolo Merlot and see you've mentioned Caymus a few times in this thread.

Any other suggestions that you might be able to make similar to that one?

I'm fairly new into my wine learning journey, so I'm sure tastes will change over time but I appreciate the information and suggestions

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You might also look at wines from the Bordeaux region on France, which are primarily (45/45) blends of cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes (with other small varieties mixed in).

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A lot are, but not primarily. If he likes merlot, right bank is where to go. Fronsac, saint emilion, pomerol, etc will all be primarily merlot with some even at 100% merlot. Left bank is mostly where you'll see closer to 50/50 with 10% ish devoted to cab franc, Malbec, and Petit verdot.

To your point though, since merlot is the most widely planted grape throughout Bordeaux, it'll usually be at least 40% of most red Bordeaux. Some good cheaper options are Chateau Larose Trintaudon Haut Medoc (60/40 cab to merlot) at around $22 or Chateau Greysac Medoc (65ish/30ish merlot to cab with blending grapes) at $25. Chateau de Carles Fronsac is 80/15/5 merlot/cab/cab franc at $28-32 and is really good.

Domestically, merlot is kind of an afterthought, and people missing the irony of the merlot "hate" in the movie Sideways didn't really help.

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Caravan by Darioush is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc. Not a true "Bordeaux Blend", but close. Also, not a Cabernet Sauvignon. You cannot call it a Cabernet Sauvignon wine unless it contains at least 75% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. You can find it for around $50 in a lot of store, but the price keeps rising. I paid $35 per bottle several years ago. My young adult children love it at that price point.

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The Calistoga BDX from Del Dotto is $85 and is absolutely amazing.