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By Esther Mobley, Senior Wine Critic, San Francisco Chronicle

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In the canon of wine, Napa Valley’s Cabernet Sauvignons are among the greats. But they don’t come cheap. The average price of 2023 Napa Cabs could be around $92 a bottle, based on the prices that wineries paid for grapes last year.

Anyone willing to splurge will find no shortage of exceptional Napa Cabernets for $100 and more. But if you know where to look, you can find equally delicious wines for much less than that. The $50-$80 range is a particular sweet spot. Those wines may not satisfy anyone’s definition of inexpensive, but when they’re good, they can represent an excellent value.

Many wines in this price band will taste especially sweet to those who appreciate Cabernets with more savory, sometimes even herbal, tones, and slightly less polished edges than the ripe, plush Napa Valley archetype. In some cases — like Robert Craig and Di Costanzo — the under-$80 Cabernet is a winery’s entry-level bottling, the least expensive wine in a portfolio of more typical-for-Napa price tags. The entry-level wine can be a great way to get a sense of the producer’s style without committing to the big bottle. For other wineries, like Smith-Madrone and Farella, the under-$80 wine is the main event; they just haven’t raised their prices as aggressively as some of their neighbors.

Below are six tremendous Napa Valley Cabernets for under $80, listed from least to most expensive. All can be purchased directly from the wineries’ websites, though some are available at local retailers including K&L.

Farella Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville 2021 ($72, 14.8%)

This estate-grown wine from Napa’s southern Coombsville area smells like fennel, with fleshy black plum and black pepper flavors and firm tannins. farella.com

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