This is far and away the most asked question in my universe. I spent years picking this simple question apart, semantically and psychologically.

Surely a customer means more than just “good,” right? No, not really. Well, they must have a grape or flavor in mind. Nope, again. Usually this question comes from one of three things:

The person is frustrated. She’s been to a few tastings, but the whole “hints of this” and “nose of that” is a bunch of mumbo jumbo to her. She hasn’t had enough wine to form a real opinion and the opinion she has is very close to “Fuck it, I’ll just have a vodka tonic.” This customer needed support as much as a bottle of wine. This customer needed Valpolicella. Then I could get this customer to a tasting, and really quiz her about what she liked and didn’t like–and diagnose her.

The person drinks wine, but never really pays much attention. Maybe he hasn’t had the wine that whispers Hallelujah to him yet. Maybe he never will. Whatever the case, I learned to authoritatively give him a good red, and fast! (always at one price point lower than they asked) Planting the seed was all I could do…then I’d add something flip like, “What? You don’t deserve better than ‘good?’” Worked every time.

The person is eager, but clueless where to start. Ah, come into my web. This was my favorite customer–the potential minion, the wide-eyed wine ingenue. This is the customer you (or at least I) dream of… I loved picking out bottles of fun stuff for her to try, and making her report back. I dropped free knowledge on her, and she gave me her loyalty. But I did try to get her to drink my kool-aid–the low alcohol, hand-crafted, “real wines” of which I am a staunch advocate.

So don’t dismiss people, WINE BUYERS, when they ask for a good red. Because what it really means is, “I haven’t had a wine that makes me get what the big deal about wine is, so can you recommend something that might?” Take it as a challenge, not an annoyance. And don’t act like some of you don’t get annoyed. SO! What’s a good red? No, you deserve better (see, it works, doesn’t it?). I’ll tell you what’s a damn fantastic red:

Badia a Coltibuono 2005 Cetamura Chianti, $10
(imported by )

When you taste wine for a living, you develop a sensory range for different wines–like a $10 Chianti, for example. A $10 Chianti has its upper limits and its lower limits. Well, no–there really is no limit to how badly a $10 Chianti can suck. But you get the point.

This little Cetamura is the best flipping $10 Chianti I’ve had in years. And I’ve had a bazillion. Black licorice with earthy yet pretty fruit. Zingy acid. Soft yet present tannin. I could use this wine to illustrate all the basic wonk speak of the wine trade. This is a wine that will benefit from pinot noir glassware or anything snifter shaped (Goodwill always has some). Most sommeliers are Francophiles. Pas moi, Italia mi piace. Badia a Coltibuono is/was a wine list staple for me. The three things you need to know as a drinker:

1.) It will play nice with all sorts of food, every day of the week.
2.) It has a tangy sour pie cherry flavor, with beautiful aromatics that bely it’s price.
3.) Give it some air, it’ll give you even more.***

(* Pictured is the Cetamura’s big daddy, the Chianti Classico Riserva. I’ve still got some 2001 in my cellar–wow. For under $25, it’s one of my favorite bottles to recommend for cellaring. Screw Bordeaux, go Chianti. Especially this 2005 CCR.)

***Give the bottle a hard tilt into a pitcher, so it glug, glug, glugs. Wait 10 or so minutes. Drink.