Thanksgiving is just nine days away, and while the reflex for most folks is to wed this annual feast with Chardonnay, the reality is that these cool autumn evenings—and turkey—both pair really well with Pinot Noir—that fragrant, light- to medium-bodied dry red that includes some of the highest-priced bottles of wine on the planet.

While it’s delightfully drinkable on its own, Pinot Noir’s traditional bright acidity makes it great for food pairing and digestion, while its more subtle, perfumed nature ensures that it won’t overpower less-spicy foods like turkey, potatoes and veggies. In Food & Wine magazine, Leslie Hartman, sommelier at The French Room in Dallas, notes, “Pinot Noir is a food-friendly wine that often shows classic fall flavours such as cranberry, red apple skin, dried leaves and allspice.”

All that said, one regular Thanksgiving meal accompaniment that will overpower a Pinot—or many wines, for that matter—is cranberry sauce.

When done well, Pinot is sublime—actually my favourite wine in the world. When done poorly, it can be thin and tongue-curlingly tart or, worse, unnaturally flabby and sweet.

Given its subtlety, Pinot Noir tends not to be a wine of the people, but it could be. Even Taco Bell patrons are loving Pinot—thanks to a highly successful new partnership between the restaurant chain and Queenston Mile/Creekside Estate winemaker Rob Power.

Yes, this thin-skinned grape can often prove pricey to make good wine from. A bottle can get over $30 in a nanosecond and into the triple digits a short time after that. And then there’s the legendary producer Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in France’s Burgundy region. Commonly referred to as simply “DRC”, there’s typically just 6,000 and 8,000 cases made annually, with prices usually ranging anywhere from $2,500 to nearly $30,000 Cdn per bottle.

While I don’t currently have any friends who have invited me over to their cellar to uncork a DRC (I am willing to clear my schedule), thankfully, there are worthy Pinots below $25, including a few truly impressive labels.

Riedel’s Extreme Pinot Noir glass

Try chilling your bottles for 20-30 minutes in the fridge before serving. And, if at all possible, please pour it into the proper glass. The right wine glass can make a world of difference. Trust me! Think of the Red Carpet at one of those awards shows. Just as a certain style of dress beautifully flatters one body type while proving quite uncomplementary to another, so too do different wines require the right glass to enhance their particular characteristics. A proper Pinot Noir glass is specifically designed for lighter, delicate reds, with a large bowl and narrower top to collect and display all those subtle aromas for your probing nose. That narrower top also serves to direct your Pinot to the tip of the tongue so that none of those elusive, subtle flavours are missed.

So without further ado, here are 15 bottles true to the nature of this fickle grape that are genuinely worth trying for the budget-conscious Pinot lover.

Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir 2018 — Malborough, New Zealand ($19.95)
There’s really not much everyday New Zealand Pinot Noir at the LCBO, but thankfully this reliable Malborough Pinot is one of them. A sparkling ruby in the glass, it’s smooth, not too tart, with notes of vibrant cherry, strawberry, raspberry, cranberries, goji berries—ok, I know, I’m mentioning a lot of berries here—clove and roasted coffee beans. 89

Villa Maria Cellar Selection Pinot Noir 2017 — Malborough, New Zealand ($25)
If the Private Bin version of Villa Maria’s Pinot is about the fruit, this one is about oak-induced structure and complexity. This might have been my favourite bottle in this week’s lineup. This extra-dry wine spent 10 months in a mixture “of new and seasoned French oak barriques on full lees to add palate weight and texture,” the winery notes. This is right-on-point, soft-edged and quite sophisticated Pinot for the price. There’s more dark fruit than strawberries in the mix, with distinct background aromas of mushrooms, rosemary and forest floor. The alcohol is well concealed, with tannins grabbing just enough at the end. 91

G. Marquis The Silver Line Pinot Noir 2019 — Niagara, Ontario ($19.95 on sale for $17.95 until Oct. 11)

Erath 2017 Pinot Noir — Dundee Hills, Oregon ($24.95 on sale for $21.95 until Oct. 11)

They’ve been growing red wine grapes for more than 50 years in Oregon’s Dundee Hills, longer than any other winery. Pinot, they quickly discovered, flourished. But it’s very hard to find an Oregon Pinot of this quality for this price. It’s medium-bodied, complex and layered with black cherry—rich and ripe but pleasingly unsweet—with a waft of smoke and earthy forest floor meshing together. Really well put together. 90

Henry of Pelham Estate Pinot Noir 2017 — St. Catharines, Ontario ($19.95)

This seems quite underpriced. Its perfumed, rose-infused berry mix ventures from cherry and raspberry to red currants, with an earthy minerality and smooth tannins adding to its complexity and leading to a long finish. If you can still find this vintage in the LCBO or at the winery, make sure you grab at least one. It’s drinking beautifully now. 90

Inniskillen Montague Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018 Four Mile Creek VQA — Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario ($23.75)

Another well-priced Ontario creation here, harvested from select vineyards throughout Niagara, with eight months of oak to nurture and refine the supple, silky goodness of rich fruit than leans to the dark side, with sour dark cherry, cranberry, blackberry and blueberry, and a little dusting of dark chocolate, white pepper and thyme. 90

Montes Limited Selection Pinot Noir 2018 — Casablanca Valley, Chile ($14.95)
Seven months of aging here—some on oak, some stainless steel. This was a cooler vintage in the Casablanca Valley, with a little more than typical herbal splash surrounding notes of sour cherry, blueberry, pomegranate and strawberry. The tannins seem pretty smooth in this fleshy, medium-bodied concoction. Serve it at 15C. 87.5

Cono Sur Organic Pinot Noir 2019 — Central Valley, Chile ($13.95)

Henry of Pelham Pinot Noir 2019 — St. Catharines, Ontario ($16.95)

Rathbone Yering Station Village 2017 Pinot Noir — Yarra Valley, Australia ($24.95)

Kim Crawford 2019 Pinot Noir — Malborough, New Zealand ($22.95)

Cloudsley Cellars Niagara Peninsula Pinot Noir 2017 — Twenty Mile Bench, Ontario ($25)

Meiomi 2019 Pinot Noir — California ($21.95)

Bouchard Père & Fils Réserve Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2018 — Burgundy, France  ($22.95)
Founded in 1731, Bouchard is famed for its $500+ Chardonnays and $150+ Pinots, but they don’t neglect the affordable category, and the wonderful 2018 vintage delivers great value, with a riper, slightly richer composition than typical of this classic Burgundy. Tannins are pretty smooth, leaving a little bit of an earthy pucker—but pleasingly so. Perfumed and balanced, on the lighter side of medium-bodied. 88.5

Sacred Hill Pinot Noir 2019 — Malborough, New Zealand ($18.95) (Oct. 31 release)
There’s a little of the tart and tannin of a classic pinot, but it’s still really well balanced. Plenty of berry fruit leads the way on the nose, with cinnamon, mushrooms, barnyard and forest floor aromas, with a palate of rich, ripe berries—courtesy of an exceptional 2019 vintage. It all adds up to a very satisfying entry in this price range. If not turkey, this also pairs well with venison and duck. 89.5