Pros offer their picks
These are picks from the young sommeliers, who chose bottles from their own lists (prices reflect what the wines cost at their restaurants)
Erin O'Shea
Eastern Standard, 528 Commonwealth Ave., 617-532-9100.Affordable white: 2004 Librandi Efeso, Val di Neto, $45. "This is my surprise favorite. It is an amazing value and tastes like a beautiful white Burgundy with notes of Brazil nut, lemon meringue, and well-balanced acid and minerality."
Affordable red: 2004 Cos Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Sicily, $45.
Dan O'Brien
Excelsior, 272 Boylston St., 617-426-7878.Affordable white: Botromagno, Gravina, Puglia 2005, $30.
Affordable red: Beckmen, Purisima Mountain, Grenache, Santa Ynez 2004, $50.
Surprise favorite: Behren's & Hitchcock, Rudy's Cuvee, Napa, 2002, $155. "Les Behren's splits their fruit sources with some of the most expensive producers in Northern California and charges half the price. All the wines have a beautiful perfume about them, they are unfiltered, concentrated, tons of fruit, but not over the top by any means. This wine is mostly Cabernet Franc, which is not an easy grape to express."
Matt Reiser
Upstairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop St., Cambridge, 617-864-1933.Affordable white: 2004 Dafni, Lyrarakis, $28.
Affordable red: 2004 Domaine du Tabatau Cuvée Camprigou Saint-Chinian, $26.
Surprise favorite: 2004 Massena The Moonlight Run Rhône Blend, $58. "This wine is the result of a partnership between Dan Standish of Torbreck fame and Jaysen Collins of Turkey Flat. I love this wine because of the complexity and metamorphosis it takes in the glass. It smells almost sweet and overly jammy; however, give it literally a minute and that sweet smell blows off and turns totally herbaceous like thyme with some well-integrated fruit."
- ERIN BYERS MURRAY 