Every underdog, A–Z.

Portugal

Most red grapes have red skin and clear juice. Alicante Bouschet is different — its flesh runs crimson too. Here's why the original underdog deserves a spot on your table.

Armenia

The oldest known winery on earth is a cave in Armenia, dated to about 4100 BC. The country is still making gorgeous, fruit-soaked reds for the price of a movie ticket — and almost nobody is paying attention.

Portugal

Baga is thin-skinned, fiercely tannic, bracingly acidic, and capable of aging for decades — so good it gets compared to Barolo's Nebbiolo. It's also one of Portugal's great overlooked reds.

Spain

Mencía was nearly written off as a producer of thin, jammy plonk. Then a handful of growers found old vines on steep slate slopes — and turned it into one of Spain's most elegant, fragrant reds.

Sicily

On the slopes of Europe's most active volcano grow some of Italy's most thrilling reds — pale, perfumed, and ageworthy, often from ungrafted vines older than your grandparents. Meet Nerello Mascalese.

Georgia

The oldest wine country on earth makes a red grape with crimson flesh — just like Alicante Bouschet. If you've never had a Georgian wine, you've been missing 8,000 years of the story.

Italy

Schiava is the most-planted red in Italy's German-speaking Alps — pale, light, low-tannin, and almost absurdly easy to drink. It also has one of the most curious names in wine.

Portugal

Most people think Madeira is sweet. Sercial is its bone-dry opposite — electric, citrusy, and so high in acidity it can age for a century or more. It might be the most ageworthy wine you've never tried.

Italy

Teroldego is a native of the Italian Alps that makes deeply colored, dark-fruited reds with real ageing potential — from a single tiny plain most wine drinkers have never heard of.

Portugal

Touriga Nacional is the backbone of great Port — but the secret is what it does as a dry red: powerful, violet-scented, age-worthy, and still a fraction of the price of the famous names it rivals.

France

Trousseau is the pale, savory, light-bodied red that natural-wine lovers chase across the Jura. Here's the twist: it's the same grape Portugal has grown for centuries under the name Bastardo.

Greece

Xinomavro is tannic, high-acid, and so ageworthy that wine pros compare it to Barolo. It's also Greek, hard to pronounce, and absurdly underpriced — which is exactly why you should be drinking it.