A lot of attention is given to Brunello di Montalcino as Tuscany’s top appellation but Chianti Classico is its equal in producing top quality and ageable wines in recent vintages. Moreover, if your palate gets tired of wines that are concentrated and clingy, then Chianti Classico offers many wines to go for.

The wines from this heartland of Chianti were given their own DOCG designation in 1996. This region is about transparency, freshness and fruit-coated backbones. The best examples have naturally high acidity swathed in juicy, savory fruit and framed in a complete, firm tannin construction. This is the kind of wine that leaves your mouth watering after each sip. The finish lingers with pure, fresh and spicy fruit and is succulent enough to cleanse the palate with a fine-grained, sinewy grip.

Sangiovese has many clonal variants, but none makes a darkly pigmented wine if not blended with other darker grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot or the local colorino. The more exotically perfumed mammolo and the round canaiolo nero are among the most common native varieties that comprise the maximum 20 percent of the Chianti Classico recipe. The rest is all about sangiovese, which produces wine with a lustrous sheen and a reddish/crimson hue. With the return of large, neutral oak vats for maturation, the purity and finesse in a Chianti Classico can offer something truly pristine and drinkable. Compare this to the dazzling and sophisticated wine world today, where too many wines are soaked in new oak barrels, drenched in the process of over-extraction, leading to a heady nose and a hefty body.

Having said that, we still need to bear in mind that balance is at the core of excellent wines. We don’t want our Chianti Classico to go sour and turned into a salad dressing. Overproduction and difficult, wet vintages might give rise to wines that are too thin, tart and dilute in flavor. But the most dependable producers make great value and great quality wines year in year out. You can be even more reassured from bright, classic vintages like 2015 and 2016, which are both memorable years for Chianti, Brunello and Tuscany, especially when compared to the challenging 2014, which produced meager wines that are too simple and bony. To know more about the 2015 and 2016 vintages, check James’s tasting report TWO GREAT VINTAGES FOR TUSCANY: 2015 AND 2016.

The following are 10 wines from the recent great 2016 vintage that all run to less than $30. These wines show what incredible quality and value you can get from an excellent Chianti Classico, with excellent drinkability but with the prospect of aging too. Enjoy them from now through the next three to six years.