We’ve offered the wines of Corinna Faravel and her Domaine Martenelle enough times over the years, and likely sold dozens if not hundreds of cases, that I don’t think it’s necessary to wax poetic or throw around a lot of flowery language. But, in case you’re new to this extraordinary value here’s the rub: Corinna’s Ventoux Rouge has all the spice, power, elegance, complexity, and length of not just average but really, really good Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And it still (after many years) costs less than $30. This is a house wine for many of us, and the kind of bottle that makes me smile when I see it on an otherwise “fancy” wine list. Stock up, it’s the pro move.

If you take a quick 30-minute jaunt slightly northeast of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you’ll enter the outskirts of Lafare, located in the northern section of Beaumes-de-Venise (the southern half is known for its naturally sweet, fortified Muscats). This tucked-away commune is home to Domaine Martinelle, a winery founded and run by a one-woman show, Corinna Faravel, who is the wife of Thierry Faravel, co-owner of acclaimed Domaine Bouïssière in Gigondas. Corinna embodies what this blossoming region needs: she’s impassioned, energetic, wise beyond her years, and shows a delicate, hands-off approach so as to let the terroir sing and the wine create itself. She acquired her first plot in 2001, bottled her first vintage solo in 2004, and built a cellar in Lafare in 2009—which made her a fully-functioning domaine.

Ventoux is cooler than most Southern Rhône appellations. It is a blended mountain and Mediterranean climate that is protected from the harsh elements of Mont Ventoux by the sweeping Dentelles de Montmirail, an