"R&M" > in
m...
> Have tried domaine carneros and carneros creek
> 2001...any other suggestions???

2001 Saintsbury Carneros, 2002 Schug Carneros (US). Got a better one
lately (to my taste) from another label, dozen of them on the way now, I
don't have the name at hand sadly, should be able to get it though.

Assuming that this inquiry is not limited narrowly to US Pinots (which offer
only a small fraction of the candidates of Pinot Noir in this price range),
attached is my current standard tirade on good-value $10-$20 Burgundies.
(Originally posted to an HTML site last year.) All of those examples are
100% Pinot Noir also, and there are other important sources besides Burgundy
but that one is the largest, it invented Pinot Noir. Products such as those
below may not always be found lying around on demand, but instead you have
to watch for them, in my experience, and sometimes keep them cool for a year
or two but it pays off. All the more reason to develop a regular practice
of tasting of new wines, such as a tasting group! -- M.

--
As a rule I have found the great $10-$20 values among exceptional Bourgognes
Rouges, regionals (Beaune, Nuits, HCdB, etc), and the less-fashionable
village wines -- Givry, Mercurey, even Rully, all of those from the Côte
Challonaise, but sometimes even more fashionable villages than those. Thus a
few years ago the 1996 Jadot B.-Rouges at $11 was in big US supermarkets and
it tasted to promise -- and delivered -- good meaty stuff in a few years,
Jeeze Louise -- no one who bought and stored it well but got value. (Jadot
does many good values and has expanded impressively in recent decades.) By
the way a good merchant lately showed me an example -- Jadot 2000
Chorey-les-Beaune at $12 in California, "you may find it a little hollow,"
he said; well, I did -- not the 96 Rouges or 91 Lafarge Rouges or 93 Jadot
Beaune-Bressandes or several other 93s, or 95 de Villaine Mercurey "Montots"
(doing well now) or all those 94s that got sold off in 98 as everyone
expects the 2000s and 2001s to be later or the 96 Jadot Santenay (another
good-value, non-hip appelation) "Clos de Malte" [drinking well now as the 99
promises to also] or the 96 Hudelot-Noellat Rouges [STILL developing] or the
98 Groffier Rouge or 99 Lafarge Rouge or others ALL of which were under $20
and some at $10 -- but what it has around its hollow part seemed to me
creditable and true to region, certainly for US $12. [September 2003.]

Addendum 10/04 -- Joining its predecessors cited above, the currently
available 2002 Jadot Santenay "Clos de Malte" looks like it is going to kick
butt. (May be a little over $20, but worth it.)