One of the unwelcome truths of fine wine is that finding it takes a bit of looking. The fantasy, of course, is that you can pop into any shop, anywhere, and voila! there’s the wine you’re seeking. Would that great wines were so abundant and well distributed. But it’s simply not so. Finding the gems takes more effort than, say, getting today’s newspaper.

That hard truth acknowledged, it’s not that difficult to secure great deals on great wines. Indeed, all of the wines recommended this week are available with only a bit of calling around.

While I’m in the business of conveying hard truths, here’s another: Deals don’t last. Sure, there’s always another vintage. But if you taste a wine that you really like, at a price you find palatable, lay in a few extra bottles. This may seem obvious, but one of the most common laments I hear is how much someone liked a (long since sold out) wine and now they can’t get it anymore. Word to the wise: Get it while you can.

HERE’S THE DEAL

BARBERA D’ALBA 2001, GIACOMO CONTERNO

If ever the “get it while you can” advice applies it’s to this exceptional red wine from the great Piedmontese producer Giacomo Conterno. Almost without fail, the Giacomo Conterno winery creates one of the finest traditional barberas made in Piedmont – really, anywhere in Italy.

The Conterno name is lustrous. Giacomo Conterno, who died in 1971, was famous in his day for creating some of the finest Barolos. Giacomo had two sons, Giovanni and Aldo. Giovanni, the elder son, was more of a traditionalist, while his younger brother Aldo – who served in the U.S. Army and was strongly marked by living in California in the late 1950s – took a more modern approach.

The brothers couldn’t get along. So in 1969, with their father’s blessing, they divided the family inheritance. Giovanni got the valuable Giacomo Conterno label; Aldo started his own Barolo-zone winery under his own name. Today, Aldo Conterno winery is every bit as prestigious – and expensive – as the original Giacomo Conterno label. Giovanni Conterno died last year. His son Roberto now runs the Giacomo Conterno winery.

Now, about the barbera. For decades, even Piedmontese locals considered barbera to be an inconsequential red wine grape. They drank it happily, but it never got any respect – or much of a price.

But a few stalwart producers, Giovanni Conterno among them, knew that barbera could be a great red wine if grown in a site with a good exposure from old vines with low yields. That no one wanted to pay a proper price for such an achievement didn’t deter Giovanni Conterno. He was a stubborn guy, convinced (rightly) of his traditionalist cause. Also, his wife loved barbera, an added incentive to make something special.

Barbera is now acclaimed, with some bottlings fetching as much as $50 a bottle. Many of today’s high-priced barberas see time in new French oak barrels, which add greater textural polish, as well as a whiff (or sometimes more than that) of vanilla. Giovanni Conterno never liked that trend and his wine, to this day, gets no gussying-up. Nor does it need it.

Giacomo Conterno Barbera d’Alba 2001 is simply one of the finest, most classic barberas you will taste. It rivals such benchmarks years as 1985 and ’89. The 2001 vintage was truly great and it shows in this wine. This is luscious, firm yet tender barbera infused with a scent and taste of wild cherries. Experience reveals that it will do nothing but improve for upward of a decade if stored in a cool spot. Yet it’s undeniably irresistible drinking right now, as barbera is a smooth customer with few intrinsic tannins. This is very much worth hunting down. $30.

GEWURZTRAMINER 2002, TRIMBACH

This is an insider’s deal par excellence The skinny on this wine is that the 2002 vintage in Alsace was wet. This is not a good thing and no winegrower wants as much rain as Alsace saw that year. However, strange as it sounds, 2002 wasn’t a washout. Instead, it was just another tricky year where the best winemakers finessed their problems by applying rigor. Trimbach was one of them.

I happened to taste this wine recently with Hubert Trimbach, who has spent decades marketing his family’s wines around the world. When I tasted this 2002 gewurztraminer, I was amazed at its depth, ripeness, complexity, and length. The texture is superb, far richer and thicker on the palate than Trimbach usually delivers in their “basic” gewurz. I said as much to Mr. Trimbach, wondering aloud just why his “entry level” gewurztraminer was so exceptionally fine, let alone from the 2002 vintage.

He grinned. “It’s easy to explain,” he replied. “This wine has all of the grapes from the Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre vineyard in it. My nephew Pierre decided that the Ribeaupierre grapes were good, but not fine enough to create a separate bottling. So we added them to our regular gewurztraminer.” Pierre Trimbach is the family winemaker.

This is no small thing, as the Ribeaupierre site is in the grand cru vineyard of Osterberg. It’s a great vineyard and widely recognized as being the source of some of Alsace’s finest gewurztraminers. It was no wonder that this “basic” gewurz was anything but. Trimbach’s Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre gewurztraminer sells for $30 a bottle.

Here’s the kicker: Trimbach Gewurztraminer 2002 is $14.95, with a street price as low as $12.95. This is a flatout steal for exceptional gewurztraminer. It’s dry, intense, and rich with the variety’s signature spiciness and scent of lychee. Yet it’s so detailed and restrained that it never cloys. This is an ideal wine to accompany anything with onions, all sorts of spicy foods (curries especially), or just as a sunset sipper. I can’t recall a better deal in gewurztraminer than this. Happily, it’s widely available.