While all the talk of the wine world these days is about consolidation, contraction, and structural shifts – which are all indeed occurring – one fact remains: the world’s best wines are still made by small producers. Call them heroic, if you like. Mostly, though, they’re just like you and me, which is to say that they do the job put in front of them as best they can.

“The job in front of them” happens to be growing grapes and making wine. The best wines are made, naturally, by growers who are sensitive and skilled enough to see their grapes through to wine without mucking it up. You’d be amazed (or maybe not) how often this winemaking version of “there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip” occurs. The slips typically involve excess: too much oak; too late picking; too high a yield in the vineyard; or too much extraction in the winemaking, which creates clumsy, stewed-tasting wines.

None of the above applies to any of the wines recommended this week – or any other week, I devoutly hope. Yet what’s interesting about this week’s wines is how flavorful and intense they are. All are what I call “winter reds.” They are the sorts of red wines that cry out for solid winter food such as beef stew, chicken potpie (does anyone still make that?), or even just a great pepperoni pizza. A steak will always do, but personally I think lamb delivers a gamier punch ideal for these wines. Ditto for something like a Moroccan tagine or a Provencal daube with its signature touch of dried orange peel.

One thing is certain: the following wines are superb examples of talented small winegrowers creating unusually intense red wines that never cross the line into excess or a wine version of prurience.

HERE’S THE DEAL

MOUNT EDEN VINEYARDS “SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS” CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2001 The most exclusive precinct for great California cabernet is not, as might be expected, Napa Valley. If anything, Napa’s greatness lies with its sheer abundance. There’s a lot of cabernet goodness on tap in Napa Valley.

Instead, California’s most exclusive precinct for great cabernet sauvignon is the Santa Cruz Mountains on the peninsula south of San Francisco. Although today this zone is far better known for Silicon Valley, when you head for the hills you find an utterly different world. At elevations as high as 2,000 feet there is rugged wildness, as well as outposts of civilized vineyards, some of which have been there for decades. In fact, Santa Cruz Mountain winemaking history really dates to the late 1800s.

The ruggedness of the terrain is a natural constraint upon scale. The total vineyard acreage in the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation is 1,340 acres, of which a scant 170 acres is cabernet sauvignon. Napa Valley, in comparison, has about 36,000 acres of vines, about one-third of which is cabernet sauvignon.

What’s odd about this is that Santa Cruz creates some of California’s greatest cabernets. For example, Ridge Monte Bello cabernet is routinely cited as one of California’s finest. It sells for $125 a bottle for the current (2001) vintage. And there’s Kathryn Kennedy Estate cabernet, which goes for $145 a bottle.

The most lustrous Santa Cruz Mountain winery name of all is Mount Eden Vineyards. Founded in 1942 by the now-legendary Martin Ray – it was his name on the label originally – it was reborn as Mount Eden Vineyards on the original site with Ray’s original vineyard (chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon). The old Martin Ray winery ceased to exist due to a rat’s nest of investor complications caused by Ray himself. He died in 1976.

After a succession of winemakers in the 1970s and early 1980s, Mount Eden settled into a pattern of consistently superb wines under the stewardship of winemaker and part-owner Jeffrey Patterson. Producing superb estate-grown chardonnay (arguably California’s best), an intriguing, idiosyncratic pinot noir, and not least, a haunting cabernet sauvignon, Mount Eden is a remarkable resource.

The odd part is the modesty of its pricing. The 2001 Mount Eden “Santa Cruz Mountains” cabernet sauvignon is flat-out wonderful. Unusually supple (other vintages have been burlier and more tannic), this 2001 bottling is one of the most subtle, refined, and simply elegant California cabernets. Above all, it retains the earthy/minerally favor singularity that sets apart Santa Cruz Mountain cabernets from all others. Yet the price is ridiculously low for the quality: $34. (Look for a street price as low as $29.95.) With other big names asking $50, $75, or $100 a bottle, this is a steal in great cabernet from one of California’s best vintages.

VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO 2001, AVIGNONESI The 2001 vintage was also a stellar year in northern and central Italy. (A tip to Italian wine fanciers: stock up on the 2001s as the 2002 vintage was marred by heavy rains and cool temperatures.)

Anyway, Tuscany had a standout year in 2001 and this bottling of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano proves it admirably. While Chianti Classico is by far the better known name, Vino Nobile has, if anything, an older, more lustrous history. The problem is that its more recent history has been spotty, at best.

Composed largely of Tuscany’s great red grape, sangiovese, a good Vino Nobile di Montepulciano should be a substantial wine of uncommon refinement. Too often, though, they are slight affairs lacking flavor intensity and even a certain pungency.

That’s not the case with this 2001 bottling from Avignonesi. This is intense, lip-smacking red wine composed mostly of sangiovese (a clone locally called prugnolo gentile) with additional dollops of two indigenous red grape varieties, canaiolo nero and mammolino. The result is a supple, rich wine with an intensity that sets you up for a palate-clenching grip of tannin which never is forthcoming. Instead, you receive fruitiness and a subtle, appetizing note of tar. (It sounds odd but tastes swell.)

This wine is just the ticket for grilled meats, strong cheeses and – although its highly self-regarding producers would flinch at the suggestion – a really good pizza. The price is equally appetizing: $22 a bottle.