my opinions about wine

I agree that it is completely a waste to use expensive wines. On the other hand, table wines in France are mostly better than wines of $20 a bottle produced in USA, IMHO.

I think it is a right choice to use pinot noir. Red wines from Burgundy taste richer and drier than pinot noir from California, to my taste.  So it sounds better to do wine reduction if the wine is not very good, although it sounds extreme to reduce it to 1/3. .  Another idea is to mix some cabernet sauvignon, like 20%.