Food & Wine looked to some of the world’s best wineries for terrific deals that are in stores now. Affordable Wine Country Hotels Rules for Great Wine and Food Pairings YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKEwine12 great wines under $20 a bottleDaryna TobeyThey are wines that have a place in every home, though there’s no formal name for their kind: They’re sip-with-pizza-on-a-Tuesday-night quaffs, yet they’re nice enough to bring to a friend’s house for a casual dinner. They are enjoyable right out of the bottle, and it wouldn’t be a travesty if you cooked with them. These wines are, as 90+ Cellars’ vice president and co-founder Brett Vankoski calls them, “soldiers” that protect your cellar’s more treasured bottlings from premature death. I just call these all-purpose, buy-by-the-case bottles our “house” wines.I’ve spent the last month or so evaluating dozens of under-$20 wines for Fortune. Many were “classical, seasonal, versatile and affordable,” all qualities that Colleen Holden, wine director at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks in Boston, looks for in house wines.

I also found that the wines I wanted to reach for again did not have too much acid, oak, tannins, or alcohol.So how much should you spend on these wines by the case, and what should you buy? Here are our experts’ top tips on how to shop for them, along with a dozen of Fortune’s recommendations for easy-to-find, please-everyone bottles. Stick with newer vintages. Wines meant for casual drinking don’t age particularly well. “If a wine is meant to be drunk fresh,” as are most whites and rosés, says Holden, “it’s important that you’re buying the most recent vintage, or just one year prior.” A $12 2005 rosé, in other words, is no bargain.Be mindful of the alcohol content. If you’re enjoying a glass or two during the week, says Vankoski, “a 15% alcohol wine is not what you want.” Stick to wines in the 12%-to-14% range, which Vankoski likens to “session” ales, if you don’t want to be hurting at work the next day. Get it while the getting is good. Word about a great bottle at a giveaway price can spread like wildfire.

Jeff Wooddy, general manager of Rochambeau Wines in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., says that shortly after turning his customers on to a $13 Médoc cru bourgeois, “it was suddenly a wine that only sold by the case … We had a customer who would drive here from Greenwich and put six cases in the back of his Bentley, and off he went. best dry red wines to cook withWe must have sold over 200 cases of that wine.” best kind of wine to drink with chickenThe moral: Buy up a few cases of a favorite now—or cry later. wine for mac 64 bitDon’t go too cheap. best affordable wine brandsHow much should you spend on a good weeknight wine? best selling red wine uk

Our experts all give retail price ranges between $10 and $18, and they say $15 seems to be the “sweet spot” at which you’ll taste a noticeable step up in quality. Fortune’s tastings bear this out. And don’t forget: With a 20% case discount, a $15 wine will only cost you $12.Here are our dozen picks for Fortune’s favorite affordable house wines:Mulderbosch 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé Coastal Region ($14) Dry, with mouthwatering acidity. buy new zealand wine online ukA fuller-bodied rosé from South Africa, with raspberry and orange/grapefruit flavors.Aia Vecchia 2014 Vermentino Toscana IGT ($12) Plump, round, and minerally, with pear and melon flavors. A drink-anywhere white that's not overly dry or acidic. RelatedwinesThese 5 Can’t Miss Wines Are All Under $50winesThese 5 Can’t Miss Wines Are All Under $50Arnaldo Caprai 2013 Grechetto Colli Martani DOC ($20) Has a clean feel and a sturdy backbone plus pear, mineral, and olive oil flavors.

Versatile enough to be a fine apéritif or a good accompaniment to seafood or poultry.Columbia Crest 2014 H3 Sauvignon Blanc Horse Heaven Hills ($15) The bottle should say “springtime fresh” on the label; shows citrus and stone fruit couched in a clean, pleasing mouthfeel. Will have wide appeal.Dourthe 2013 La Grande Cuvée Bordeaux AOC ($13) A crisp white with herb, mineral, and citrus flavors. Just the thing for the raw bar—or enjoy it on its own.Hanna 2014 Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley ($19) A taste of summer: This California white wine has sunny peach and pear flavors, a smooth, river-rock feel, and good length on the finish.Santa Cristina 2014 Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie ($12) Has bright green apple and grapefruit flavors; pretty straightforward but delivers a good, everyday wine at an affordable price.Château Saint-Sulpice 2012 Bordeaux AOC ($15) Approachable but not simple; red fruit has nutty, earthy nuances and a nice mocha note on the finish. One to drink with dinner.

70% Merlot.Enrique Mendoza 2012 La Tremenda Monastrell Alicante ($12) Has pleasing spice and herbal accents to the cherry/blackberry fruit; it’s the easy kind of Spanish wine you’d order by the glass at your favorite tapas bar.La Follette 2013 Pinot Noir North Coast ($20) A forward California style with a soft feel, it’s rife with berry and cherry flavors. More nuanced than a basic Pinot, but still affordable.Masseria Li Veli 2013 Passamante Negroamaro Salice Salentino DOC ($13) Well balanced and easy to drink, with forward but tangy berry-basket flavors. Delivers nice quality at a bargain price. You totally want this with red-sauced Italian fare.Qupé 2012 Syrah Central Coast ($20) California Syrah with an Old World soul: big, juicy, black and purple fruit with earth, clay, smoke/mocha, and fresh herbal nuances.In my 10 years of drinking alcohol, I’ve never quite understood how to choose a wine. I’ve been to fancy restaurants. I’ve watched as the wine is poured. I’ve swished it around, smelled it, nodded my approval.

But what makes a truly good wine? Or, more specifically, what makes a good cheap wine? Let’s be real: I’m not buying $30 bottles of wine to take over to Mariska’s theme party on Saturday. I’m buying cheap-ass wine. Still, I don’t want to buy undrinkable wine that tastes like red vinegar and smells like a musty basement. So I decided to find it the only way I knew how: a good old-fashioned taste test. How did I pick the wines? Mostly based on terroir, which is a fancy French word for land. I shopped only within the terroir around my office, where I’d most likely shop for wine to bring to a hypothetical friend’s party. From the Walgreens across the street I picked up Chateau Diana and Vineyard Creek, and then went two blocks over to Trader Joe’s for the rest. My criteria for the wines were as follows: 1. Is it under $9? 2. Is it red? 3. Have you purchased fewer than nine wines? If the answer to all three was yes, I bought it. I bought it good.

Once I had my subjects, I sat down to try all nine wines in one sitting. I assume this is the method used by master sommeliers. Also like them, I assume, I vowed to spit it out only if it tasted real disgusting. Wine ratings are typically based on a 100-point scale and measure things like “clarity,” “complexity,” and “finish.” Due to the nature of the wines I was trying (cheap), I modified the scale to include measures for “flavor,” “drinkability,” and “warmth.” Hey, master sommeliers: You’re welcome. Here are the nine cheap wines under $9, presented in the order in which I drank them: This wine was in a twist-off bottle, which I appreciated because I used to work at a country club and wine openers bring back terrible memories. Sadly this was a bad first wine to try. My very first sip made me cringe. But I knew I had eight more glasses to go, so I trudged ahead. Underwood was rated 87 in Wine Enthusiast magazine — although this wine was ~technically~ under $9, that’s only because it was a can of wine and not the whole bottle.

Still, if baby’s a lightweight, you don’t need the whole bottle. I also liked this wine despite a distinct diaper smell. Congratulations on your good wine, Oregon. La Granja Tempranillo was also rated as a “Best Buy” at 84 on Wine Enthusiast. And because this wine got my highest score yet, I take that as a positive sign that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to wine. The Morning After Review: I found this wine to be arousing, but that may just be my libido peaking — according to the Journal of Sexual Medicine, red wine does that. Primitivo is apparently made from Old Zinfindel vines of the Puglia region in Italy. This wine is probably a good one to pull out on your first date. For anyone wondering what the fuck Rosso is, let me tell you: It is a bunch of leftover red wines that are combined to create something awful. The bottle claims Rosso is a third each cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and Montepulciano, but I’m pretty sure it’s at least 10% ass.

The gross taste took me to a dark place in which I was forced to ponder the whereabouts of the final resting place of Amelia Earhart. If that isn’t a sign you should skip this wine, I don’t know what is. This wine has a drunken song you can sing on its back label, so at least it knows what it is. Part of the lyrics claim the wine tastes like “ripe cherries and dark chocolate … figs and jam,” which are flavors I apparently missed. I was probably distracted by the cheaply made cork that fell apart into the bottle. My comments make me think I liked this wine, but I gave it a shitty score, so I guess it was more like that nice guy at the party that you’re just not attracted to. There’s nothing wrong with him, you’re just not into it. At this point in the night, I have to admit I was struggling to finish each wine. But I knew I had an important job to do. And I couldn’t let America down. I’m surprised I hated this one so much. I was seven glasses in, you’d think I’d be forgiving.

This wine is the best deal at $2.99, but apparently there was a coffee flavor in it, which I did not like. Full disclosure: I do not drink coffee. So you might like this one more than I did. But maybe wait until you’re a bottle deep to try. It was at this point in the night that I finally pulled out my drugstore wine. This wine made me nostalgic for my childhood (Barney, Dora) while at the same time awakening my sexuality (“cummy”), and challenging me intellectually (√(b-mc)²). If only I knew its real age.The crème de la crème. I’ve had Chateau Diana before, and I thought it was horrible. But apparently, after some alcoholic intake, this drink reaches Kareem Abdul-Jabbar levels. I trust my drunk self, and from now on, I will be imbibing Chateau Di exclusively. I woke up remarkably refreshed, given my alcoholic intake the night before. I’ve been called a lightweight, so I was very pleased at my ability to recall the previous night. That was, until I ran into my sister.

Sister: “What was up with those texts last night?” I had texted my family to let them know “Imgood.” I’m a very responsible blackout. In an attempt to wrap up loose ends, I also wrote to the makers of my favorite drunken red wine, Chateau Diana, and asked them if they could tell me the year my particular wine was bottled. Their quick response in Comic Sans font removed any hesitation I might have had in giving it top marks. If you chose to ignore my drunkest reviews, I would recommend buying the following good, cheap-ass wine: Grifone Primitivo and La Granja Tempranillo. Their prices are low, and both had high ratings in the key factors of drinkability and warmth. For your third bottle, I recommend any of the drugstore wines, because at that point, you don’t really care and you probably won’t remember. Now go forth and drink your delicious cheap red wine. I’ll leave you with these wise words, spoken after my seventh glass: “Red wine yum yum, yum yum red wine.”