wine12 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. best wine w turkeyWines meant for casual drinking don’t age particularly well. buy fish eye wine online“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.” red wine price benefitsA $12 2005 rosé, in other words, is no bargain.buy cases of wine canadaBe mindful of the alcohol content. good cheap sweet red wine brands

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. best wine company in indiaGet 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. We must have sold over 200 cases of that wine.” The moral: Buy up a few cases of a favorite now—or cry later. Don’t go too cheap. How much should you spend on a good weeknight wine? 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. A 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.Skip to main content Wine Insider: Best Reds Under $10Now we are a nation of wine-lovers our tastes have become more refined than ever. High Street merchant Majestic says the average its customers pay per bottle is currently £8.02, up from £7.71 last year. Specialist wine shops are thriving too, with 50% more of them in ­business since 2007. But the good news is you don’t need to spend a fortune – great-tasting wines start at less than a fiver. And according to TV wine guru Jilly Goolden, they can taste even better than the posh-sounding bottles costing six times as much.

Aldi and Lidl are the places to go for the best value deals on offer while every supermarket has some top bottles available at good prices. And with Christmas around the corner, we asked Christelle Guibert, tastings director of wine bible Decanter magazine, to choose 10 of the best available from £5-£10. Here’s Christelle’s selection, along with her tasting notes... An upfront and pungent wine that over-delivers for the price. Notes of flowers and apples on the nose are replicated in the mouth, along with some lemony touches, and a crisp ­freshness. This refreshing white is showing plenty of stone fruit and citrus aromas. It’s light and crisp and very enjoyable. It’s a great alternative to Pinot Grigio. Juicy, fresh and packed with bright red cherry, this unpretentious 100% Barbera will make the perfect partner to a quiet night in with a pizza in front of the TV. Smells of small red berries and fleshy dark fruit with a hint of pep­pery spice. There’s a deep blackcurrant character on the palate and an earthy, stony element.

A blend of 50% Tempranillo, 40% Garnacha and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the fruit for this spicy and vibrant offering comes from a vineyard 700 metres above sea level. Elegant and complex, with lovely cherry fruit, this wine ages in underground cellars for three years before it is released. The Vin de France classification was created in 2009 and gives the freedom to make wines by blending grapes and wines from across France, as perfectly ­illustrated here. This is a bend of Sauvignon Blanc from Gascony and Viognier from Languedoc and the outcome is very nice indeed. The nose is explosive, melding Sauvignon punch with the stone-fruit richness of Viognier. Crisp and full-bodied with a lovely texture. Made by a well-respected producer founded in the mid-1980s, this is an excellent bottle from the Tesco Finest stable. A very pleasant and easy-drinking wine. Santa Barbara’s Verdicchio is a perky, refreshing wine with aromas of jasmine and pear, leading on to a rounded palate of crunchy green apples, lime and a tropical twist at the finish.