Cocktail Ideas for Mother’s Day – Margaritas, Mimosas, and MoreSpring Cocktails with Flowers to Impress that Special LadyClassic Mixed Drinks: The Aviation CocktailWhat is a Growler? – It’s More than Just a Beer Jug!St. Patricks Day Spirits – 3 Great Irish Whiskey CocktailsThe Best Whiskey to Buy for Dad040010When I was a senior in college I took a wine tasting course and it changed my life. No, really it did. Up until that point I was what my professor so lovingly called a “moscato princess” i.e. someone who only drinks sweet white wines that taste eerily similar to grape juice. It was in that course that I took my first sip of a red that I could actually stand, and the rest is history. However, as a working young adult who loves wine it’s hard to find a cheap red wine price that is just right. I simply don’t have the budget to go and buy a $60 bottle (and we all know most of it is gone within a night or two anyways). For all my fellow penny pinching vino fanatics out there, here is a list of the best red wines under 20 dollars.1.

Reata Three County Pinot Noir 2013 $16.99Central Coast, California14% abvBlack cherry and pomegranate notes with a medium to full bodied taste. Vanilla aroma with a deep ruby color. A delectable cheap red wine for any occasion.Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz 2015 $6.67South Africa12.5% abvFruity, semi sweet wine with hints of blackberries. This inexpensive red wine is great for pairing with sweet or savory foods. I recommend anything chocolate or if pairing with something savory, steak or beef wellington.Haras de Pirque Hussonet Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $12.99Maipo Valley, Chile14% abvBlack currant character with blackberry and peppery notes. Great for pairing with grilled food making this cheap red wine is another perfect summer wine.Luigi Bosca Malbec 2013 $17.99Argentina, South America14% abvA very earthy wine, this inexpensive red wine is complemented by bark and blackberry flavors. A great vino to pair with venison and red meats. I’m picturing this in autumn and winter with hearty meals and good company.

Metz Road Pinot Noir 2012 $19.99Central Coast, California14% abvBlack cherry and raspberry flavors define this cheap red wine with notes of vanilla and butterscotch. Layered with exciting flavors.Errazuriz Max Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $12.39Chile, South America14% abvBright ruby colored wine with red fruit and mint aromas, this cheap red has a velvety but firm palate.the best wine accessoriesBeckmen Cuvee Le Bec 2013 $15.95Central Coast, California15% abvSmoky inexpensive red wine with a plethora of berry and spice flavor. best wine with wingsSweet cherry finishing notes with a well balanced acidity. best wine restaurants ukGreat to pair with meats due to its earthy hints.popular wine brands in china

Murphy-Goode Liar’s Dice Zinfandel 2012Sonoma County, California15.5% abvA bold inexpensive zin, this wine has a nose of black cherries, black currant, and vanilla. Juicy, and full of dark fruit notes. Perfect to pair with your summer BBQ.Artezin Mendocino Zinfandel 2012 $14.99 North Coast, California14.8% abvA magenta wine inspired by boysenberry, raspberry flavors, and notes of peppers and spices such as cinnamon. wine for mac latestA perfect cheap red wine pairing for grilled meats as well as bold cheeses such as Gouda and Bleu.Buy here10. pictures of wine paintingsWoop Woop Shiraz 2013South Australia, Australia14.5% abvA deep hues wine with licorice and cherry cola aromas. new world wine and food festival 2015Fun notes of blackberry jam and dark note flavors in this inexpensive red.italian wine best buys

One of the truths of wine is that there's no such thing as the "right price.” We've all heard others—and ourselves, for that matter—exclaim in disgust or dismay how outrageous it is that this red Bordeaux or that Napa Valley Cabernet charges some megabuck price for a bottle that we believe hardly justifies such a sum. But the truth, however unpalatable, is that if you can find enough people to pay your asking price, well then, you've found the "right price.” wine and food new zealandSupply and demand and all that. So you're not going to find any handwringing hereabouts. I'm all for letting the market sort it out. That said, I'm also all for getting a deal. And for proclaiming that you and I don't have to pay ridiculous sums in order to drink not just well, but superbly well. To prove this point I performed a little experiment, putting my wallet where my palate is. I went to a local wine shop and bought a variety of wines, all of which shared only one common denominator: They cost $20 or less (before sales tax).

The challenge was simple enough: Could I find an ample supply of less-than-20-buck wine wonders that gave me real wine happiness? Here, I'm not talking about some above-it-all notion of "Well, others will like this wine." Instead, the demand was personal and exigent: Would I be delighted to drink this wine? Would I buy a case of it for my cellar? Before I go any further, allow me to explain the $20 price limit. While admittedly arbitrary, it's not entirely so. When I first started writing about wine in the mid-1970s, I recommended wines every week in a local newspaper. Since nobody, then or now, needed me to tell them about the likes of Château Lafite Rothschild, I concentrated exclusively on seeking value wines. Back then, a wine was considered a good deal if it was $4.95 or $5.95 a bottle. If you run either of those prices through one of those calculators that estimate the relative historical value or purchasing power of the dollar you'll find that 5 or 6 bucks back in 1977 is today—you guessed it—about $20.

So what, as academics might say, was my methodology? It was simple: I looked for wines that I personally prefer to drink (it was my money, after all) that also offered an opportunity of proving my point. Do I like drinking, say, Chambolle-Musigny or a Santa Cruz Mountain–grown Pinot Noir? But there's no way those wines are going to limbo under the 20-dollar bar. No sense looking there. So, instead I looked at scooping up whatever remaining deals exist with cru Beaujolais. I've long been on record as loving cru Beaujolais, which are the 10 districts in the larger Beaujolais region that collectively offer the prospect of the highest quality. There's only one problem: Beaujolais prices, especially for the best wines, are rapidly sailing past the $20 price point, especially for wines from the latest-and-greatest 2015 vintage. But there still are, and will continue to be for the next few years, new or less well-known producers who continue to sell their wines for what I happily concede are undervalued prices.

High-quality deals are still to be found in cru Beaujolais from two very good vintages, 2014 and 2015. I can hear you already: Enough with the generalizations. Who won the prize? The choices were numerous and every wine I bought was worthy. But two achieved a caliber to get what I consider the definitive endorsement: I bought a case of each. Worth noting is that I had previously never heard of either producer. This last point is significant if only because it shows that any potential expertise on the part of the buyer was a minor factor. All I did was choose the category (cru Beaujolais) and limit the price (less that $20). The rest was sheer chance. The two prize-winners were Château de Javernand Chiroubles Vieilles Vignes 2014 ($15) and Les Frères Perroud Brouilly Vieilles Vignes 2015 ($15). Both are superb red wines, with dense, beautifully defined fruit, ideal acidity (neither underripe nor overripe) and both will surely do nothing but improve over the next decade.

I then moved on to Australia. As is well-known, the Aussies have gotten the stuffing knocked out of them in the U.S. market. The reasons are sufficient for a column unto itself, but the key point is that right now Australian wines can be bargains. So I looked for two of my favorite regions: Hunter Valley and Margaret River. Truth to tell, I wasn't expecting success. The best wines in both places are expensive. The word on their quality is out. Still, you never know. Good thing I looked. Try this: How about a really luscious, beautifully made (my shorthand for "no apparent oak") Margaret River–grown red wine blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for $11 a bottle? If I had tasted Amelia Park Trellis Cabernet Merlot Margaret River 2013 blind, I would have guessed (wrongly) that it was a supremely ripe Loire Valley red of really fine quality, as it displays the sort of crisp acidity and lovely flavor definition that Loire reds can offer, but is riper-tasting than many Loire wines.

(A really good blind taster would then have concluded that such ripeness indicated that it couldn't likely be Loire Valley and moved on to a better-educated guess.) Did I buy a case? What do you think? The other Aussie winner, much to my delight, was a Hunter Valley Sémillon. I love these wines, which are austere, high-acidity crisp whites that when young can be as tightly furled as a freshly-cut calla lily but over time—five years, 10 years or even more—blossom into minerally wonders that you might confuse with a great Chablis. The good ones aren't cheap. The poor ones are thin and lifeless. Knowing this, you can imagine how happy I was to come upon a superb Hunter Valley Sémillon from a producer I'd never heard of, even though I've been to Hunter Valley (which is a three-hour drive north of Sydney) several times. Silkman Sémillon Hunter Valley 2015 just barely made the cut at $20 a bottle, but what a deal. Silkman is a husband-and-wife operation—Liz Silkman is the winemaker—who both have day jobs at Shaun Silkman's father's winery, First Creek Wines, where he is the production manager and she is chief winemaker.