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. 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. 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. wine by the wooden caseVersatile enough to be a fine apéritif or a good accompaniment to seafood or poultry.red car wine clubColumbia Crest 2014 H3 Sauvignon Blanc Horse Heaven Hills ($15) The bottle should say “springtime fresh” on the label; top wine shop londonshows citrus and stone fruit couched in a clean, pleasing mouthfeel. best wine for cheeseWill have wide appeal.buy wine east village

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.wine gift box with accessoriesSanta 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.9 Legitimately Good Kosher Wines for Passover 7 High-End Proseccos to Try Now Why Rosé Is the Perfect Wine for Easter Oscars 2017: What to Drink While You Binge-Watch the Best Picture Nominees 5 Wines Under $15 to Pair with Easter Ham You Don't Have to Drink Pink on Valentine's Day Are Some Wines More Romantic Than Others? What Does a $300 Bottle of Chinese Wine Taste Like?

A Star Wars Wine Companion The holidays are here, parties are abundant, and wine is necessary. With that in mind, here are executive wine editor Ray Isle's top 10 wine values of 2015. After tasting, oh, a couple of thousand bottles of wine this year, these ten stood out as my favorites in the under-$20 zone—a list surprisingly dominated by white wines in 2015. Regardless, each offers incredible quality at a very fair price; any would be great at a holiday party, or as a hostess gift, or simply as something to sip while contemplating the approach of the New Year. 2013 Villa Wolf Pinot Gris ($12)A lively burst of citrus fruit with a touch of trapped CO2 to give it a faint tingle, this German white from the Pfalz region was a great all-purpose white for a song. 2013 Evolucio Furmint ($13)Furmint is the Hungarian grape that produces the great sweet wines of Tokaji. What’s little known in the U.S. is that it also makes impressive dry wines, like this rich but balanced bottling.

Kudos to Boutique Wine Collection, the importer, for bringing it in. 2014 Chateau de Fontenille Entre-Deux-Mers ($14)A melony, thoroughly inviting blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon and Muscadelle, and a standout amid the ocean of fair but unexceptional white wine that Bordeaux’s Entre-Deux-Mers region produces. 2013 Josef Leitz Eins Zwei Dry Riesling Trocken ($17)One highlight of this year was tasting through a vertical of Josef Leitz’s Rudesheimer Berg Kaistersteinfels Riesling, one of the benchmarks of Germany’s Rheingau region. But this affordable bottling, with its bright lime fruit and stony finish, is irresistible at a fraction of the price. 2013 Ravines Wine Cellars Finger Lakes Dry Riesling ($18)More proof that New York’s Finger Lakes region produces, overall, the best Rieslings in the United States. Ravines’ higher-end Argetsinger Vineyard Riesling is an age-worthy cellar candidate; winemaker Morten Hallgren’s floral, basic bottling is a wine I could easily drink cases of.

2014 Pascal Janvieres Jasnières ($18)I drank a bottle of this Loire Chenin Blanc sitting on some rocks on the Maine coast, with a lobster in front of me. Life could not possibly have gotten better. But chalk that partly up to the wine itself: gorgeous tropical fruit with note of honey, plus great acidity to keep it taut. 2014 Tenshen White ($20)Winemaker Joey Tensley’s full-bodied blend of Viognier, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Chardonnay packs an incredible amount of flavor, but isn’t heavy or overly plush. Tasting it blind, I assumed it ran $35 a bottle or so. 2013 Capezzana Barco Reale ($15)A perennial great value, this Sangiovese-dominated red from a Tuscan estate whose history goes back over 500 years suggests wild berries and rosemary, and its vivid tangy finish begs to be paired with a rich ragù. 2010 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône Rouge ($19)Guigal holds back their basic Côtes du Rhône bottling for a couple of years, which—especially in a spectacular vintage like 2010—gives it a more integrated, rounded character than many other Rhône reds at this price.