How to Buy a Bottle You Will Actually Like for Under $20

Most wine writing is aimed at people who already know about wine. This is not that.

If you want to walk into a shop, spend under twenty dollars, and come out with something you will actually enjoy, there are about six things worth knowing. Everything else is detail.

Work out what you already like

You do not need vocabulary for this. You need two words: light or rich.

Think about drinks you already enjoy. If you like strong coffee, dark chocolate or bitter beer, you will probably get on with fuller reds. If you prefer tea, citrus or crisp lager, lighter reds and whites are more your territory.

That is the whole first step. Nobody needs to identify blackcurrant and pencil shavings to buy a bottle they like.

The under-twenty rule that actually helps

Buy from unfashionable places.

You are not paying for the wine alone - you are paying for the region's reputation. The same quality costs far less if it comes from somewhere that is not currently in demand.

Good value at the moment tends to come from Portugal, Spain, southern Italy, Chile, Argentina, Greece and South Africa. Under-twenty wine from Napa, Burgundy or Barolo is usually the weakest bottle that region makes. Under-twenty from Portugal is often one of its better ones.

A few reliable starting points

• If you like full reds - Portuguese Douro reds, Argentine Malbec, Spanish Garnacha, southern Italian Nero d'Avola.

• If you like lighter reds - Beaujolais, Portuguese Vinho Tinto, cooler-climate Chilean Pinot Noir.

• If you like crisp whites - Spanish Albarino, Portuguese Vinho Verde, Greek Assyrtiko, Muscadet.

• If you like richer whites - Chilean or South African Chardonnay, white Rioja.

• If you are not sure - dry rosé from southern France or Spain. It suits almost everything and almost everyone.

Screwcaps are not a downgrade

A screwcap tells you nothing about quality. Plenty of excellent wine uses them, and for anything you intend to drink within a few years they are arguably better - no cork taint, no broken cork, no variation between bottles.

Cork exists partly for tradition and partly because it lets wine age slowly. For a bottle you will open this week, that is irrelevant.

Give a cheap red twenty minutes of air

This is the single cheapest upgrade available.

Inexpensive reds are typically made to be drunk young, which often means they arrive a little sharp and closed. Air softens them. Pour it into a jug and back, use an aerator, or simply pour a glass and leave it twenty minutes before drinking.

The difference on a twelve-dollar bottle is genuinely larger than on a forty-dollar one - because the expensive bottle had fewer rough edges to begin with.

Serve it at the right temperature

More people ruin wine with temperature than with anything else.

Reds are usually served too warm. Room temperature meant something different before central heating. Fifteen to eighteen degrees is right - twenty minutes in the fridge before pouring.

Whites are usually served too cold. Straight from a cold fridge, aroma is muted. Ten minutes out before pouring and it opens up.

The only tasting advice you need

Ask yourself one question: would I pour a second glass?

That is it. If yes, note what it was and buy it again. If no, note that too. Six months of paying that much attention will teach you more about your own taste than any course, and it costs nothing.

Wine is a drink. The people who enjoy it most are usually the ones who stopped worrying about being wrong.