by Jim Gordon

It can be a curse to develop a taste for really good wine. Especially if you want to drink it virtually every day, as I do, yet you can’t quite justify placing a higher budget priority on your wine purchases than, say, your mortgage or your college loans. Then, the hunt for great wine values becomes essential.

I still find enjoyable, drinkable wines as low as $8 a bottle, and often very good, intriguing wines for around $15. These seven ways to save are designed to help you in your hunt.

Buy by the case. When you find a really good buy, invest in at least a case. You can save three ways—buying in quantity at a low price means you multiply your savings; you may also get the 10 percent case discount that many retailers, including Wine.com, offer; and when ordering online the shipping cost is often much less per bottle for larger orders.

Buy forgotten varietals and types. Since no great demand ever developed in the U.S. for Riesling or Gewurztraminer, for Spanish Rioja or French Beaujolais, these wines consistently sell at a discount compared to the hot types. They can taste wonderful, and will expand your horizons beyond Merlot and Chardonnay.

Buy Australian. With their high-tech winemaking, sunny skies and swiftly growing acreage of vineyards, the Aussies continue to turn out very flavorful, well-made wines and are holding the same price points they’ve had for years. Examples: $10 Shiraz, $9 Cabernet-Shiraz blends, $8 Chardonnay.

Buy former cult wines. In California Cabernet, for example, why pay $100 or more for a bottle of a newly minted cult wine, when you can buy excellent, ageworthy Cabs from the stars of the 1980s for under $50 a bottle, including these Napa Valley icons: Forman, Dunn, Raymond, Newton and Merryvale. Look for the great 1997s if possible, but 1998 is good and 1999 will probably be better.

Buy imports when the dollar is strong. Like right now. Many French and Italian wines are better values now than for several years. Even Bordeaux futures for the acclaimed 2000 vintage look cheap compared to current-release Napa Valley Cabernet.

Buy from lesser wineries in great vintages. I remember buying a case of inexpensive Bordeaux, Chateau Bel Air, from the great 1982 vintage. Normally this would not be a wine to age, but because the growing conditions that year were so good, the quality of almost everything from the region was elevated, and my Bel Air tasted great for four years. Current examples: 1997 California Cabernet, 1999 California Pinot Noir.

Buy the shadow vintages that follow the great vintages. Most of the hype and the dollars are spent on a celebrity year, leaving the next vintage in its shadow, and thus underappreciated and underdemanded. Current examples: 1998 Tuscan wines including Chianti, because 1997 was a killer year.

90+ wines under $20