Member-only story

As a Former Wine Store Owner, If I Had $20 to Spend on a Bottle of Wine This Is What I Would Buy

And what I wouldn’t

Charlie Brown
Rooted
6 min readJan 10, 2025

--

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

Depending on your finances and willingness to spend on wine, $20 could seem like a heck of a lot.

The reality is that if you have an interest in expanding your wine knowledge, $20 is the pitch-perfect price point. At this level, you’re going to find some excellent bottles.

But it’s not a given. You can still go very wrong, especially if you love wines from expensive regions. Or choose the wrong store to buy wine from.

One of my main aims as a wine writer who spent eight years at the coalface of wine retail and bar work is to give insight I think is sorely lacking in wine discourse. I don’t want to give you a list of $20 bottle recommendations for instance, I want to give you advice so you can make better buying decisions on your own.

Or to bastardise a famous phrase, give someone a $20 bottle and they’ll drink well for a day. But teach them how to buy properly and they’ll drink well for a lifetime.

If I had $20 in my pocket and wanted to buy a bottle of wine with it, this is how I would do it.

Avoid the supermarket

--

--

Rooted
Rooted

Published in Rooted

Deep journeys through food and drink culture. A boostable publication

Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown

Written by Charlie Brown

Food, wine & culture writer. 12+ years in hospitality. Editor of Rooted, a Medium food & drink pub. thesaucemag.substack.com

Responses (39)