The great intersection of quality and value in wine occurs in the $15- to $25-a-bottle range. Here, you can find wines that are not merely sound or decent but fascinating, without breaking the bank. Can you find these sorts of wines for less than $15? Possibly, but the choices rise exponentially if you can commit to paying just a little bit more.

In the last few years, I’ve written a series of columns spotlighting 20 exciting wines for $20 apiece. The 20 for $20 conceit was rhetorically neat and made sense, as it took the midpoint of the $15 to $25 range. But this time I’ve switched it up, picking 20 wines for under $20 (yes, the list includes wines listed at $20, but rounded up from $19.99, so technically they are all under $20).

Why the change? Because the rhetorical device was too limiting. Continuing to focus solely on the $20 bottles would have required repeating some wines from previous columns, which, no matter how wonderful those wines remain, I wanted to avoid. Expanding the range increased the pool of possibilities.

You may wonder what makes $15 to $25 the sweet spot. Aren’t there plenty of good wines for under $15? Under $10? Fred Franzia, the chief executive of Bronco Wine Company, producer of Charles Shaw wines, better known as Two-Buck Chuck, once famously stated that no wine should ever cost more than $10.