A $45 Burgundy can be a beautiful thing, but for most of us who like a good bottle with our roast chicken on an ordinary Monday night, a solid, $10 Cote du Rhone is gorgeous.

Faced with aisles of unknown European bottles at Trader Joe’s or Costco, though, or the dozens of bargains on the front table at any number of local wine stores, how do we wine civilians tell the promising from the plonk?

You might take a cue from chefs; their shopping savvy comes from years of holding down food costs in the kitchen. Every few days, Alain Giraud, former chef at the Los Angeles restaurant Bastide, checks out the wine aisle at his local Trader Joe’s, searching for bargains. While the chain store’s Two Buck Chuck (formally known as Charles Shaw Wine) might not deliver the insouciant complexities that connoisseurs crave, fork over an extra five bucks for a European wine, and you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

“The way I do it is to buy one bottle and try it,” says Giraud. “If it’s good, I rush back to buy what’s left.” (Other bargain hunters have been known to open a bottle and taste it in the parking lot, then dash back into the store to buy more.) An encouraging number of times, Giraud says, he lucks into a decent Cotes du Rhone.

Cotes du Rhones are often safe bets, in fact. They’re well made and easy to drink and come from a region that, unlike say, Bordeaux, has not been progressively overpriced and overvalued. Growing up in the south of France, Giraud knows as well as anyone that there are good wines in the world for everyday drinking that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Buy the wines that made that region famous. These are the wines with which they have the most experience.

From Italy, buy Chiantis rather than Merlots. If you see a Rioja from Spain, chances are good that it will be decent. Turn to Germany for whites, particularly Rieslings.

Tips

What if you get that bargain wine home and you really don’t like it? Here are a few easy-to-execute tricks of the trade:

• A dash of salt. This maneuver was revealed to us several years ago by Bonny Doon Vineyards owner Randall Grahm, who said that he learned the trick in the tasting rooms of France. When you have a wine that tastes “green,” he said, with “blocky” tannins (traits not uncommon in inexpensive, young wines), add a touch of salt. We’ve tried it with inferior wines of all kinds, and often as not, they taste better. “Salt can change the volatility of aroma molecules,” explains food science author Harold McGee; in effect, it releases aromas.
• Give it air. To quickly “age” an immature wine, decant it — vigorously. When a wine is “closed,” contact with air can open it up, releasing aromas and flavors.
• Chill out. Experts know that chilling wine can hide flaws. For both reds and whites, it tones down harshness and too much alcohol and mutes unpleasant flavors. Red wines should be slightly chilled — 58 degrees is optimal. For whites, leave them in the fridge until they’re colder than you’d normally want to drink them.