Build Your Own Wine Case

Why twelve

Wine ships in twelve-bottle cartons with moulded inserts, and the carrier charges by the carton, so a full case is the most economical way to send wine: the shipping cost per bottle falls with every bottle you add up to twelve, then starts again with the thirteenth. The tracker exists to make that arithmetic visible before checkout rather than after.

A mixed case also solves the problem of committing to twelve of one thing. Four weeknight reds, three whites for the fridge, a couple of sparkling bottles for a Friday and a few bottles chosen for a dinner is a far more useful case than a dozen identical ones, and the prices are the same either way.

Building a balanced case

Start with the categories you reach for most and fill those slots first, then use the remaining spaces for something you have not tried: the critic-scored bottles on this page are a low-risk way to do that, because the score and the publication are shown before you add the wine. Sorting by biggest savings surfaces the markdowns; sorting by critic score surfaces the sure things.