Robert Parker is featuring Ten Italian Whites for Under $20 at BusinessWeek. I guess with the way the economy is now, there is more interest in lower cost wine. As someone who lives in Ontario, I check at lcbo.com to see if I can get them. Not all of these you can find there, but some you can.

What surprised me was that unlike the Californian wines I blogged about last time, these wines are closer in price to the American prices he lists. In fact, two wines are cheaper here than the U.S. I am not sure why that is, but it makes me think that not everything at the LCBO is more expensive than if it were purchased in the U.S. Perhaps it is just American wines and spirits.

The three you can get here in Ontario are:

• Masi Masianco $16 vs $14.95 at the LCBO.
• Zenato Lugana $15 vs $15.95
• Pieropan Soave Classico $20 vs $17.80 (and 2007 vs 2006)

I’ve tried the Masi: like Parker says, it is simple but refreshing. I am really interested in the one from Pieropan, which actually is aged in oak, giving it more complexity than I might expect from a Soave.