Trying to save money on wine? Rethink the second-cheapest bottle.

The philosopher Heraclitus said that the only constant is change. Clearly, he never waited tables.

In bars and restaurants, many people have long approached wine lists in an identical way: Regardless of their budgets, preferences or other variables, they will reflexively find themselves ordering the second-least-expensive glass or bottle.

It’s easy to understand why this strategy has generations of adherents. First of all, it’s pragmatic. Put something comparatively affordable in your glass quickly and without fanfare, or too much thought or stress. No one has to worry about looking cheap or feeling fleeced, either.

But do those second-from-the-bottom selections actually offer reliable value? Or are there better ways to find a wine that’s not only wallet-friendly but also better tailored to your preferences?

It all comes down to how you define value.

For most of us, saving money is an evergreen priority. In this or any economic climate, preserving your bottom line may feel more crucial than falling madly in love with whatever is in your glass.

In those instances, the second-cheapest options on menus are usually “a safe bet,” says Sam Scarlett, a sommelier and the director of hospitality and guest experience at the Hunton in Leesburg, Virginia, and the Wine Kitchen in Leesburg and Frederick, Maryland. They might not blow your mind, but they’ll be serviceable.

“It’s the same logic I use when I get a whiskey soda at a dive bar,” he says. “I’m not going in with the expectation of having this killer single-barrel expression, but I don’t want the rail.”

This approach also limits any interactions with a server or sommelier. If you believe that all wine professionals have dollar signs in their eyes when they ask if they can help you pick out something to drink, avoiding a suspected upsell or sales pitch could be its own reward.

“What group has garnered less trust than sommeliers?” asks Chase Sinzer, a partner at Stars wine bar and Claud and Penny restaurants, all in New York. He ranks the relationships between guests and somms among the most distrustful “in retail history.”

Modern, conscientious wine professionals would rather sell you a $58 bottle that you actually want than strong-arm you into a $95 splurge, Sinzer says. Still, he understands why the perception persists: “I don’t blame anyone for thinking that a sommelier is trying to get a couple of dollars out of them because in previous generations that was maybe true. We’re making up for these past sins now.”

But there are other ways to measure worth. Maybe your economic outlook takes price into consideration but also focuses on value for money.

In that case, typically the best bang for your buck isn’t in the low- or mid-priced section of a wine list but rather in the upper echelon of luxury bottles, Scarlett says. “As strange as it sounds, the more expensive a wine is, the less markup it probably has.”

Of course, we don’t all have Chateau Margaux budgets. Another way to find glasses and bottles with lower markups is to bypass brands with big followings, such as Whispering Angel, Meiomi, the Prisoner or, on the higher end, Antinori Tignanello. Even if those big names happen to clock in as the second-least-expensive options on a wine list — unlikely if we’re talking about the Tig, but, hey, maybe you frequent posh establishments — they’ll probably cost much more than similar wines from lesser-known labels.

A better value proposition lies in deeper cuts, such as wines from producers or areas that aren’t household names in the United States, or unexpected region-variety pairings.

For example, on the Hunton menu, the lowest-priced wine by the glass is a $13 sauvignon blanc from Alto Adige, Italy. Because this Alpine area isn’t as familiar to many global sauvignon blanc fans as, say, Sancerre, France, the restaurant is “able to get it at a good price and pass those savings along to our guests,” Scarlett says. As a result, it costs $2 less than the Hunton’s second-least expensive offering: a $15 pinot grigio from a northern-Italian region most associated with the variety.

That said, there are more ephemeral ways to think about value. By ordering the second-cheapest wine by default, you miss the chance to engage with the list and the people around you. For some, that feels like an uneconomic use of the time and money they’ve spent to go out in the first place.

“You can DoorDash a meal from a Michelin-starred restaurant,” Scarlett says. You can drink a glass of wine on your couch, too. “What’s the value of going out? It’s about the experience, the connections.”

I believe that everyone should spend whatever they want on whatever wine they choose. Sometimes, that means absentmindedly pointing at the cheapest or second-cheapest bottle or glass on the menu and moving on.

However, if you’re passionate about what goes in your glass, I recommend approaching wine lists with an open mind. For my money, there’s no better way to get an ad hoc wine-buying education than by engaging knowledgeable wine professionals in friendly conversations about their lists — and you don’t need a magnum-size bankroll to do it.

Let’s say you go to Claud, one of Sinzer’s restaurants in Manhattan, and your dining companion wants to share a bottle of riesling from Germany’s Mosel Valley. Claud’s list includes a $58 option, another for $65 and a few big-spender bottles for $500-plus. Instead of reflexively ordering the $65 riesling without knowing whether you’ll like it, you could ask the sommelier about the differences among these offerings. As a result, you might glean invaluable intel about how site selection, vintage variation, sourcing and distribution, and other factors play out in the glass and on the balance sheet.

“We’re not trying to gouge anyone literally ever,” Sinzer says. “We’re trying to say, ‘Listen, this is what it costs us to buy it.’ And maybe this one is more expensive because three people climbed a cliff in order to farm it.”

Even if you’re not invested in the intricacies of high-elevation agriculture, understanding how wines are priced can help you make more strategic decisions the next time you’re handed a list.

Budgets are personal, and philosophies vary — but knowledge and confidence are priceless.