Choosing wine is the topic for this installment of our wine 101 guide…
Choosing wine from the thousands upon thousands of bottles available can be confusing. So, how can you narrow down the choices when picking one? The first step, as in all purchases, is to know what you like. Buying the best Pinot Gris available isn’t an ideal purchase if what you really like is Chenin Blanc. Therefore, you need to try out the various different wine types (Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Nebbiolos, etc.) to see which are best suited to you.
On deciding which variety of wine you prefer, you’ll have made your wine buying trip significantly more straight-forward. Go into your local wine shop, and walk around the section dedicated to the type of wine you decided upon. Check out the blurbs on the wine racks. Discard the “winery notes” supplied by the winemaker (these tend to be marketing material) and instead focus on the handwritten notes provided by the owner (who will be honest as their reputation depends on it).
Ask an employee of the store to assist you if there’s one available. Tell them the type of wine you’re looking for and anything else that is relevant. Don’t be afraid to be specific about your likes and dislikes. The more you tell them the better their wine recommendations for you will be. It’s quite possible that they’ll even offer you some samples to try out.
You won’t be able to buy everything recommended to you, so take a pen and paper to note down the details on the labels on the ones you don’t purchase. You can then research them on the internet when you get home or look out for them the next time youre looking through a wine menu at a restaurant.
Lastly, keep in mind that no wine is univerally popular with everyone. What pleases you personally is all that you should be concerned with. No-one else (whether they be a wine reviewer or shop owner) will have your exact taste in wine. A wine expert saying that a particular wine is amazing is no guarantee that you’ll like it. Similarly, you may likes wines that no-one else seems to like.
