A Beginners Guide to Wine Selection

By U Learn It | January 15, 2010

Wine selection is a subject regularly asked about to people within the wine industry. What wine is good? What type of wine will I like? What sort of price range should I be looking for to find a good wine? Are online wine sites safe?

Wine selection primarily comes down to personal choice. How would I be able to tell what’s good and what’s not? There are different way to try wines before buying them first. Many bottle shops that stock a large range of wine will usually have one or more wines for you to try. Wine companies sometimes provide these stores with promotional stock to help sell their products.

By all means, try these wines that are offered without any feeling of guilt. Good value can sometimes be gained from these promotional offerings as they are usually accompanied with a sale of some sort.

Another good way to try wines is by visiting wineries. A “tasting fee” is beginning to be introduced among wineries, but the fee is small and is generally waived if purchases are made. Different options are available to you if you wish to visit wineries. If you have knowledge of a particular winery region, you can plan the trip yourself. You can also use the internet to gather information about a particular region.

Some of the best information you can get is from the wineries themselves as they are knowledgeable about wineries in their area. If you’re not confident organising one yourself, you can always pay to go on an organised trip. Many companies are available to do these trips, especially in the larger regions.

There’s two options you have if you’d like to try different wines from different wineries all from the one location. Firstly, you could join a wine club. Many of these clubs have wine tasting parties which are sometimes sponsored by wineries and or companies selling wines.

Online wine websites are great if you know what you are buying. Tasting notes are a good way to get an idea of what certain wines are like. Many online wine websites have mixed dozens which can be purchased which will give you knowledge of certain regions and/or certain types of wine.

In the end, its completely your personal choice. Nobody can tell you what wines you should like, but rather give guidance in what you may like.

Wine can be a great shared experience, but above all else, an enjoyable personal experience.