How to choose a good wine?

Answer 1

I found this wine blog and it has some helpful tips and is entertaining too!

http://wwwwinechicknyc.blogspot.com

Answer 2

Restaurants and supermarkets are NOT a good place to choose a good wine because they have a vested interest and want to sell you something expensive.

Please go to a wine merchant, a wine store where they want your repeat business. They'll ask you what kind of wines you've enjoyed or not enjoyed in the past and choose one just for you. When you find a store with great recommendations develop a relationship with them.

Have a wine tasting: invite friends over who will only bring, say, Zinfandels, or Cabs. This way you can try different wines of the same varietal and educate your buds.

Answer 3

Einneee, minnnie, meineeee , mo
LOL just kidding.
Ask for help at a Wine Shop, most of the staff will be glad to help.

Do research wikipedia has good basic information on wine varietals.

Restaurant wine lists are a good source too, especially if they serve by the glass.

A Wine Bar will sell many wines by the glass.

Check out a book store or library for books on wines.

Answer 4

Wine is a lifetime study ;-)

Like all the best studies it is instantly accesible but with enough variety to please you for ever.

The key is to know your own taste. Some people may go mad for this wine or that wine but if you taste it and think 'yuk' it is not a good wine for you, irrespective of the reputation of the wine.

Stage 1. Try to find a wine that you know you like. Find out a bit about it (where it comes from from, what grapes, what strength, what flavours and textures it has, which you like). Then look for other similar wines of the same grape of from the same area and try them, compare them and see if they are worse/the same/better. In that way you will quickly get to know that you like x grape from y country and so on. In a restaurant go for wines of that grape/country. For instance, with fish or seafood in a non spicy sauce (that is to say French or Italian rather than Indian or Thai) the Sauvignon Blanc grape is a joy. Sancerre/Pouilly Fume from France or any bottle labelled Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand will be a joy. Down the price band a lot of restaurants now sell Sauvignon Blanc from Gascony in France which is good and so on.

Stage 2. Get creative, try more, experiment a bit.

Stage 3. Enthuse others by blahing on chat web sites...

One vital point for UK wine drinkers. If you buy a bottle of wine for £3 in a supermarket £2.70 will go on tax, bottling, labelling, supermarket mark up etc, 30p is the value of the wine. If you spend £4 you have multiplied the amount spent on the actual drink by 4 times and it really shows in the quality. This continues up to about £9 to £10 by which time the price difference is no longer a helpful guide. I could point you at a £7 bottle which outperforms a £20 bottle quite easily so keep your experimentation under £10 to learn the whole range of what is generally available without damage to your finances. There are goodies in the crazy price tags category but leave that for another time.

Try the newly emerging wines from Italy (super-Tuscans etc)
Try English whites (Chapeldown etc) and be amazed.
For perfect reliability try Chillean Reds (my standard if I don't know anything else on the list).

Enjoy!

Answer 5

this is what we did: We went to fee Plus and have been given a pair of reds and whites from the clearance rack. Took them domicile and drank them. it particularly is the excellent thank you to verify you have become a stable wine. every person can advise a style yet that doesn't supply help to once you're choosing an incredible wine. we are additionally serving fish and hen, so we ended up choosing a Italian Pinot Grigio and a French purple table wine that we enjoyed. and because it replaced into on the clearance rack we've been given some circumstances for an extremely cheap!

Answer 6

I have been to wineries in New Zealand and South Western Australia. I have also been to supermarkets in France, and to wine emporiums near Calais.

I find that the best way to buy wine is to go to where the experts are, taste a few of their recommendations, and buy a bulk load of what you like the best.

Wine in the supermarkets in the UK are purchased by buyers who employ this or a similar unknown method. Unfortunately, you then end up with shelves of wine of which you have little knowledge. It is a case of buy a bottle to see if you like it, and then come back for more if you liked it. It works if you know what you like, and want to keep buying what you like instead of trying what is good and young that year.

A method I employed in France when dealing with wines I could not get a taste of first, was to buy one bottle, and drink the lot. I would then buy a few cases if I liked it and nothing if it was not so good. I did not buy many cases using this method.

I did buy a lot of cases where the cases were priced for bulk buyers, and I tasted them first.

Don't necessarily go for a name, but go for a grape you like, and a method of production you know. Then get a taste of a recommended wine or three of this category, and buy the one you like the best.

Answer 7

Rule of thumb, if the wine bottle has a deep indentation in the bottom of the bottle, it,s normally a decent wine. But the best methode is to go sample it in a good wine shop.

Answer 8

+ IT all depends on what you like. My preference is a blush or rose. but there are thousands to choose from. They have tastings at some stores, and you could go to a club that does it in your area. sometimes it is done for charity auctions, so you could try a bunch and then know what you like. They say white goes with fish and red goes with beef. Desert wines are a whole new game. you might try a port like I have (about twice a year) or a sherry that my mom used to like. You need to try them and see.
Another thing is to get the waiter at a full service restaurant to give you some advice, but beware he will try to get you to buy the most expensive.

Answer 9

Wine is a tough one to answer. There are a vast amount of wines available. Assuming that we are eschewing snob value, I feel the best answer I can give you is to suggest a few.

1. General purchase - any wine from Alexis Lichine will be good.

2. Reds. Roodeberg from South Africa, at around £10 per bottle, is excellent with steaks - esp Chateaubriand or Fillet. For use with a ragout or navarin (stew of beef or lamb), I would advocate either a South African Pinotage, or the Cabernet Sauvignon of Chile. Hungarian Bulls Blood is also excellent. Prices for these wines - £4-£8.

I am not yet convinced that North America or Australia have produced a wine in the under £10 category that compares to the produce of South Africa or Chile.

Regarding French wines, I have a tendency to buy these as drinking wines, rather than as wines to accompany a meal. St Emilion and Corbieres are pleasant for an evenings drinking, and they would compliment a buffet of cheeses such as Stilton, Brie and the lighter Cheddars to perfection. (Whilst on the subject, Port Salut cheese is excellent on the Buffet, and is equally complimented by a reasonable French reduch as cited above, or an Italian drinking wine such as Valpolicella. )

3. Whites. I advocate South African Steen as the best White I have drunk, or served. Dry as a bone - an excellent aperetif, and even better if drunk with a consomme. Again, Lichine does a superb range of whites - his Colombard Chardonnay is particularly astute. Unless one is able to afford the better German or French whites, I would stick to South Africa, or Lichine, although the Stowells range is beginning to be spoken of well.I have yet to try it.

Rose is not worth drinking with a meal, except with some of the milder curries in Indian/Pakistani restaurants, but beer or Kingfisher lager is the preferreds alcoholic drink with food from the Indian sub-continent.

Finally, using the above guide should enable you to select reasonable wines - but use an off-licence rather than a supermarket if you can - off-licences have a better knowledge of wine as a rule. Avoid snobbery. I could have recommended Paulliac or Brouilly, but these medium priced wines are not much better than Chilean or South African at arounf £10 per bottle. Choosing good wine revolves around the texture, body,and taste of the vin, not the snob value or the current fashions for inferior Australian and Californian offerings.

Answer 10

Keep trying different ones and keep a written journal. It’s been my experience that more money doesn’t mean better, there are a lot of good 10-15 dollar wines. My current favorite is Big *** Cab.

Good Lord, look at that, the filth you find on the net and you can't type ***.