What Makes You Buy A Wine - the inexperienced perspective

[Andrew H]

I am curious how people chose wines before they established a palate for wines of their liking.

I guess for me I drank enough red wine “the good the bad and the ugly” to appreciate the good; however, I struggle to give guidance to others starting out drinking wine and trying to build up an appreciation.

I am often asked by people, How should I choose wine?
For my thoughts trying as many different wines as you can is a good start.
Any other ideas?

[Daryl Douglas]

Andrew, after trying many wines yourself, you may be able to ascertain your friend's palate preferences by introducing her/him to a range of wines you enjoy and appreciate yourself. Also, of course, some wines that aren't your preferred style but which you recognise as being good quality and representative of that style, region, winery, winemaker etc.

Trust your own judgement

.

[Red Bigot]

I am curious how people chose wines before they established a palate for wines of their liking.

I guess for me I drank enough red wine “the good the bad and the ugly” to appreciate the good; however, I struggle to give guidance to others starting out drinking wine and trying to build up an appreciation.

I am often asked by people, How should I choose wine?
For my thoughts trying as many different wines as you can is a good start.
Any other ideas?

I think I started that way too, drank a lot of "ugly" stuff (and whites) before I finally worked out what I liked in the wines I could afford.

When someone asks me to recommend some wines for them I always ask them to name one or two that they can remember enjoying, that usually gives me a lead, sometime to wines I wouldn't want to buy for myself, but know from past experience. If they can't even do that I recommend a mix of softer easy-drinking (but quality) reds and a couple of more firmly structured wines to see how they react. If they want to know what the wine will be like after a few years aging, I find a good current vintage of a wine I have in my cellar and get them to try the older one then the newer one.

If they are serious about drinking better wine, I recommend the James Halliday Wine Companion, the Jeremy Oliver Annual and/or TORBwine and Winorama and suggest they try a few highly rated wines from there to see if they agree and can relate to the TN.

[GravyMaker]

Interesting thread....

I was only thinking last night that I have probably done myself a huge disservice in the education of my palate by sticking almost entirely to big SA Shiraz (and a sprinkling of Cabernet) during my early wine drinking years.

My early influence was basically what Dad was drinking....

Don't get me wrong, I love what I drink but I am now focussing on broadening the perspective.

I once met a bloke in Northampton, England who told me Northampton was the best place in the world. My natural question was 'have you done much travel?'. His reply 'Nope, never been out of Northampton - why would I?'

Maybe I am this bloke in the wine world

[Wayno]

And the Northampton geezer is none the worse for it, arguably.

Further, if you're living in the UK, for example, where loads of different styles/regions are available, there's less excuse to stick with a narrow palate although it's all personal (and hey it's just a drink) whereas being in SA, it's pretty easy to fall back on the local drop when wine from elsewhere can be harder to find and/or more expensive. For the average punter, of course.

From my own experience, the expansion of tastes has been an interesting journey, starting with largely SA reds and whites, hovering around shiraz and cabernet for a time then branching out cautiously at first then excitedly into pinot and lighter styles. I'm currently floating back around the bigger styles again but with a renewed interest in foreign wines, based largely on a recent spate of overseas travel.

Lesson learnt is that your tastes can and do change, sometimes unexpectedly and that's the beauty of the journey.

Which is something Mr Northampton won't ever know but then he's blissfully unaware and happy.

[Ian S]

I once met a bloke in Northampton, England who told me Northampton was the best place in the world. My natural question was 'have you done much travel?'. His reply 'Nope, never been out of Northampton - why would I?'

Fair enough... if it were somewhere other than Northampton! (I used to play basketball around that area a few years ago, but no, I am not that man!)

[Ian S]

In reply to the question title 'What makes you buy wine', definitely the little pixies, they make me do it... and they always to hang out around wine shops (and quality online wine merchants ).

[oakboy]

Ok, i try to go to any free tasting... or will pay if a good selection of wines
don't buy anything i haven't tasted and not liked unless.... this forum or other forum's gets a good response from a variety of posters that it's a good wine.. then maybe..... still best to always taste wine first before buying..

cheers Simmo

[GravyMaker]

I once met a bloke in Northampton, England who told me Northampton was the best place in the world. My natural question was 'have you done much travel?'. His reply 'Nope, never been out of Northampton - why would I?'

Fair enough... if it were somewhere other than Northampton! (I used to play basketball around that area a few years ago, but no, I am not that man!)

I lived there for 12 months a while ago - not the most exciting place in the world by any stretch! Apologies to any Northamptonians on the forum but it's just damn true....

[Daryl Douglas]

Buy a bottle of this or that, use others' opinions as a guide only and buy more of what you most enjoy yourself.

It's really as simple as that.

I'm completely over giving an encapsulated but expansive recounting of my own wine history. I drink more reds these days than whites but I still enjoy whites of various varieties. Bigotry is limiting. Oh, yeah, never been a friend of any bubblely wines - that's what beer's for. OMG, I sound like a bubbles bigot.

Cheers

daz

[Red Bigot]

.... buy more of what you most enjoy yourself.

... Bigotry is limiting....

Selective quoting I know, but "red wine bigotry" is just one form of your first statement, it's limiting in a very good way for me... I can't keep up with all the good reds I enjoy let alone the distraction of trying to find a white I might enjoy.

Remember this: However strange it may appear to you, you cannot criticise anyones personal wine preference without showing yourself to be intolerant and/or arrogant.

[craig loves shiraz]

I wouldn't say I'm inexperienced, but I'm not a sommellier either.

I like my big Shiraz's, especially a big Barossa shiraz. Without being overly simplistic, I drink the wines that taste good to me. I really couldn't give a rats what the person next to me thinks. For mine, a lot of the "ratings", etc are pretty irrelevant. Handy info, but really don't make me sway one way or another. I guess my point is, Wine is such a personal thing. How can something taste the same to someone else???

As for what makes me buy a wine??? Well I have to taste it to find out if I like it! I rarely buy in bottle shops unless it's a style/type/brand or vintage that I know. And as for the wineries that don't have the wine "on taste", I always say the same thing, if it's not on taste, well then it's clearly not on sale either !!

[Nick]

More than anything, once I realised that I liked wine & wanted to learn more about what I liked, I visited as many cellar doors as possible & tasted plenty of wine.

I guess it helps living in Adelaide with so many quality cellar doors within a day trip. We've also made a point of slotting some wine tasting into travel itineraries & as that's happened, our palates have broadened (probably never would have started drinking whites without tasting riesling in Clare and chardonnay in Margaret River).

Definitely fell into the trap of buying too much wine after a couple of years of tasting though. Thought I'd worked out what I liked but didn't account for my palate changing from year to year. So I've now got a cellar full of South Australian 2002 Shiraz & nowhere to stash the Pinots I'm buying & enjoying at present!

The only guidance I give to friends who are keen to start drinking wine is to get out there and try some - I reckon the whole cellar door experience increases enthusiasm for wine as well as expanding palate and knowledge.

My two cents worth,
Nick

[Scanlon]

the short answer - get ye to the east end cellars tasting on oct 20!

[Mark S]

Hi Andrew - in my own case, I did it the stupid way; had no real interest in wine until the 1990's, when a rich friend introduced me to some aged Aust gems which knocked my socks off. Immediately I read every book on old wine I could find, and started buying stuff from auctions without experienced advice or doing the necessary research - bought lots of bottles well over the hill, paid over the odds for many (eg in a live auction frenzy bid $80 for a 1967 Bin 128 which turned out to be vinegar) etc.

Eventually things evened out, & I found I really liked quite young wines in the ripe SA style, as well as settling on a few other "styles" such as aged Coonawarra cabs, Rutherglen fortifieds, NZ pinots. I've maintained my interest in auctions, and have now garnered enough hard-won experience to be confident here.

With regard to friends (who have no wine background) asking for advice, point them to the cheap & cheerful end, like De Bortoli Sacred Hill, Leasingham Bastion, Hardys Oomoo, etc. Trying to impart the wisdom of a sophisticated palate to newbies is like teaching Calculus to kindergarten kids, utter waste of time. If they really go for wine, they'll find their own way soon enough, and be able to ask intelligent questions which you'll take delight in answering (maybe)

Oh yeah - and point them in the direction of all the free tastings that so many retailers do now - eg in Melb, Prince Wine Store, Randalls, Wine Collector House sure liven up a sat arvo for me!

[Jay60A]

Go to eRobertparker and source wines with 97+ RP points. Only. Do not consider you can think for yourself. Thinking is evil and counter-culture ... people will think you are strange ...

Despite all the "trust your own palate stuff" which is true, try and identify some reasonably priced benchmark wines in each style you are interested to try... top Hunter semillon at say $30, to NZ tempranillo-pinotage cleanskins (yummo) at $5.50, whatever ... benchmark whatever style. If you don't like 'em there's a fair chance you don't like the whole genre ... at this point.

Good example (I hope) ... I tried a few top/good qpr rioja reservas the last few weeks. They just rocked and so I'm interested in them again. Changed some of my preconceptions with the amazing length from 12.5% alcohol. La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza 1999 for those interested.

Jay

[Red Red Wine]

I'm so glad I stumbled across this post! I'm also starting out and trying to find my way along the journey, and at the moment I'm having a buying spree period (mainly 1/2 doz) which mostly derived from reading reviews and tasting notes with no real actual tasting of the wines I have bought, but yet I insist on buying more, an idiot i am. I hate to admit it but I get influenced by the ratings and hype of a certain wine thus making me want to buy it and in some way i kinda want to impress my friends without thinking about what really counts and that is, a wine is for your (my) enjoyment.

I think I will listen to the wise words of wisdom and try out as many varieties before committing to buy a shipload of one particular wine.

So from your experiences would you say a max of 3 bottles of a certain wine should only be collected to age thus giving the cellar more variety?

[Red Bigot]

So from your experiences would you say a max of 3 bottles of a certain wine should only be collected to age thus giving the cellar more variety?

I still buy 6-packs of some wines as well as a lot of 3's made up into case lots and the occasional dozen of sparkling reds.

For economy of scale, buy with friends to get case discounts.

[Wizz]

So from your experiences would you say a max of 3 bottles of a certain wine should only be collected to age thus giving the cellar more variety?

I've been buying wine for more than 10 years and have a reasonable cellar, and I still buy this way - usualy no more tan 3 bottles at a time, except for quaffers. I've learned some hard lessons about buying wines and finding I didn't really like them, or my palate changed over time. Some stats from the RB Cellarmaster tell me that half of the wines that have entered and then exited my cellar were sold, not drunk!

In the beginning I trusted Robin Bradleys gold book, then the Penguin guide, and then I got to more and more tastings. Still made some horrible mistakes...

AB

[seanwines]

When I first started out, I randomly selected wines. Later I used the JH Wine Companion as a guide. Now I go on a combination of sources when selecting wine.
Also I never buy more than four of each wine.

For everyday drinking, my local bottle shop normally has about 6 Reds on tasting at any one time. This makes it easy to find one I like.

[Sarg]

I'm alot like RRW i've started this journey glued to gary's winorama reading his tasty sounding tasting notes and wanting to buy the lot, then I found this place and it's getting worse.

I know what styles I like (i think i do anyway) and am just trying more moderatly priced wines to try expand my horizons and see whats out there.

I'm glad I found this thread now I think i'll slow down and try to find somewhere around here that does tastings, I only have one winery that is local but haven't been there for a tasting yet, maybe next weekend .

Andrew