What’s one of the scariest things for someone new to wine? Is it pairing the right wine with the right meal, picking the right wine off of a restaurant’s wine list, buying the right wine for your boss’s birthday? While all of those can be a bit tricky the most overwhelming thing for many new wine lovers is walking into a wine store full of rack after rack of wine’s they have never heard of and hoping they buy a wine they will like. After walking into hundreds of wine stores, searching every online wine site and bulletin board I can find, and reading wine book after wine book I think I can take away a bit of the mysticism found in the average wine store.

The best piece of advice that I can give is to get to know what you are looking for in a wine, that way when you walk into a store you can tell the person behind the counter what you like. While this sounds daunting, it is not rocket science, all you need to know is what you like about the wine you drink. It is much easier to find a wine you like if you can tell the clerk “I like very fruit forward reds but I don’t like my mouth to feel dried out after drinking.” or “I really like a white wine that is crisp but I don’t like them to be creamy or buttery.” With those two descriptions it would be easy to direct someone towards a wine that would not only fit their tasting preference but also to a wine that won’t break the bank. Two wines that come to mind are a 2003 Bodegas Castaño Monastrell Yecla Hécula from Spain for the red and a 2006 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough from New Zealand for the white. Both of these wines are under $15 each and rated 88+pts by either Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate. Once you can put your finger on what it is you like about wine my second piece of advice is to get to know the folks at your local wine store. It is their job to do everything they can to help you find the wine you like so you will keep coming back to their store. Trust me they won’t make fun of you if you don’t know what you are doing, they really are there to help. One of the best reasons to get to know the store clerks is that they will learn what you like and be able to steer you towards a wine that will fit with your palate, and sometime they will steer you to some hidden gems kept in the back for special customers. When I first started buying wine I would walk into my favorite store pick out a few bottles of wine and take them to the counter only to be directed to other wine that they thought I would like better. Remember in a good store they are after repeat business so they won’t take your $15 bottle out of your hand and try to sell you a $30 bottle, a good clerk will direct you to a comparably priced wine that he/she feels is a better fit for your wine preference.

The one piece of advice I wish I had listened to early on was “Don’t buy a wine because of its score!” While a high score can be an indicator of quality it does not guarantee you will like the wine. I wasted a lot of money chasing scores when I first started drinking wine, remember you are not drinking the score you are drinking the wine. Shelf talkers, little cardboard placards meant to catch your eye, are a great resource but they can get you in trouble if you only buy because of the score. The most important part of the shelf talker is the tasting note not the score. The biggest temptation to a new wine drinker is to be walking down the isle of your local wine store and see a Shelf Talker that says “Robert Parker 90 point wine” and thinking “I don’t know much about wine but I have heard of Parker and I know that 90 points is a good score so this must be a wine I will like!” Read the tasting note and see if what is being described is something you like. If you don’t like a drying wine and part of the tasting note says, “Finishes with dusty, slightly clenched tannins” you probably won’t like the wine regardless of the score. The inverse is also true if you see a lower scoring wine don’t dismiss it out of hand just because of the score, again read the TN. An 84-point wine that says, “finishing with lively acidity, a burst of citrus flavors” might just be a wine you will love.

I can’t say it loud enough, YOU ARE NOT DRINKING THE SCORE -- YOU ARE DRINKING THE WINE! One of the best resources available to all of us is the Wine Store Wine Tasting. Most wine stores do a weekly or monthly wine tasting, these can be anywhere from free to $10 or $15. I strongly urge everyone that likes wine to go to as many of these as you can; these are a great way to try a lot of wine for free or next to nothing. What better way to find out what you like then to get to try ten or fifteen wines instead of having to buy each wine on its own and hoping that you like it. These tasting’s also give you the opportunity to get to meet other wine lovers in your area and many times you will also get to meet either the wine rep or the wine maker. One of the best ways to learn about a wine you like is to be able to ask the wine maker questions, don’t be nervous asking questions that is why he/she is there? The only piece of advice I ever give about a wine store tasting is to make sure you spit, there is nothing more embarrassing then to get drunk at a wine tasting. Trust me I have been both the one that got drunk and also had to put up with others that decided free wine meant it was time to get drunk, neither is any fun. A wine store wine tasting is just what it says a tasting, it is not a free for all so show the storeowner and the other customers respect and stay sober.

Once you feel that you are ready to take this hobby to the next level and start searching for wine on your own there are several wine web sites out there and a multitude of books to help you on your journey. The first two sites I would direct someone to are www.wine-searcher.com and www.winezap.com both of these sites will show you the lowest priced wine available either in your area or anywhere in the world, if you are feeling that adventurous. As to books, there is a plethora of great books out there but for the beginner I would suggest reading “Wine for Dummies” by Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan.While this book is not an in-depth study of wine it will break wine down into many easy to learn areas. It will also give you an overview of how to read a label from just about any region in the world, and that is a big help if you ever try to decipher the crazy German labels that are out there.

The last thing to remember is that the most important critic out there is you, after all it is you that is experiencing the wine no one else so trust your palate. As someone once told me the most important thing about drinking wine is “To drink what you like and like what you drink!”