Wine isn’t complicated unless you make it complicated. I routinely hear people say that they do not know anything about wine, who would never think to say that they do not know anything about coffee, tea, beer, vodka, gin or whiskey, even though they don’t actually know much about any of those. But what they do know is what they like. Wine is presumed to be too complex, too sophisticated to trust your own judgement. I can see why, there are books about how to buy wine, what glass to use, the proper temperature serve the wine, how to store the wine, where to buy wine, buy this wine and don’t even think about buying that wine. Most of this information (no matter how well-intentioned) is internet noise, personal opinion repeated often enough that it somehow becomes fact. Common sense and the willingness to experiment is all you really need to find wines that speak to you.
Here are my wine facts:
Do not confuse marketing with helpful advise (and remember wine marketing is often disguised as editorial content)
Price is important. With virtually everything you buy, the strategy is to purchase the best or the most of something that still fits your budget.
The people who tell you that expensive wine is the only wine to drink and anything else is plonk or cheap juice, are usually people who are in the business of selling expensive wine or someone who talked to someone selling expensive wine and believed them.
I recently attended a tasting for 75 wines, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Burgundy, France all in the $50 to $60 range. I had two different people come up to me and tell me that 3 of the producers made good wine, the rest were crap. There is always someone who is not going to like this wine or that wine, no matter the price range or the wine region. Affordable wines are even more likely to be dissed. Make up your own mind about wine, you can’t listen to everyone.
No wine expert knows more about which wine flavors appeal to you, what wines are easily available to you, what your budget is or how deep or how casual you want your relationship with wine to be, than you do. Trust in yourself and it is hard to go wrong.
