Read a lot! There are plenty of books and pages out
there for the beginner. I suggest trying to learn about one wine
producing region at a time and pick an easy one to start with
(more about this later.)
Taste a lot! Go to wine tastings, buy a bottle a
week, join a tasting club or at least cultivate a wine drinking
buddy to share a bottle tasting with. When most people start
drinking wine they follow a fairly predictable route that leads
them
from sweet whites to tannic/oaky reds and just as predictably,
few inexperienced people can appreciate the subtle nuances of
very good wines. Part of knowing what you like and how well made
a wine is, is knowing what is meant by Varietal Character. Learn
what things to associate with a cabernet sauvignon or what with a
good pinot noir or whatever.
Don't spend a lot! Don't rush out and buy that
$200 bottle of Bordeaux when you can't appreciate the differences
between that and a $3 jug wine from the grocery. With time you
will be able to do so. Above I recommended that you start out
with one region's wine. I usually recommend Chilean wines for
this purpose. They are often incredible values and generally
very consistent. Plus, as a wine producing region, it is much
simpler to understand than, for examply, Burgundy.
Don't worship wine ratings!
Many people, Jenny and I included, rely to a large extent on
published ratings and reviews of wines. If you compare, you will
see that in most cases, the different publications are within 1
or 2 points of each other. They are useful because so many wine
stores 'put their mouth where there money is'. In other words,
they want to sell what helps their bottom line. But wine ratings
are never anything other than a handy, but fallible guide. In
the end, your own palate is the final guide. The best single
wine I ever had was a 1982 Zinfandel I had purchased on a whim.
When I drank it on New Years Eve 1987, it was absolutely sublime,
a marvel of interwoven complexities and perfect balance. I
recently checked its rating out of curiosity. It only rated a
77, not even in the 'good' category!
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