In preparation for Friday's post, I thought I might need to set the mood. Sensitive to the fact that not every person who has told me they read the BLAUG! is a wine nerd, I figured I'd attempt to remedy that with a "good Monday wine buying tip or two."
Wine people, feel free to add. Wine drinkers and prospective wine drinkers, feel free to ask questions. Everybody else? Drink more wine and don't lose to the Florida Gators. ...Sigh...
A Good Monday Wine Buying Tip or Two: taste makers
Your party supplies for this lesson consist of a small notepad and pen. Pocket size. Being the type of winter it's been, few of us are lacking in pockets right now, so no excuses. Then––and this is key––drink. some. wine. Preferably organic. Though I'm not dogmatic about this, I am dogmatic about the fact that you should drink more wine. But again, preferably organic.
Start a wine group or ask your local shop about upcoming tastings or both––go nuts. Drink, judge and think. Judging if you like a wine is as easy as deciding whether or not you want to keep drinking it. Take out party supplies. If yes, mark it. If no, mark it. If you're not sure, mark that, too, no one wants a blank notepad. I highly recommend tasting groups. They make it possible to taste a bunch of wines at one time and discuss them with other people wanting to learn. Good excuse to party on a weekday, also. Win win.
There is likely some writing on the label somewhere that tells you the producer, the region and/or the grape. Include what information you find and the price in your notes along with whether or not you dug it. If the bottle has three X's or the name Turley on it, you're drinking moonshine, so be careful. Now, turn the bottle over and find the importer. This is extremely important, but we'll cover that tomorrow. Write it down. Try a bunch of different wines, and don't bother worrying about vintages. Vintage means the year the grapes were harvested. You should include it, but it's most important for cellaring wines. As Kermit Lynch wrote, "a talented winemaker will come up with something worth tasting every year." Screw the vintage, just memorize that quote.
Also, don't worry about finding the same bottle you liked. Having a general idea of the type of wine you like will prove to be more valuable than having the name of one bottle you enjoyed, and will lead to less disappointment. That's the idea––you're looking for patterns among the wines you've liked. Names won't help. If you notice you like one Pinot Noir, or one Cotes du Rhone, or one New Zealand sauvignon blanc, chances are you will like other ones. Easy, no? Same with regions and importers. Importers we'll discuss tomorrow.
Well, that's a good start. Ready to talk carbonic maceration? I'll bet you are, champ. I'll bet you are. Have a good day, I feel strangely inspired to go hit someone in the head with a soda.
Note: Women make up the vast majority of the clientele in a wine shop. I once got inspired to take a tally––it was 65% and 70% over two days. Just sayin, dudes, just sayin...
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