How To Buy Wine
If you have these questions ready, they should be able to guide you to the right wine for the occasion. If the first person you talk to is a snob, then hex them and then ask someone else. Feeling adventurous? Ask them a question. What wine are you currently excited about? Most wine shop geeks will gleefully bring you to the latest and greatest wine in their shop.
how to buy wine
BONUS TIP: Ask them if they ever do in-store wine tastings. The small boutique wine shop I worked at in Chicago had a weekly wine tasting every Friday night. It basically evolved into a neighborhood block party with some wine tasting, but it was a great way to taste different wines every week.
Of course, if you're a cheapskate and only want to pay a couple of bucks, finding a great-tasting bottle may prove more challenging. Thorsen finds great wines under $4 are rare. They may not taste awful, but they probably won't be something you'll remember fondly either.
If you are looking for a good Cabernet from the U.S., reach for a bottle from Paso Robles in California, or Washington state. Both regions produce terrific red wines, Isle says, but they don't have the same name recognition.
Name recognition can drive up the price, but so can the location's employment dynamics. "It goes back to basic economics," Isle says. Regions that have low labor costs and low land costs produce wine less expensively. Napa Valley, where the cost of half an acre of vineyard land is sky-high, will generally produce more expensive wine than the Mendoza region in Argentina, for example.
If you're looking for a less expensive red, Thorsen recommends trying a bottle of Spanish Garnacha or a Portuguese red blend. For white wine drinkers, test out a bottle of South African Chenin Blanc or Vinho Verde from Portugal, he adds.
For those who are less familiar with wine, the experts say it's important to not only try new regions and grape varieties, but also try wines you may not enjoy at first. Maybe you haven't liked Chardonnay in the past; it's too buttery or too oaky for your taste.
It's like approaching a new cuisine, Isle says. "If you're not used to drinking wine, if it's not something you drink regularly, the most appealing flavors are the very straightforward fruit flavors that you get in inexpensive wines," he adds.
But it's better to have an open mind, Anna-Christina Cabrales, general manager of Morrell Wine Bar in New York City, tells CNBC Make It. "Sometimes you'll be surprised with what you'll find," she says. There are plenty of affordable options, including a lot of exciting boxed and canned wines hitting the market. Some of her favorite brands of canned wines include Vinny and Lil Fizz, a California white blend from No Fine Print Wine.
If you are scrutinizing a wine label, there are two things that can be actually helpful: the alcohol content and the location. Table wines range from 12% to 15.5% alcohol, Isle says. If it's a hot day, you may want to avoid a high-alcohol wine because it tends to be richer and heavier. Lower alcohol levels tend to have a lighter flavoring.
Next, take note of the specific place the wine is produced, Thorsen says. The smaller the better. Let's say you have three bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon at the same price in your basket. One says it is from "California." The second bottle says "North Coast." The third is labeled "Lake County."
Instead, find a wine store with a staff that's friendly and will talk to you, Isle says. Ask for recommendations and, specifically, if they have tried any wine you're considering. "You'll save a buck by shopping at the big grocery store selection, but you'll get zero help and no one will know what they're selling," Isle says.
The trick to finding wines you'll actually like within your price range, even at these specialty shops, is to be upfront, Cabrales says. "Be specific as to what you want or else you're going to be led down the road that you weren't expecting," she says. This includes the price point. If you do not wish to spend more than $15 a bottle, definitely let the wine expert know.
"Since these are exclusive wines, they cut out the middleman and generally offer them for less," he says. However, you may need to search a bit more for the private label bottles. At Trader Joe's, the labels don't always say "Trader Joe's." Instead, look for the "Trader Joe's Exclusive" sign on the shelves to help you spot which wines are private label, according to Thorsen.
We identify the ideal glass, taking into account the depth, the fineness, the height, et cetera; to do so, we organize comparative tastings in groups, during which we all taste the same wine in several glasses. Each one gives an opinion and we eliminate successively the glasses to end up with the one ultimate glass for the wine. It is a very interesting and fun experience that awakens all the senses. A very nice idea of an activity for an evening between friends or for future spouses that want to have fun while choosing the perfect wine and glass match.
Aging wine is an important part of wine collecting for many collectors and it can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Buying wine young and laying it down to age has a number of advantages, including:
Why it ages so well: Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that were picked early (before sugar levels became too high) or were grown in cooler climates usually age best because the acidity is high. You often see this quality in Old-World Cabernet. The best of these wines are also aged in oak, giving them greater long-term aging potential.
Why it ages so well: Syrah has naturally high levels of phenols (tannins and other flavor compounds). As Syrah ages, these compounds interact with one another and form new, more complex compounds. This is what makes Syrah wines taste so concentrated and multifaceted with age.
Why it ages so well: This variety is so naturally high in acidity that additional residual sugar is often used to provide balance. With care and proper storage, perfectly structured Chenin Blanc wines are capable of lasting 50 or even 100 years.
Benefits: Vivino gives you more confidence than any retailer can provide as your decision to purchase is largely based on the reviews of 23 million people, not one singular online wine retailer or wine critic.
Words of Wisdom: Most curated wine clubs like to go a little overboard with the packaging to give off a premium feel, so you can expect to pay a little more for the bells and whistles for presentational purposes.
Cellaraiders is in the business of buying wine collector's cellars, either partial or complete. People sell their wine for many reasons; tastes change, the need to liquidate their investment, estate planning, financial difficulties, downsizing, etc.
The secondary market is a great place to find older wines at prices that rival auction, without waiting or the risk of losing the wine to a higher bidder. I take great pains to make sure that what I procure and sell to you has been properly cellared. I don't want to drink, nor do I want to sell, poorly cellared wine.
First, direct to consumer (DTC) wine shipments are a big deal. Shipments from wineries alone totaled $3 billion in sales in 2018. Add in sales from retailers that are shipped to customers and you've got multiple billions of dollars of sales, growing at a much faster rate than sales made at brick & mortar wine stores. So how do you join in on this revolution?
Make sure you're in a state where you can receive wine shipments through the mail! For most states this is an all or nothing proposition (thanks to our convoluted alcohol laws), but there are a few states that will allow intrastate shipments but not shipments from other states, or even where the rules are different by region within a state. And while very few states allow wine to legally be shipped in from out of state retailers, the list of states that allow wine shipments direct from wineries continues to grow. The Wine Institute has lots of helpful information on the latter here. With longtime holdout Pennsylvania now joining the revolution the count of states that allow at least some form of shipments is up to 44, covering about 90% of the U.S. population.
This is a lifesaver for people like us who get a ton of wine shipped to them. To sign up for these services (which offer a ton of great info and options such as notifying you of all inbound packages), here are the current links to the UPS MYChoice service and the Fedex Delivery Manager.
Looking For a DealIn this case, you're not so much concerned with the varietal or the vintage, you're just trying to score some great wine at a great price. If this is you then you'll definitely want to check out our INSIDER DEALS as well as the various other "flash" wine sites. With the "flash" sites it may take a bit of waiting to find the right deal, but these sites typically buy large amounts of a given wine at special pricing passing on at least a portion of that discount to you.
Don't Miss Out!About Reverse Wine SnobWine doesn't have to be expensive to be good! Jon Thorsen is an independent wine consumer who has been helping millions of people find great wines without breaking the bank since 2011. If you're new to Reverse Wine Snob sign up for my free guide and don't miss our exclusive Insider Deals! Read more about Reverse Wine Snob in the news and about me.
So, beware not to choose a wine that has been bottled by ICQRF (with a code). Usually behind this acronym are large bottling wholesalers who produce huge numbers of bottles by mixing different batches. In this case, the quality is very hard to find.
To produce table wines, a wine producer only needs to follow the sanitary regulations and indicate the alcohol content. However, there are no disciplinary restrictions. In the case of varietal wines the grape variety and the year of production can be dsplayed on the label, without any reference to the territory that gave rise to the wine. 041b061a72