Shopping for wine is one of my favorite hobbies (it’s a hobby, don’t @ me). I love perusing the aisles of my local wine shop in pursuit of the perfect bottle to have for dinner. Better yet, finding a bottle of wine I’ve never seen or had before. But since it’s my hobby and I’m a wine geek, I’ve gotten really good at it. Choosing a bottle of wine is easy and enjoyable to me. However, after a survey of my readers, choosing the right wine is the single most difficult part of being a wine drinker. Fear not! You do not need to be a wine expert to find a good bottle of wine. I spent years in wine retail and know just how to help. Here are my tips and tricks on how to choose wine and get the perfect wine for any occasion. At the very least, you’ll know what never to buy again.
How to ask for help at a wine shop
The best advice I can give it to find a local wine shop and make friends. Don’t be shy! Ask for help! Find the person at the shop that you feel comfortable with and have them guide you. These are the questions they’ll likely ask you to help you choose the right wine.
Is this wine for you or a gift?
This seems like an odd question but there’s a method to the madness. If a wine is a gift, the wine recommendation will change depending on who it is for. For example, if it’s for your boss, you’ll want a wine with name recognition to impress them with your amazing selection. You’re not going to buy the same wine for your college-aged nephew. If it’s for a wine geek friend, you may want to get them something obscure and weird.
Are you drinking this wine with food?
If you’re going to have the wine with food the wine shop person can help you find a good match. I used to say, Old World with food and New World without. Old World wines are wines from Europe and the Middle East where culturally one would never think of drinking wine without food. They tend to be a bit higher in acidity and are intended to be drunk with a meal. My ebook, A Sommelier’s Secrets to Wine and Food Pairing is an extensive way to find the perfect food pairing but you can get the basics here.
If you’re not planning on eating and are just going to be sipping on a wine while watching a movie, head over to the New World section that will have wines from the US, Argentina, Australia, or New Zealand. While these wines are definitely suitable for drinking with a meal, they tend to be a little more fruit-forward and easy to drink on their own.
What do you usually drink?
If you tell me you usually drink Malbec, Syrah, and Zinfandel, I have a pretty good idea of your palate because these wines are all bold spicy reds. A wine shop clerk will discern the same thing and won’t steer you to a Pinot Noir but might introduce you to a Monastrell from Spain.
What’s your budget?
This is pretty self explanatory. Be clear with your budget. Don’t be shy to say that you want to spend under $15. It’s not like the wine shop clerk is rolling in dough and only popping 1st growth Bordeauxs, okay? More on budget later.
Another tip for how to choose the perfect 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.
Buy a few bottles that the person recommends. When you try them, take notes and take a picture of the bottle. Identify what you like and don’t like about the wine. The next time you go in to that wine shop, find the same person and tell them what you thought. From this information they should be able to glean exactly what it is you like and make even better recommendations.
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.
How to choose wine at a supermarket
Sometimes there’s someone in the wine department of supermarket, but most of the time you’re stuck looking at a daunting wall of bottles alone. If there isn’t someone to help you, keep reading for more tips to help you choose a wine.
According to my readers, they usually shop by grape variety. I’ve created this cheat sheet to help you choose wine by style and food pairing. You can try other wines in the category you already know you’re comfortable with. I had someone ask me, okay, great, I’m having fettucine alfredo, the best pairing is a California Chardonnay, now what? Well now you have to decide budget.
Understanding wine prices
Our budget for wine is usually the single biggest contributing factor to what wine we will choose. If money was no object, shopping for wine would be super easy, wouldn’t it? I’m going to give it to you as straight as possible. You may not like it but it’s the truth. Cheap wine is cheap for a reason. I’ve worked for the 3rd largest wine company in America and trust me when I tell you, you want to avoid that shit as much as possible. Anything under 7-8 bucks is going to be mass-produced, chemically-infested, exploitative of the environment, and exploitative of the labor force. As Lizzo says, Truth Hurts. If that’s as far as your budget reaches, I get it, I’ve been there and that’s okay.
In the US, these are usually the wines that are stacked 3 cases deep with lots of signage telling you how great they are. They’re usually not great at all and taste hollow with aromas of bruised fruit. Large wine companies literally buy that space on the floor of the supermarket. Do those little shelf-talkers with the ratings mean anything? Not really. When I was selling bulk wine, I made sure every wine I sold had some kind of tag in front of it to catch the eye. If it has a rating it simply means someone else liked it, it doesn’t mean you will. Another trick of merchandizing wine that I learned was to never completely fill the box so it looked like it was popular and other people were buying it. They weren’t. I always did this with our worst sellers.
A little rant about bulk wine
But Anna Maria, how do I know if it’s a small wine producer? Unfortunately, you won’t. The large wine conglomerates account for over 70% of the wines in supermarket. What’s worse is they’re gobbling up small wineries from around the world left and right. If your budget is 7-8 bucks, avoid the stacks and go to the shelves and you’ll likely find a small producer cowering on the bottom shelf. Spain, Chile, Portugal, and Argentina will often be where values will be found. That being said, they still might be mass-produced. Not all wines made by these conglomerates will be obvious to you. Yeah, we know Gallo wines are mass-produced but most of their brands are under different names like Apothic. If it’s important to you to buy wine from small-family owned wineries, you’ll have to go to a small independent wine shop and up your budget by a few bucks.
Is expensive wine worth it?
I had someone ask me, “Is it really worth it to spend more money when my favorite bottle is $15?” Making the jump from a $7 to a $15 bottle will be a huge jump in quality. The jump from $15 to $25 is significant, but less so. Me, personally, as a broke wine lover, the goal is to find a bottle you love at a price you’re comfortable with. I rarely buy wine more than 15€ (amazing Greek wine in Greece is super reasonably priced, I’m very lucky) but it’s with a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you’ll find a bottle that is just right for both your wine budget and your wine taste. Will a $50 bottle be amazing compared to your $15 bottle? Yes, but so would upgrading from a Camry to a Maserati. A Camry is a perfectly good car to drive everyday.
Test it out
At your next trip to buy wine, buy the same grape from the same area at 3 different price points. Let’s say, Cabernet from California. Get one that’s $5, one that’s $15, and one that’s $30. Try each one (not in the same night you lushes) and take notes. The quality should be clear. If you’re perfectly content with the $5, then you do you boo. Another tip on this later.
The useful part of the wine label
Often times when you don’t recognize any of the wines you’ll choose based on the label. Now while I don’t suggest you buy the wine with the cutest bunny on it, there is a lot of valuable information on the label like location, vintage, and importer.
Where is the wine from?
Without going into all the different wine labeling laws across the world, the more specific the location is, the better quality it should be. I’ve seen cheapy wines labeled as “American” wine. That means it can come from a mix of grapes from several different states. Better would be California, even better would be Sonoma, and even better will be Alexander Valley. To the point above about price, when you’re looking at the shelf at 3 bottles of Cab at $15, choose the one with the smallest geographic area.
Another example, if you see a wine labeled just Italy well that’s a huge geographic location. More specific would be Chianti and even more specific would be Chianti Classico. Get it? Obviously the price goes up as the geographical location is more defined but a happy medium can be found with your budget.
Lesser famous wine regions will have better values. If you love Cab, don’t jump in straight to Napa, that shit, while delicious, is super expensive. A cheap Napa Cab doesn’t exist and if it does, be wary. The price of the grapes is very very high and for it to be labeled Napa 85% of the grapes need to come from Napa. Find a Cab from Chile or Argentina. If you want to stay within California try Paso Robles.
Check the vintage
If you’re buying a bottle of white or rose, double check you’re buying a fresh wine. If you see a huge display of white wine on sale it may mean the wine may have gone past its peak. Check out my Quick and Dirty Guide to avoid buying old wine. Bonus Tip: Pull a bottle from the back of the shelf where it’s darker in case there’s been damage from the lights. Double bonus: There may be more recent vintages hiding back there.
Find an importer you like and trust
When I first started in the wine industry I was obsessed with Spanish wine. There was an importer, Jorge Ordonez, and I loved every bottle he imported. I would just check the back label of a wine and if it was from him, I knew I’d like it. Now even though I live in Greece, I still trust an importer in the US who imports Greek wine. The buyer/co-owner of DNS Imports is a friend and I trust his palate. If he’s bringing in a Greek wine to the US, I know it’ll be good.
Trial and Error
Sometimes it’s a crapshoot. You’re going to buy wines that you don’t love. While that sucks, use it as a learning opportunity. Was the wine too light? Too acidic? Too tannic? See if you can identify why you didn’t like it and avoid that next time.
In conclusion, you have to take risks or you’ll never find the wines you like. You don’t have to do it alone. Organize a wine tasting with your friends where everyone brings a different bottle. Take notes and take a picture of everything you like. At the wine shop, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Get on their email list and see when they’re having a tasting so you can try before you buy. Don’t be shy to ask ME questions. I’ve had a bunch of people reach out via social media and literally take pictures of a wine wall and say, pick one. I’m happy to do that for you. Every Friday on Instagram I answer all your food and wine pairing questions for your weekend. I’m happy to help you choose a style or grape before you even go to the store.
What other questions do you have?
Leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you choose the perfect wine.
Thank you for answering all my questions! Since I don’t drink wine, now I’ll know what to look for when buying for post-covid dinner party or as a gift. If it’s someone I don’t like that much I’ll just get something that lists Southern Hemisphere as the region.
You need to be asking yourself why you’re going to a dinner party of someone you don’t like, lol. Get them a bottle with a cute bunny. It’ll have the same effect.
Thank you for explaining that you should understand wine prices when shopping for wine so you know why certain wines cost more than others. We’ve been wanting to branch out more with our wine choices lately and have been wondering if we should choose some of the more expensive ones at our store. We’ll be sure to keep this in mind when we choose our next bottle.
Absolutely spot on! Understanding the wine label itself tells you whether to pick it or not.
Thanks for the reminder that I should also look for a trustworthy importer when planning to buy wine. I plan to start collecting liquor because I like being able to have different choices when having accompaniments for the meals that I cook. I think that adds a more complex layer to cooking.