Tips and Where to Start Learning More About Wine?

How drunk are you right now?

What’s to know?

Pop cork.

Pour in glass.

Pour into mouth

Step 2 is optional.

wineos are so easy to trigger

Find a small, local wine store and start to frequent it. Tell the owner what you like in terms of taste. Those guys/ladies tend to have a font of knowledge that they will share with you. Also, pick up an issue of Wine Spectator. Easy read and good place to get indoctrinated.

If your end goal is to just be able to pick a good bottle to pair with a meal, or to find a good everyday drinker, find a good sommelier.

There are thousands of different brands, hundreds of varieties.

If you're in Lafayette, check out MySomm. Or go to phillipes and talk to Phillipe.

Let the experts guide you. I know guys who are HUGE wine guys. Like, go to vineyards all the time, spend thousands of dollars a pop. Even those guys use a sommelier to make choices.

Unless you want to become an expert, rely on an expert.

ETA: My point was, yes, read the books. But you can learn a lot more by developing a relationship with a som.

It’s like anything else. Just dive in and get dirty. I found joining a local wine club to be highly useful. There are some great documentaries on Netflix and YouTube that can help you appreciate and know more about wine history and wine production. Of course, there are lots of books.

And I know that this will get some smirks, but spend $100 or so on some equipment and start *making* wine using kits.

You’ll learn more in a year of your spare time than 90% of the population will ever know.

And if nothing else, remember the golden rule. If it tastes good, drink it. Forget the bs noise from people trying to impress you with how much more they know.

And no two bottles are the same.

Literally.

Ever.

Wine For Normal People podcast

Rouses has a section of 90+ point rated wines under $10 a bottle. I'd start there and see what you like/what kind of flavors you pick up.

There have also been several good threads for low price point recs here, and several of those wines have been very good as well.

Aside from finding a good local wine store or a knowledgeable friend...

I basically got involved in some wine sites/groups that were way over my head - like WineBerserkers or similar, and then diligently went and looked up everything I didn't understand. It takes a while but I think going about it like that is very effective.

I certainly endorse reading Wine Folly or World Atlas of Wine. Madeline Puckette's youtubes are very solid (WineFolly). But I found that getting practically stumped (not understanding a post or comment on a message board/article) and being forced to go down the rabbit hole of figuring it out is better for my knowledge retention. It also by nature helps you to understand how things work in a practical context.

The only caveat is that it'll tailor your preferences to wherever you start. So if you start with a high end wine board/club and learn from that, you'll skip the part where you're in love with consumer/mass market wines. Which is fine if you want to end up a wine snob and looking down on Caymus well before you'd ever reach that point naturally.

CellarTracker is a great resource to track what you like/don't like and there is a ton of compiled knowledge there. It's far better than looking at consumer reviews on websites.

SommTV, which I don't think I have anymore, was pretty cool. Unless you're really into it you may find it boring, but watching them do blind tastings will entertain you and inform you.

There was an incredible podcast back when they first became a thing (2005-2007) called "Wine for Newbies" that is sadly no longer available. The creator went through all the different varieties. Explained what made them unique, where some of the best varieties were made, what to look for when your drinking them, what they paired well with, etc. I wish I could go back and listen to them all over again to refresh myself.

I'm sure you could go over to reddit.com/r/wine and learn a lot.

What do you know! Archive.org has archived all the old Wine for Newbies shows.

Wine for Newbies archive

I found a book by Jancis Robinson, How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine, extremely useful. It is very easy to follow along as a “beginner” who wants to learn more. She also wrote The World Atlas of Wine.