re: Tips and Where to Start Learning More About Wine?

The recommendations from other about books & podcast are good to get a background on all the varieties of wine, but the best way to learn is to taste. Look for wine shops that have tasting (as with everything this year, that's probably difficult).

Martin's has focused tasting that cost $20-40 each, but those are usually by country, region or variety. They used to have free tastings every Friday evening where they would open 4-6 bottles and have a couple cheeses. Don't think they are doing them now, but I get emails for the paid tastings each month.

If things get back to normal, the big wine and food tastings are good, but they can be overwhelming when you have 150-200 wine to pick from, plus food from 40-60 restaurants. When Martin's used to have the "Once Upon a Vine" tasting, those were a good event. One year there, I remember a table where you got to taste about 10-12 bottles of Latour Chardonnay that started at ~$9 a bottle and worked their way up to $120+ a bottle. It gave you insight into how quality changed as the price went up, after a certain point they were all good. That point varies by the palate of the person doing the tasting.

OP, where are you located?
If you are near Martin’s Wine, their intro class (as previously suggested) is great.

If you try to learn it all at once, you’ll be overwhelmed.

Before I cared, I drank all wines and didn’t know what I liked. They were all red to me, and all did the job. I couldn’t tell the difference between a Cab and a Pinot, between a Bordeaux and a Burgundy, between Old World and New.

Then When I decided to learn a little bit, I realized that By drinking the same wine a lot... in a row, I began to recognize what a Cabernet tastes like.
After drinking Only Cabernets for a few months, The next time I tried a Pinot Noir, it tasted so different from a Cab that I suddenly recognized Why a Pinot Noir is so different.

By all means, try everything, but by learning one type of wine at first, it made it a lot easier for me to learn and recognize other varietals and regions.
It gave me a baseline.

What happened to THO? This is his kind of thread. Did he get banned along with all the other prolific posters?

The Wine Bible is an excellent book if you are a big reader.

Just to give an example of how I got started:

1. Find a good local wine store and make friends with the manager or sommelier. I did this at Cuban liquor in Shreveport.

2. Find a restaurant with a large selection and knowledgeable owner/sommelier and get them to set you up with a round the world tasting for several courses (organize a group of 6+ so you can taste 5+ wines without breaking the bank account). I did this at Lucky Palace in Bossier.

3. Taste a lot of wines from varying countries and age to see what you like. This can be done at a reasonable price with the exception of maybe French Burgundies and high Bordeaux’s, and Cali cabs.

4. Read some good books ( see wine bible)