Buying wine

Wine buying with confidence

The six rules of getting more out of your wine buying experience.

Are you the sort that goes through life with your feet firmly on the ground, or do you charge chaotically into situations experiencing life to the full whatever the consequences? When faced with buying wine in a supermarket, do you choose the one you've been drinking for years, or do you close your eyes, fling a bag of garlic from your trolley and buy the bottle it hits? If you're in the minority, you've selected something new (and also end up buying a bag of crushed garlic).

If not, you'll be off home with the same bottle of flavours as last week. After all, the safe option is the easiest and you won't be too disappointed. However you'll never have quite the same fun when buying wine as the garlic thrower! Before you try the above method, there are a few other ways of finding new things to thrill the taste buds, without the risk of being thrown out of the supermarket.

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Rule One - Ask.

The first rule is not to be afraid of looking silly when asking an expert! It's a little while since I was mystified buying wine, though every time I go into a computer shop and try to get any sense from the techie behind the counter, I know exactly how it feels to ask for advice from most wine experts. If they are pompous it is only because they are trying to appear to be an expert. I've met no one with a knowledge and love of any subject who is a snob, and genuine people love to give advice. Although in a supermarket asking before buying is a little more difficult, most of the larger ones have someone lurking among the aisles who has taken a wine course, so make an effort to seek them out. They'll be delighted they have something other to do than check on the garlic.

Rule Two - Who dares wins!

If you're in the supermarket and you've failed to find someone to speak to, brave it out yourself! Supermarkets employ some of the country's finest wine buyers and you'll almost never find a bad wine on the shelves. At worst you will end up buying a wine that isn't particularly your thing and at best you will have the makings of a life changing experience - if your life is fairly quiet! Try selecting another example of a grape you like or maybe a different wine from the region you normally prefer. If you're feeling a little more adventurous and want to buy something entirely new, hold the bottle to a light - colour is a good indication of richness. You are unlikely to enjoy something with a pale colour if you like full bodied hearty wines.

Rule Three - Less isn't more!

Buying something slightly better than the very basic will increase the value of the wine in your bottle a lot more than you think. If you buy a supermarket's cheapest own brand or a merchant's house wine, almost three quarters of the price is taken up with the cost for the bottle, label, cork, taxes and transport. If you spend an extra pound above these wines, all of your extra cash is going towards wine quality, potentially doubling the real value of the wine.

Rule Four - Try before you buy!

If you want something new and are thinking of buying a few bottles of the same wine, maybe for a party, unleash your corkscrew and taste a bottle before buying the rest. It's always great to watch the faces of the sales assistants as you brandish a corkscrew in the shop, though you should probably buy the wine first! If in a supermarket, buy it, nip back to the car and have a slurp (take a glass along unless you're happy to drink from the bottle and risk being moved on for vagrancy). If you're in a wine shop, they're likely to have glasses at the back and maybe even a corkscrew. The fancier shops will even have a spittoon, recognisable by the fact that it will have flowers growing out of it, as they are seldom used!

Rule Five - Avoid the safe choices

The safe choices are those that people feel comfortable buying - house wines, wines of the month, familiar names, etc. However, these are the wines that contain the most profit for the venue! The house wines are the first to consider avoiding. 'Well, the name of their house relies on it, so it must be good' is a common saying, though several restaurants I know would be empty if their reputation relied only on their house wine. For example, the profit on a house wine could be up to seventy-five percent of the price you pay, whereas with an unknown wine it will be more like fifty, so even if you have to pay a couple of pounds more, the wine you are buying will be of much better quality. This isn't a way to 'get one over' on the restaurants, as they are always happy when guests take the time to choose a better wine, because they benefit when they have delighted customers.

Rule Six - Any Mongolian wine?

When you see a new country on the store shelves, or on your restaurant's list, take a second look. When I worked as a salesman I'd try and encourage my customers to take on unusual wines, though it was always a battle to get them to list it. The problem wasn't that the wine was bad; they would often think it was great, though they said it wouldn't sell because no one knew it. They were generally right (with hindsight this might have been the reason that I wasn't the top salesman!). New wines never fly from the shelves at first, and have to be sold at a lower profit. So any new wine making it onto a range will likey be better value than the familiar names. Also, new countries are often trying to create a market for themselves and offer better value for money. In the 1980's, when Australian wine first entered the market it was very good, but hard to sell ('not Château Sheep Dip!' customers would cry, after the Monty Python sketch). It then slowly developed a reputation for tremendous value; the wine you were buying was almost half the price of a French wine of the same quality. They are now in such demand that the pricing has long since evened out, and in fact quite a number of premium Australian wines are now more expensive than their French counterparts.

New areas to consider buying from: New countries currently offering excellent value are Chile and Argentina, though in a few years time the difference will be little, as prices are increasing. Spain is the next in line with areas such as Ribera del Duero and Priorato attracting a lot of headlines in the wine press. Also, southern France and the Languedoc region in particular will rarely leave you disappointed or out of pocket. To me, wine's greatest pleasure is in its diversity, and experiencing something new is much more fun than tasting the same thing over and over again, however good the wine you drink is.

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