How do I really get started in wine?

I've only had maybe a dozen bottles of respectable wine in my life. I don't feel like I'm very good at picking out aromas or flavors in wine and I understand that that'll take some practice. But I'd like to start down that road and I'm looking for advice. So, here are some of my questions:

1. When just starting out, should I be concentrating on the quantity or the quality of wine I taste?
2. What are some good wines to make a beginner say "Oh, that's what they mean"? Are there some wines that to me, might not just taste like, well... wine?
3. Read about wine? Taste wine? Both?
4. How many episodes of WLTV do I have to watch before I become an expert automatically?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Richert on April 20, 2009 at 4:52pm: Right now, I'm drinking Spann Vineyards Mo Zin.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lloyd Benedict on April 20, 2009 at 6:06pm: boo yacka sha; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lloyd Benedict on April 20, 2009 at 5:39pm: I think you should find some friends that know a little bit!!! Oh wait you got plenty of those over here at AW! Seriously, I thinking tasting with people who might know more is a great way to start. But if thats not possible, start with the basics, be sure to give the wine a sniffy sniff and do not drink the wine until you can name atleast two aromas. Then always try to name three flavors. With red wines, the obvious and most common suspects in flavors are blackberry, raspberry, cherry. usually wine will have one of those distinguishing berry tastes. more to come later; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Erica Walter on April 20, 2009 at 5:53pm: Steve, do you have a wine wheel thingy? If not, ask Sasha to send you one - it is really helpful for me and I'm not technically a "beginner" - it outlines TONS of aromas and flavors and always helps me when I get stumped.

I used to work at Starbucks, and I was a Coffee Master. When people couldn't identify aromas or flavors, I always encouraged them to associate the wine with something that made sense for them - movies, places, experiences, etc. This might seem really cheesy but it actually helped, because for most beginners coffee is coffee is coffee, and when people felt comfortable talking about it (even just by saying "This coffee is like the movie "The Big Lebowski"") they started to enjoy it more, and then started to drink it more and identify more flavors. A vicious cycle, really.

I look forward to hearing you say "This wine is like the 2nd overtime during March Madness"!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Laurence Davidson on April 21, 2009 at 5:56pm: Here is what I tell everyone that asks me this....

1. Go pick up Karen McNiel's "Wine Bible" and use it as a tasting guide. Pick out a small section... like Tuscany.

2. Friday night cook up some basic Italian foods - pasta with a fresh tomato, garlic, shallots and olive oil dressing, get some bitter greens to sautee with some olive oil and garlic, a loaf of fresh baguette .... and read through the Tuscany section. When you're out shopping, pick up a couple of different bottles of chianti, a chianti classico, maybe a reserva ... have some friends over and start a wine tasting group using this same method once or twice a month (or every week - hell - what do I care? :) )

The only ways to really learn wine are as follows... taste taste taste, read read read and then TRAVEL to those places where the wines really grab you. There is nothing like the lessons you will learn if you hang out in the place where the wine and regional food has grown up together. You will remember those lessons better than anything else you can do. And let's face it - traveling to parts of the world that make wine is a really nice thing to do - you meet great people, eat well, see beautiful scenery (there are really very few places int he world where they produce wine that are visually unappealing) and overall have a great time.

I also agree - a whine wheel (you can grab and image off the web - search for UC Davis wine wheel) is a great tool to understand how the basic nuances, aromas and flavors are derived at.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Marie Oliver on April 21, 2009 at 10:42pm: Oops, typing too fast and lost my first reply, so hope this is not a duplicate!

1. Always feel like "I'm just starting out" after years of imbibing. My philosophy? Quantity and quality...as best you can determine, quality is subjective. Take notes on what you drink. Had my share of bad bottles, so will you. Don't be a price snob. Buy the best you can afford and $10. bottles too. Once your palate expands you'll find what you cannot tolerate. And then that $14.99 bottle suddenly goes on sale for $8.99...suspect, but sometimes you get lucky and it's decent.
2. Take advantage of local wine shop tastings to learn what you like. Get to know the proprietor(s). Attend talks and tastings hosted by winemakers. That will help you get the "aha, I get what they're saying" experience. If you live near wineries, visit them, don't feel intimidated and/or guilty about not leaving with cases and cases. Just buy one bottle to show your appreciation.
3. Don't strive for expertise, just taste and talk about it. You'll surprise yourself one day speaking confidently about a style you love, and someone will say, "You know a lot about wine" and hopefully, you will be humbled, and say, "Thanks, but not really, I just know what i like".; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jessyca Frederick on May 20, 2009 at 11:48am: I read an interesting book called "How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine" by Jancis Robinson that I'd recommend.

Other than that, you just need to taste a lot of wine. I've recently gotten started myself and so I've been concentrating mostly on California wines, and mostly from the Central Coast/Paso Robles area. There are two reasons I chose these regions: 1) proximity to where I live and the excuse to go out wine-tasting as often as possible 2) there are a lot of wineries, but not an overwhelming number, so I'm learning about the region and the terroir and how the growing conditions affect the wines from year to year in a controlled way.; ▶ Reply to This