A Relaxed Approach to Wine

When your waiter hands you the wine list, do you feel as if you’ve just been given a test that you’re about to flunk?  Do you scan the page desperately hoping to spot a name that you recognize? And in the end, do you feel that you make your selection more for appearances’ sake than for what is in the bottle?

Limit Your Choices
Fortunately, it doesn’t take a great deal of knowledge—or money—to convert a test you’re bound to fail into a game that’s both absorbing and fun to play. For the beginner, the best approach is to specialize. Thanks to modern horticulture, grapes have been adapted to most temperate climates, and wine is now made in every country in the world, producing the mind-numbing array of choices that proceed down the page of your wine list. Mixing botanical metaphors, a good strategy for the neophyte wine enthusiast is to ignore the forest and focus on the trees!

• Adopt a region. There are many regions in the world that produce inexpensive wines that often make their way onto a wine list. These include French wines from the Loire Valley, South African wines from Paarl or Stellenbosch, Spanish wines from La Mancha and Navarra, and Chilean wines from the Maipó Valley. Focus on these regions—or others like them—and you’ll soon have a set of familiar red and white wines to choose from. 
  
  
• Adopt a varietal, as different types of grapes are called.  For instance, one type of white wine is produced from the sauvignon blanc grape in New Zealand, California, and France—and you’ll be amazed how different the wine produced from it tastes, thanks to the techniques followed by winemakers in these different parts of the world. Other interesting varietals to follow are red wines made from cabernet franc or malbec and white wines from viognier or cortese.

Be Adventurous
When trying a new bottle, let your senses be your guide. Hold the glass of wine up to the light. Take a gentle sniff. And drink slowly, trying to identify the various flavors you taste.

At the same time, don’t let your concentration on a particular region or grape limit your choices. If you see a wine from an area that seems off the beaten path or a grape you’ve never heard of before, give it a try. It’s one way to discover new wine to explore. 

Make It a Group Activity
One of the nicest things about wines is that people like to discuss them. That’s why a wine-tasting group makes a nice social occasion.

Start small and just invite a few friends to bring a bottle of a specific type of wine with them in the evening. If you like, you can taste your wines blind by placing each bottle in a paper bag. You can serve some appetizers with the wine—or you can make the wine tasting the centerpiece of a full-scale dinner. It’s your choice. 

You can also turn your wine tasting into an outing by visiting wineries in your area. It’s fun to chat with people who are enthusiastic about the wine they produce and to learn more about the methods they use. If you visit wineries early in the day when they are less busy, you’re more likely to have the staff’s undivided attention and get more out of your visit. At the same time, don’t feel obligated to taste every type of wine they produce or to buy a bottle if you haven’t found any that impressed you.  

And one last tip. Be sure to have a designated driver. All those little sips can add up!