Duncan’s Subjective, Opinionated, Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Wine

So, a few days ago, blaireau_bougon asked a simple question with a complicated answer:
Exactly how do you train a palate on wine? I’ve had various wines in the past, and I’ve never figured out what was “good” and what wasn’t…

I’ll preface this by saying I’m not an expert on wine, and likely never will be. But over the years I have learned how to appreciate it, so I reckon that counts for something. First off, the simple answer to the question of what is “good” and what isn’t: if you like it, it’s good. Really, that’s all that matters 🙂 That’s true if it’s a box of Franzia’s Chillable Red or a bottle of 1984 Cote du Rhone. Now, if you want to explore, to find out what you like, well, that takes us down a whole other path entirely…


The wine industry has done a remarkable job in creating a mystique about itself. You start with grapes, you crush the grapes, then a miracle occurs…and you have wine! Well, not so much. Just like any commercial food product, there’s a whole lot of science and, granted, not a little craft that goes into making a bottle of wine. But just as one doesn’t need to have a refined palate and copious knowledge to appreciate, say, a good bar of chocolate or a tasty tomato sauce, neither are such things required to have a basic appreciation for wine. So leave your preconceptions and trepidations at the door – they’re certainly not necessary.

Start out with something simple: Red or white? Which of these wines really suits your palate (and “both” is always an acceptable answer, but we’ll focus on one or the other for now). Now think about wines that you’ve had in the past and what you liked or disliked about them. Sweet or dry? Tannic? Fruity? Full-bodied (i.e. the flavor hangs around a while instead of quickly dissipating)? With those basic descriptor, you can already pick out a pretty good bottle of wine right there.

I’ll confess, my tastes are pretty basic. I like full-bodied, fruity red wines. Sure, I can appreciate other wines, but those are my favorites. And I discovered early on that there is one wine that I can reliably turn to that almost always has the qualities I’m looking for: Australian Shiraz. How did I figure this out? I bought a couple bottles of Penfolds and Rosemont Estates shirazes from the grocery store for about $7 each.

Now, using the knowledge that you have a wine that you like, you can use that as a jumping-off point to explore. In my shopping, I learned that the shiraz grape is another name for the French syrah grape. So I explored French and Californian Syrahs (not bad, but the Aussies are still more to my taste). I also found a brand that I liked very much: Marquis Phillips. That led me to their excellent Sarah’s Blend (a blend of various grapes, obviously), and an outstanding cabernet.

This brings me to another important point: Wine tastings. If you have a hospitable wine shop near you, chances are they do wine tastings periodically. This is a fantastic (and usually free) way to try various wines and find which you like and which you don’t. More importantly, many wine shop employees and proprietors are knowledgeable about their products and are willing to help guide you to find a wine you like (after all, a satisfied customer means repeat business!). Don’t be afraid to go to them and say (for example), “I’m serving pork with a ginger-apple glaze, what wine do you recommend I serve with that?”

Does wine have to be expensive? Nope! There are many, many excellent wines out there for under $10. Is a $20 wine twice as good as a $10 wine? Quite possibly. How about $50 versus a $20 wine? That’s a bit trickier. As the price goes up, the improvement in the wine becomes incremental and you start paying for cachet, scarcity, and other things unrelated to the wine itself. But again, if it’s worth it to you, that’s really all that matters.

So, after all that, where to start? Well, let’s go back to the basic divisions I mentioned above. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
White wines:
Sweet – German Riesling
Dry – California Chardonnay

Red wines:
Light-bodied – French Beaujolais Nouveau (seasonal, typically around late October, early November)
Full-bodied – French Cotes du Rhone
Fruity – Australian Shiraz, Washington (state) Pinot Noir
Dry – California Cabernet Sauvignon

Of course, there’s still plenty of other wines to explore besides these. And there’s dessert wines, rose’s, sparkling wines, and so much more. Explore! You never know what you might find.

So, who else has some suggestions for burgeoning oenophiles? Feel free to leave a comment!

9 thoughts on “Duncan’s Subjective, Opinionated, Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Wine

  1. skorzy

    Well said!

    I’m continually surprised at how tasty the “inexpensive” Trader Joe wines are. Excellent table wine. I’ve likewise had “expensive” ($80/bottle!!) wines that left me shrugging.

    Wine snobbery continually amazes me. Mass delusion comes in all kinds of different flavors and the emperor is actually naked!!!

  2. hartree

    I’m such a peasant that I’d rather drink Boones Farm Strawberry Hill or Yago Sangria than even 2 Buck Chuck.

    And then there’s MD 20/20. There’s a point at which even I draw the line of revulsion. 😉

  3. aureth

    Let me just add that Midwestern states are in the process of experiencing a wine renaissance. While you can’t get a cabernet savignon or merlot grape to grow in our harsh climates, there are a number of French-American hybrid grapes that do very well and make excellent wine. I know that both Illinois and Iowa have very aggressively expanding wine industries; there are something like six or seven wineries within a short driving distance of me.

    Personally, for a ten dollar bottle of wine, I’d put my local wineries up against any similarly priced wine out of California. High quality, local products, and I can go poke around in the fermenters and talk to the wine maker when I feel like it. 🙂

    1. woofwoofarf Post author

      I’m still vastly amused that there’s a winery in Grayslake (albeit out of an office park). But I’m definitely all about local wines; there’s a pear wine made by a winery downstate that I buy whenever I see it at Sam’s Wine. It’s a really excellent $7 bottle of wine!

  4. cheetor

    Lucjky me i suppose
    I live in New Zealand, so we get cheap NZ and auzzie wines over here 😀

    personaly, thres nothing quite like a dish of medium-rare venison (shot by me ofcourse) witha a nice Wolf Blass Barossa Shiraz (ozzie wine)

    Damm
    now i’m hungry!

  5. danruk

    *steps up to the local winery expert*

    “hello, I’ma bout to go dine on a double quarter cheeseburger combo from McDonalds….

    Can you recommend a good wine to go with that?”

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