Truly Great Wines

For many people, it seems that buying wine can be an intimidating experience.  What with all the varieties, years, price ranges and personal preferences it can be tricky to know where to start.  I’ve always believed, that if you want to fine out what wines are best, you need to start trying them.  It’s definitely a lot more fun to find great wines by trying them out, then sitting around reading wine reviews   If you already know what you like though, then wine daily deals is a great site to check out.  They do some of the legwork for you in terms of looking for a good variety of great wines at reasonable prices.

Another way to gain a bit of expertise that is sort of fun, is to go on a tour of wine vineyards.  It’s fun, if you can make it part of a planned holiday, or even if you just take a weekend on your own and visit some wineries in your region.  Even where I live, which is a somewhat northern and cold climate there are some great wineries not to far.  Up around the Niagara region, there is a relatively young, but critically acclaimed wine region.  This area is actually quite well know for ice wines, which is a wine that has become quite popular over the last ten or fifteen years.   They can be a bit sweet, but taken in small doses are quite nice.

For the novice wine buyer, the sheer number of different types of wine can be a little intimidating.  There are reisling, pinot noir, gewurztraminer, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, zinfandel, shiraz, merlot,  cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir,  sangiovese, champagne, and sherry to get you started.    That’s quite a list to consider, if your not a wine connoisseur, and even if you are, that’s still a lot of different types of wine to stay abreast of.  The nice thing about the vast variety of wines, is there’s bound to be at least one that appeals to your palette.  And, you can have a lot of fun finding out which ones are your favorite.  Wine is one of those niches, where you can start small, find what you like, and expand from there.

If your considering starting a wine cellar, then perhaps trying a few different reislings would be a good start.  You can start with the less expensive bottles, to get a feel for the wine, and then progress to the more adventurous ones later.  When I first started buying wines, I’d always get the ones with the eye catching labels.  Not necessarily the best way to choose, but it gave me an interesting sampling of wines from different regions to train my taste buds with.

One area, I’ve yet to tread into yet is the different fortified wines like sherry and port.  Both of these are fortified by the addition of brandy during or after their fermentation process.  For sherry, the brandy is added after the fermentation process, and for port, it is added during.  It’s generally been marketed to a older audience, but as of late manufacturers have been reaching the younger crowd, which enjoys some sherry with some of their trendier foods.