Whether it is a romantic night out, or a solemn gathering, a business meet or a celebratory occasion, wine plays a very important part in aiding our social interactions. One may even call this ‘friendship juice’, because the number of people who have bonded over drinks at social situations cannot possibly be counted. When you go to any such place, especially a restaurant, a sommelier can help you in choosing the right wine for yourself. However, in case you want to give your own selection skills a chance, here are a few points to keep in mind.
- Do not always go by conventional thoughts such as the age of the wine or its price.
A lot of people tend to always fuss over how old and how expensive the wine is, taking these as the standard for determining its quality. While it is true that older blends are mostly pricey and are better to taste, all older blends are certainly not suited to everyone’s tastes. Nor can price determine the quality of a wine. An expensive bottle of wine does not mean that it is an extremely good tasting one. As for aging, it is supposed to mainly factor in for red wines, but this does not mean that all red wines should be aged indefinitely. In fact, aging depends on a number of factors and some reds should not be aged at all.
- If you are an amateur, try a white or rose.
Wine is an acquired taste. At first, you may not enjoy the slight bitterness that comes with red wine, therefore, if you want to begin your journey, you should ideally start with the sweeter ones like white wine and rose. Once you get used to these tastes, you can move on to red wines and you will find that you appreciate the taste more than when you first tasted it.
- Consider the occasion you are going to host.
If you are choosing a wine for a particular occasion, it cannot be done erratically. If you want to pair something up for a nice dinner, you should typically choose white wine with lighter meals and red wine with heavier meals. If it is a public gathering, you should bring both red and white so that people can choose as per their preference. If you are planning to make cocktails or mixing them, try choosing a less expensive bottle and take some advice from a bartender.
- Second label wines can be great too.
People mostly tend to look for first label wines since these are made with the finest vineyard produce. However, these are usually available in very limited quantity and thus can be very expensive. Second label wines are honestly not that much far behind these but there is a much lesser demand for them, hence their price is also lower. If you want a rich blend with some semblance to the better quality ones, second label wines should be a great choice.
