How to choose a good wine in a wine shop is definitely a frequently asked question. It’s not surprising. After all, a decent wine shop will have a couple hundred or more bottles to choose from. As a new wine enthusiast, how can you possibly know which ones are worthy of your hard-earned dollars?
Some would say just pick a bottle of whatever you’re looking for (Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, etc.) that fits your price range. There is merit to this strategy. Learning about wine means experiencing different wines to see which particular characteristics of, say, a Pinot Noir that you enjoy.
But in today’s tighter economic times, we are all watching our wine budgets a little more closely. It’s easier to contemplate blowing $20 on a disappointing bottle when cash is flowing freely. Today, we’d like to think we’re putting our $20 toward a better bottle of something.
Another option, naturally, is to ask the staff in the shop for recommendations. As I’ve often said before, any wine shop employee worth his or her salt is going to know which bottles are worth purchasing.
If you’d rather not ask for help (a big no-no in my book–never be afraid to ask for help!), there is another strategy: look for wines imported by a reliable importer.
Huh?
OK, quick background information. Wines from outside your home country are imported by businesses. They go to the foreign countries, sample the wines, decide what they want to carry and offer to their customers, and they make it happen. Here in the US, we have a number of reliable wine importers. The presence of their label on the back of a bottle of wine (or sometimes small print on the front, like with Kobrand) is a sign you should seriously consider the bottle.
So who are these importers? As I said, there are a bunch of them. Some of the better ones have good information on their web site. I particularly like Kobrand because of its great library of labels and excellent wine maps.
Another great one is Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. Kermit is a legend in the wine world, and he picks winners consistently. He even has a monthly newsletter you can receive for free. One cool thing about KLWM is that you can purchase wines directly from his retail operation.
Pignatiello Wine Importer (P. Comms Int’l) is a great source for solid Burgundy wines. It also features one of the best (as in best ever) learning resources on Burgundy.
There are scores of other great importers in the US. The managers of your local wine shop can probably tell you which ones they favor. You can also look for suggestions from wine forums, or even here! (That’s a hint to readers to leave a comment with good experiences they’ve had with importers.)
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