I am often asked by people just getting into wine about my wine experiences. I have learned a lot about wine through my mistakes so, in this column, I would like to provide some tips to beginner wine drinkers:
- Get some wine knowledge: drinking wines casually is fun but if you really want to go deeper into your wine experience, try to take some courses on wines. In particular, try to take some courses which teach you how to taste wines in a systematic manner and provide you with basic knowledge about grape varietals and wine regions. The Wine & Spirits Educational Trust (WSET) will normally offer courses in many cities and their course materials are used worldwide. I think you will find having a little extra knowledge will really enhance your wine experience.
- Buy wine for immediate consumption: I find too many beginners stock up on wines for the future when it is so important for a beginner to taste different wines to see what wines you like. If you buy too many wines that are for the future, unless you have an unlimited budget and unlimited storage space, you are going to limit what wines you can drink immediately. So as a beginner, I suggest that you only buy wines that you will consume in the next 6 months. Once you have some wine knowledge and a better idea of what type of wines you like to drink, you can then start to splurge on more expensive wines, which generally need more time to age before they are ready to drink.
- Write Things Down: whenever you taste wine or go to a wine dinner or wine tour, write down some notes. I often forget how much I enjoy a wine or the exact tasting note of a particular wine. Writing down some notes each time you taste a wine, it builds a library of personalized wine knowledge that you can use and refer back to for years.
- Drink what you like and then focus on it: as a consumer, there is no need to have a breadth of wine knowledge as compared to a wine sommelier. So I suggest that beginners discover what wines they like and then focus on that area. For example, if you tend to like Australian Shiraz, perhaps spend the next 3 or 6 months just looking for Australian Shiraz. By focusing on a certain type or region of wine, you will get to know that type of wine or region much better than just drinking wines randomly. After you have finished focusing on that type of wine, then move on to another region or grape varietal that interests you.
I hope these tips have been helpful. For more wine beginner tips, see this video. Until next time, happy drinking!
Tony Kwan is the Richmond News' new columnist. Lawyer by day, food and wine lover by night, Kwan is an epicurean who writes about wine, food and enjoying all that life has to offer.
