Learning About Wine - Where Do I Start?

Are you tired of feeling empty-handed or empty-headed when the waiter brings you a wine list? Wouldn't it be nice to scan down the list and identify not just the wines that would let the waiter (and your dining companion) know that you can't be fooled with, but which might result in a really enjoyable meal or evening?

Snobbishness aside, there's not much to learning enough to make intelligent choices and enjoy yourself at the same time. You will find that the surprises in a bottle of "grape juice" can often far exceed expectations, and can lead to revelations that can add dimensions of pleasure and satisfaction to an evening that would otherwise have been only O.K.

First, decide what you like. Fruit? Sweetness? Gobs of grape, currant and other flavors that develop in the glass before you eyes and nose? The scents and tastes of subtle characteristics can amaze you. A single varietal can yield chocolate, mint, cedar, flint, melon, and limitless variations depending on the vineyard, the winemaker and the conditions under which the grapes matured.

Did you know that there are wines that begin as one thing and evolve in minutes into something else entirely? The same grape that yield dark purple fruit on the palate can taste like nuts, or roses as well.

First thing first.

The easiest way to start is to think about color.

Whites tend to be light and "short" on after-taste and flavor, although some of the fullest-bodied and most expensive wines in the world are made from white varietals. That doesn't mean they're bad; it's just that the experience with most whites tends to be more fleeting and instantaneous than reds, which can take time to develop.

Reds can be "full forward," with gobs of fruit that jump out at you from the glass, or more subdued, thatsit and "evolve" as they sit in the glass, an open bottle, or decanter.

There are amazing examples of ewach, and oddballs that don't fit any ordinary description. That is the intriguing quality that brings wine drinkers back to try new revelations, or to find old friends, that manjes wine the oldest and most satisfying of all foods.

Now, for the nitty-gritty: