Tailor-Made Infosession Fridays: The Layman's Guide to Enjoying Wine

Wine is one of those things that most people really don't know a crap about, but are afraid to admit it... Sure, I know you might have finally learned how to pronounce 'Cabernet Sauvignon' and may have also learned the names of other less common types of grapes such as 'Shiraz' or'Sangiovese...' if only just to sound 'cool.' But's lets face it, you really don't know jack about picking good wine!

So, go ahead and do yourself and the rest of us a favor... just learn these simple facts about wine so that you can actually claim to know something. That way, not only will you enjoy your wine more... but you may also score some additional points on that date!

Q. Do I have to shell out some major cash to get a decent bottle of wine?
A. No, not all good wines are pricey... in fact you can get steals by picking the right wines from less popular wineries. Here is a list to get you started. Also remember that once you've found a wine you like, you can save more buy buying it in bulk (by the case or six-pack) when it goes on sale.

Q. What's the best way to pick a good wine at the store without knowing too much....?
A. Well, if you think you can go to the store, and pick the wine that has the biggest price-drop (best sale price) and expect to find a good wine, then you've got another thing coming... in fact, this is just how supermarkets try to get rid of their popular but poor wines.
What you should do is read the label on the back of wine bottles... Just pick up a wine that suits your budget and read the label about how it was made. Here's your guide to the most common one's:

Estate-Bottled or Grown, Produced and Bottled By: This is the best-case. It means that the grapes were grown, crushed, fermented and bottled by the vineyard. Wines from winery's like these are probably your best bet... and definately worth a try if you can find one in your budget.

Produced and Bottled By: This is also good, but not great. Means that the winery crushed and fermented the grapes, but did not grow them. So, this isn't necessarily bad, but then again, you can expect it not to be the best as any vineyard would keep the best grapes for its own personal winery and sell the others off.

Vinted and Bottled By: Buyer-beware. Sure you'll see a lot of these in your budget, cheapo, but this means that the winery simply bought the wine, cellared and/or mixed it, and then bottled it. Sheeyat, I can do that! I've never had a good experience with this kind of wine!

Q. Does wine need to be served chilled or at room-temp?
A. White wine is not supposed to be served chilled, and red wine is not supposed to be sereved at room temperature. White wines that are too warm will taste alcoholic, while those that are too cold will be refreshing but nearly tasteless. As for reds, if they're too warm they will taste alcoholic and even vinegary, while those that are too cold will have much less flavor.
In fact, white wine tastes best when it is slightly warmer than being chilled (55F) and red wines taste better when its slightly cooler than room temperature (65F).
Here is a good rule by Ursula Hermacinski to abide by: “Twenty minutes before dinner, you take the white wine out of the fridge, and put the red wine in.”

Anyhow... these few facts should hopefully tell you something about wine that you didn't know before. If you'd like to know more, check out sites like wine.com and others... where you can buy wine in bulk!

Have a good weekend... see you all next week :)

By the way, my recommendation for the best wine under $20 is by Frei Brothers. Check them out!
Also, if you're looking for a good deal on wine, check out Woot!