How to Buy Wine

Most people don't know how to select a good wine. The standard guidance is "white wine with fish and pork; red wine with beef," but that only goes so far*. There are a lot of white wines out there, like savignon blanc, pinot grigio, riesling, and chablis, and lots of red wines, like cabernet sauvignon, malbec, merlot, and shiraz. And on top of that, there are about 697,023,856 different vineyards and vintners and endless decades of vintages.

Do you know the difference between a 1987 Chateau Frankenstein and a 2005 St Grambinus? Between a red, a white, and a rose´? Cork or screw top?

Here's my system for choosing that fine wine for your next party:

You might think this is a little facetious, but it's not so. I was not always the suave, debonair man of the world you've come to love ... I was once an oeneologically challenged fellow like many of you. In those impressionable days, if a bottle of wine was dusty and had a colorful label with pictures of castles, clusters of grapes, and naked ladies, I'd buy it in a New York minute. Fortunately, I eventually met Agnes, who not only purged my wardrobe of bachelor-bought polyester stuff, but tried gamely to instruct me the fine points of picking out wines. 

But when sent out for wine without supervision, I'll still go for the cool label every time.

Have a good day. Drink responsibly. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* And in any case, you should drink what you like, regardless of the color. As long as it doesn't either overpower the meal or get overpowered by it, drink up.