Choosing wine when there are such a multitude of bottles to pick from is no easy task. So, how do you go about making the right choice? The first step, as in all purchases, is to know what you like. Being offered the finest Cabernet Sauvignon is of little benefit if your preference is Zinfandel. Therefore, you need to try out the various different wine types (Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Nebbiolos, etc.) to see which are best suited to you. Take every opportunity to experiment, dinner parties and evenings out at local restaurants being ideal. Or, how about a wine tasting party? Invite your friends to your home and ask each to bring a different variety of wine.

Once you've found out which wine variety you prefer, you'll need to delve deeper to know which bottles of it are good and which are just tolerable. Go into your local wine shop, and walk around the section dedicated to the type of wine you decided upon. Look for the blurbs on the wine racks and read through them. Discard the 'winery notes' supplied by the winemaker (these tend to be marketing material) and instead focus on the handwritten notes provided by the owner (who will be honest as their reputation depends on it).

Ask an employee of the store to assist you if there's one available. Tell them the type of wine you're looking for and anything else that is relevant. Give them details of the tastes and flavors that you like or dislike. The more you tell them the better their wine recommendations for you will be. They may even offer tastings to let you sample various wines to determine what your favorite is.

Any recommendations that you don't buy, or any other wines that take your interest but you don't end up buying on the day, note down the details from their labels. Doing so lets you try them out at a restaurant or conduct further research on them on the internet.

Lastly, keep in mind that no wine is universally popular with everyone. It has everything to do with what pleases you. No wine reviewer or shop owner is going to have your exact taste in wine. There's no guarantee that you'll like a particular wine even if everyone else seems to love it. Similarly, you may likes wines that no-one else seems to like.

Want to know more? Click here to continue reading our wine guide: Wine 101

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