How to go on a journey of wine discovery - Part 1

How to Go on a Journey of Wine Discovery - Part 1

It's very possible that you've been favouring and drinking the same wine for years. However, this means you're missing out on a wealth of delicious wines that are just waiting to be discovered.

How Much to Spend on a Bottle

You really don't need to spend a lot of money to start discovering wine, but it's worth understanding how wine is priced in order to work out where your money is going.

For every bottle of wine, there are margins to cover, and at least £3 of its cost can be attributed to the duty and tax – so if you spend £5 on a bottle, you're probably only getting around 50p's worth of wine.

As the cost of duty and tax is fixed, the good news is that you only need to spend a few pounds more to get a better quality wine for your money.

I would say to find the sweet spot between good value and good quality, you're looking to spend £7 and £15.

The Language of Wine

Often, the way wine is described can be pretty confusing and opaque if you don't know the technical terms. Later on in this course, we'll be covering a few of the essential terms to help you get started on your wine journey.

It's One of Life's Little Luxuries

Always remember, wine is there to be enjoyed. While it can feel intimidating at first, the whole process of learning about wine should be fun, and once you start to gather little bits of knowledge, you'll be surprised at how quickly your confidence will build.

Why Take Notes on Wine?

In order to discover new wines, you'll need to taste them and remember what you liked and why. For this reason, I strongly encourage you to develop your own system of recording your thoughts and opinions so that you can begin to work out which grapes or regions most appeal to your taste buds.

Take a photograph on your phone of the wine label, or perhaps you might like to write a few notes and descriptions. You don't need to capture every single detail, but asking yourself a couple of the questions below will help to get you started.

• What does the taste remind you of?
• Does it stir any memories?
• What are the grape varieties?
• Where has it been made?
• Who produced the wine?

What Influences the Flavour of Wine?

Despite all wine being made from the humble grape, the variety and choice are seemingly endless, and this is down to a few variables.

What Grape Variety is the Wine Made From?

Just like with most fruits, there are many different types of grapes. Examples that may be familiar to you are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Where is the Wine Made?

The place where the grapes are grown and the wine is produced has a huge effect on the taste. Climate is probably the most influential factor, with cooler temperatures typically yielding wines with a crisper taste, while warmer areas create deeper flavours.

Who Has Made the Wine, and How?

Each wine producer will have a slightly different way of making wine, and there are many choices to make and techniques to employ along the way that can alter the flavour of a wine.

Wine Tells a Story

One of my favourite things about wine is that it's a great storyteller. Its taste can tell you so much about how it's been made, and where.

As much as it's about the grape on the vine, it's also about the people behind the wine, too, and the work they put into getting the best possible flavour out of that particular grape.

If you can start to unlock these stories, you'll begin to be able to understand more about how a particular wine was intended to be enjoyed. This will gradually lead you to make more informed decisions when it comes to choosing and drinking great wine.

Unlocking the Secrets of Wine

Primarily, I hope this course arms you with the ability to navigate the wall of wine at a supermarket, or an extensive wine list at a restaurant, with both confidence and excitement.

It's all about gathering these little kernels of knowledge and insight, as well as learning about the key things to look out for. Unlocking these secrets will help you make better decisions that are informed by your own tastes and preferences.

Pairing Food with Wine

Once you know just a little bit more about wine, the art of pairing wine with food becomes much more understandable and easier to do. We'll delve deeper into this a little later on, but an initial guiding principle is to match the depth of flavour in your meal with the depth of flavour in your wine.

Your Assignment

We're going to be covering a lot of ground in this course, so I'd encourage you again to think about the most useful way to record your learnings and tasting observations – during this course and beyond!

You could, for example, use a note-making app on your phone, or you might prefer a dedicated notebook. If you're more of a visual person, photographs with shorthand notes in the file name could work well for you.

Take some time working out the best approach, and get this set up to get the very most out of the course.