Where to Start to Buy Wine

For beginning wine lovers, I usually recommend wines sweet, cold, light and cheap. That is, sweeter wines--whether actual dessert wines or wines that just have sweet-tasting, ripe fruit flavors are easier on the beginners palate than drier wines. Cold is you friend, as chilling a wine well will tone down its alcoholic prowness. Light bodied wines are easier to swallow than heavy, tannis monsters. Most of all, starting with affordable wines is a good way to experiment and find out what types of wine you like.

As you begin your wine adventure, I suggest you find a retailer you like and start to develop a relationship with the staff, so you can tell them, " I liked this bottle more than that bottle ".
Begin a journal of your wine drinking experience. Don't worry about the wine lingo, just write down the information on the lable (the name of the wine, what grape it's made from and where it's from) and maybe a quick note about it, even if it's just Didn't Like it ! Jot down what you ate for dinner with a particular wine. After a while, you can look back at your experiences and say, I really like Zinfandels or I really enjoy Merlots.

In Vino Veritas
David