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Demystifying Wine

Demystifying wine and making it easier for readers to discover different styles of wines is the main aim of this blog.

Albert Einstein said that, ‘things should be made as simple as possible but not any simpler’ and it is the case with wine. To learn just enough to be able to decipher the labels, to understand why there are different prices for wines made from the same grape from the same region.

In the world of wine there is still a huge task to communicate better with consumers. It can be very frustrating when asking about a wine only to get an answer and feeling more confused than before.

I was recently shopping for a laptop computer. I just wanted something that is easy to use, fast, good memory has a good battery life and light to carry. Yet when the expert began talking about a particular computer having an “AmD 9, 8GB Ram Memory, 1TB split hard drive”, I was left feeling even more lost… The same thing often happens when many wine professionals start talking about a wine. So here are some suggestion to make it easier to select the best wine for you.

When choosing a wine think where and with who you are going to share the wine. I am often asked ‘what is the best wine’, I reply that it depends because the best wine for a picnic will be different from a wine for a more formal occasion.

How much do you want to spend? Like when buying a computer, always have a budget in mind. Spending more money does not mean that you are going to enjoy the wine more. So you should bear in the previous point when choosing a wine.

In a restaurant some wines are better suited to accompany food than others. For example, an off dry Moscatel from Valencia may be a very nice wine as an aperitif but not the best wine to accompany paella, a Godello from Valdeoarras would be more suitable as a food wine. Try different wines during the meal.

The wine label is there to inform not confuse. So check to see if the wine has been aged in oak, which will indicate that the wine has flavours such as vanilla and toasted oak, coffee or possible leather, from the time the wine has spend in barrels. Because the label says ‘aged in oak’ it does not mean the wine is better.

When ordering a young white or rose do pay attention to the vintage, many of these wines are best consumed within a year, so ask for the latest vintage.

The alcohol level will give a good indication of the style of wine. A wine with 12% alcohol will be lighter in body and than a wine with 14% alcohol. It is not an indication of quality.

By choosing a wine with an occasion in mind followed by a few quick checks of the label, you will have gone a long way to demystifying wine.

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I am a Northern Irishman based in Valencia. My career in wine began more than three decades ago, in London. I am the founder of TheWinePlace.es, an online store, where wine enthusiasts can enjoy a selection of international wines and Verde Marte, a company dedicated to exporting Spanish wines. Also, Thewineplace.courses, an "approved program provider" of the courses of the prestigious WSET. I share my passion for wines through my media work writing weekly columns for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and 5 Barricas, an online wine magazine.

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