Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
No Result
View All Result

A lesson in buying wine: what you should know

Food24 by Food24
January 26, 2016
in Food News
0
A lesson in buying wine: what you should know
0
SHARES
54
VIEWS
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsapp

Okay – so you’ve got your friends, your budget, your glasses and your spittoons sorted – now what? Well, some wine would be good for starters – how do you go about that then?

Let’s buy some wine

First and foremost – take advice. It is easy to go to the supermarkets and just pick up wines according to pretty labels or bargain prices but you’re trying to learn here so a little direction is advisable.

My top tip is to find an independent retailer – I’d recommend Wine Concepts, Caroline’s or Vino Pronto in Cape Town, Wine Menu or Norman Goodfellows in Johannesburg and Meander Fine Wines or Buxtons La Cave in Durban but I’m sure there are plenty of others run by passionate wine-loving folk around the country – and register with them as if you were a book club.

Yes – that’s right – register your wine tasting club with a retailer, see if you can negotiate a discount (never hurts to ask) and then let them guide you as to your wine choices (I know that Wine Concepts do this and suspect most of the others will if you ask them).

The people who run these stores spend their days learning what’s new, what’s interesting, what’s good, what’s bad, what’s quirky. They taste wine all the time, all over the place – by listening to them, you get a crash course in interesting wines without worrying about buying them all yourselves. And independent businesses should be supported as well – it’s often the only way smaller wine producers can get themselves in front of the buying public.

Decide on a theme

With the help of your (now) pet retailer, decide on a theme for the tasting. If you are all absolute newbies to wine, then perhaps start on softer, sweeter styles of white and fruity, less tannic reds. If you’re all fairly seasoned drinkers, perhaps start on a cultivar – either one you all like or alternatively, one you’ve never heard of.

Within your theme, try and choose different regions, different price points and if you can, different styles (wooded, unwooded, left on lees, MLF permitted) so when you actually taste the wines, there may be one or two you don’t enjoy all that much. Don’t worry – someone else probably will and anyway, everything gets drunk at the end of the night!

Wine online

If you really don’t have access to a good retailer, try online clubs such as Wade Bales Wine Society or Cyber Cellar. And if that’s too tricky then just do the best you can at the big retailers. As Mae West (almost) said “When faced with a choice between two wine labels, I always choose the one I’ve never tried before.”

Be brave and take a chance!

Next time I’ll be talking about tasting white wines.

Follow Cathy Marston on Twitter @CathyMarston.



Related Posts

teas for digestion
Drinks

5 teas that are great for digestion

May 20, 2022
We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them
Cooking Guides and Tips

We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them

May 19, 2022
rusks
Featured

We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

May 18, 2022
Next Post
How to organise a wine tasting with white wines

How to organise a wine tasting with white wines

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Food24 Team Loves

mielie rice

Whatever happened to mielie rice?

March 18, 2022
Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

March 17, 2022
banana-peel-uses

3 fruit peels you’ll love for their waste-reducing appeal

March 10, 2022
sushi

Eat Out has announced its panel of judges for the first time ever

March 7, 2022
8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

March 1, 2022

Recent favourites

  • rusks

    We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • This is officially the best beer in Africa

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 horrifying cooking mistakes to avoid in the kitchen

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 mistakes you may be making when buying olive oil

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • WATCH: Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen shares his go-to braai salad

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get weekly access to our best recipes, tips and tricks

Sign Up
Footer

Quick links

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Win

Collections

  • New Recipes
  • Festive
  • Baking
  • Dessert Recipes
  • Braai Recipes
  • Lunchbox
  • South African Recipes
  • Pasta Recipes

Other links

  • Advertise with Food24
  • Editorial Policy
  • How to Pitch
  • Contact us

Not in the mood to cook?

Visit eatout.co.za to find the perfect restaurant near you.

eatout.co.za

© 2020 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

  • About us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • New Media
IAB
No Result
View All Result
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win

© 2019 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms below to register

Subscribe to Newsletter

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Close
Food24
Recipe Disclaimer

All recipe content is the responsibility of the party from whom such content originated. You agree that you use the content on Food24 at your own risk. Please read our editorial policy.
Close
Food24
Get the latest recipes delivered to your inbox weekly
Promotional Newsletter

Be the first to receive information about competitions and special offers from Food24 and it's partners.

You have successfully been subscribed!
Something went wrong. Please try again.
Make sure you have completed all required fields.
I don't want to see this again