Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Videos
    • Budget recipes
    • South African recipes
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Beef recipes
    • Fish and Tips
    • Braai recipes
    • Pork recipes
    • Air fryer recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • Cocktails
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
  • Features
    • Food news
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Food24 Taste Tests
    • Kitchen Design and Appliances
    • Drinks
      • Wine
      • Beer
      • Coffee
    • Conscious Cooking
    • In Season
      • Spring
  • Cooking guides
    • Pantry staples
    • Load shedding lifesavers
    • Baking tips and tricks
  • World Cup Weekend Guide
  • More
    • Win
    • Newsletters
No Result
View All Result
Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Videos
    • Budget recipes
    • South African recipes
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Beef recipes
    • Fish and Tips
    • Braai recipes
    • Pork recipes
    • Air fryer recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • Cocktails
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
  • Features
    • Food news
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Food24 Taste Tests
    • Kitchen Design and Appliances
    • Drinks
      • Wine
      • Beer
      • Coffee
    • Conscious Cooking
    • In Season
      • Spring
  • Cooking guides
    • Pantry staples
    • Load shedding lifesavers
    • Baking tips and tricks
  • World Cup Weekend Guide
  • More
    • Win
    • Newsletters
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
161
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

coffee beans
Drinks

Changing the lives of Cape Town’s homeless one coffee bean at a time

September 29, 2023
air-fryer-loaded-fries
Recipe Round-Ups

Kick off the party with these 10 snacks

September 28, 2023
10-grocery-finds
Featured

10 new products we’ve discovered while grocery shopping

September 27, 2023
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

10-grocery-finds

10 new products we’ve discovered while grocery shopping

September 27, 2023
Peppermint-crisp-cheesecake

We asked, you answered: What is SA’s favourite dessert?

September 20, 2023
best-south-african-chutney-brands

Fruit chutney showdown: 8 store-bought picks put to the test

September 8, 2023
fondue charcuterie

5 ideas for the perfect winter-friendly charcuterie board

August 14, 2023
roasted-potato-and-tomato-soup

Food24 shares our memories from the ‘soup-er women’ in our lives

August 9, 2023

Recent favourites

  • layered cake

    Woolworths launches new cake slice range – and Checkers responds in the best way!

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Peppermint Crisp pudding: Homemade vs store-bought

    28 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 10 new products we’ve discovered while grocery shopping

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • We asked, you answered: What is SA’s favourite dessert?

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Taste Test round-up: South African Heritage Day edition

    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
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Videos
    • Budget recipes
    • South African recipes
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Beef recipes
    • Fish and Tips
    • Braai recipes
    • Pork recipes
    • Air fryer recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • Cocktails
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
  • Features
    • Food news
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Food24 Taste Tests
    • Kitchen Design and Appliances
    • Drinks
      • Wine
      • Beer
      • Coffee
    • Conscious Cooking
    • In Season
      • Spring
  • Cooking guides
    • Pantry staples
    • Load shedding lifesavers
    • Baking tips and tricks
  • World Cup Weekend Guide
  • More
    • Win
    • Newsletters

© 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