Choosing a good bottle of wine is not always easy. Fortunately, there are some tips and advice to limit the risk of making a mistake. Without guaranteeing that you will come across an exceptional wine each time, observing a few criteria will allow you to always choose a good wine.
Trust the Container
In general, limit your choice to glass bottles. Avoid plastic which generally keeps fairly average vintages. Then take the time to study the label of a bottle, you will find valuable information there to make your choice. Favor bottles that bear the words “bottled on property” or “bottled on the estate” like bordeaux wines from Millesima-usa. This gives you the assurance that the wine has been bottled by the person or the people who manage the vineyard, the harvest and ripening. Similarly, wines with a controlled designation of origin and those that have received a gold or silver medal are generally good choices. The label will also tell you about the food pairings that work well with the wine.
Ask for Recommendations
Nothing beats the advice of a connoisseur to choose a good bottle of fine wine. A merchant will, for example, be very good at giving advice. But the advice of the winemaker himself will be even more valuable. By making a Bordeaux wine tour for instance, you have the opportunity to benefit from the advice of a true wine enthusiast. From maintaining the vines to bottling, they put all their know-how at the service of your pleasure. They are always delighted to share their knowledge with lovers of good wine.
Do not always Trust the Price
Contrary to popular belief, a good wine does not necessarily cost more. You will indeed find very good wines at more than affordable prices and which are sometimes even better than those sold at a higher price. The price of a bottle of wine is indeed subject to many criteria which do not all reflect the quality of the vintage. In supermarkets or at a wine merchant, the price is not always correlated to the quality of the wine. There are two main families of wine: fine wines (to keep and age) and young wines (to drink quickly after purchase). The wines of the second category are generally less expensive than those of the first category, without being less good.