Tips for learning to drink wine?
 

We'll be traveling to Europe in about a year, and I've never been used to drinking wine with meals(gasp!).

But, I really want to start drinking both white and red wines before we go, so I can really appreciate while I'm there. I don't really care for dry wines, so I don't know if red wine would be more for me.

Anyone want to recommened a certain method/type of wine that I should start out with? What types of food should I eat with it? Any help would be much appreciated!!

There's a thread on the US board called "Good Wine Opinion" that may be helpful. I would also recommend the book "Great Wine Made Simple" by Andrea Immer. It's a great beginner's guide. Have fun!

You are already starting on the right foot! :)

Rules for drinking:
1) Always drink with food

2) Always drink with someone else

In other words, never drink alone and never drink on an empty stomach.

3) Always drink in moderation. Never drink too much.

You'll probably want to start out with a sweeter German wine like a Liebfraumilch or a Gewurztraminer. You might want to try a Portuguese wine, Mateus, for a red wine starter.

Have fun!

Degas started a similar thread last year and got lots of useful tips.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34449997

You may need to copy and paste the whole of the URL if it's split.

Wine may be a culture item. French and Italians use it regularily with meals much as the Czech do with beer. I have seen both at breakfasts. I can imagine that at one time it was safer to drink than water. Wines now on the market in Poland can cost less than some bottled waters.
Sample some wines..many times the next bottle will not taste like the last one. Often very expensive wines are inferior to less expensive ones. Be your own judge. Much of the price of the wine is in its transportation and storage costs. Try local wines.
Make your own...you will soon know more about wine than some critics!
Try the restaurants 'house wines'.

You should go for the more northern wines, like the German ones, to start with. Because climate is less warm, the sugar does not get turned into alcohol at the same rate and the wine stays sweeter. Sweetness is not a product of colour (or vice versa)

Not to sound pretentious (drink what pleases you, for heavens' sakes! It's your life)but wine people tend to prefer drier wines (except possibly with dessert or foie gras), so do keep trying them. As your palate matures, you'll probably like them better yourself. I'm not talking about very dry wines like Entre Deux Mers, but most, odinary bottles.

And teh real answer is, keep trying different things; be adventurous. The worst that can happen is you have to drink a glass of wine that doesn't appeal to you. How bad can that be:)?

You've gotten some very good replies, especially about trying German white wines to start, as they are sweeter. Also, if you want to have a meal without wine, you most certainly can! Soft drinks, coffee, tea and fruit juices are very common! What countries are you going to? For instance, if you're going to Greece, some of their wines are a bit harsher than Germany, France, Switz, or Italy, and you might not like them as you would in another country. Just as Sheila said, if you get a glass you don't like, how bad can it be?

A paperback book called I think, Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage is available in bookstores and on Amazon, etc.. It's written by Dorothy Gaiter and her husband John who are the wine columnists for the New York Times. It's a delightful read about this couple who met, fell in love with each other and with wine. It's very unpretentious and it tells how they first started to drink wine, what they started on and how they progressed, including such wines as Blue Nun Leibfraumilch, and Lancers rose which have already been mentioned above. If you followed their progression, I think you'd have a nice introduction to wine drinking.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but has it ever occurred to anyone on this post that the questioner should determine first of all if he/she is an alcoholic or has alcoholism in his/her family? I speak from experience. Alcoholism is a serious disease that can lead to all sorts of problems, even death. No kidding. Believe me, for an alcoholic, it's easier to "just say no."

Believe me, for an alcoholic, it is easier to just say "yes".

Here are the necessary tips for drinking wine:
1) unscrew the cap
2) put the open end of the bottle to your open lips
3) tilt your head back

2 of our local liquor stores regularly offer wine tastings & tips; perhaps there is something in your area that offers that too? Might want to look through the phone book and make some calls. Also, are you anywhere near a winery? They are an excellent source of information.

Most of your red wines in both Italy and France tend to be catagorized as "dry."

There are some very good dry wines that are "fruity" which I think you would enjoy. Try some of the Beaujolais or Pinot Noirs. ((b))

Anna,
You are in for a fun ride....learning about wine!!!
Good friends wrote ""Wine for Dummies!!!"" (Ed McCarthy & Mary Ewing-Mulligan)
It is a great straight-forward approach to a diverse & interesting topic!!
I still use it for reference!!
Another suggestion....start having mini-tastings at home with friends....lots of fun & a great way to try many wines!!
Bottom line?? Buy & drink what you like!!

Maybe I'm unusual but I don't like things that are sweet. When young and first tasting wine I hated the stuff. Why? Because everyone kept having me try some sweet stuff. When I finally got hold of some chianti and cabernet, I decided I loved red wine. Not everybody will appreciate the sweeter wines.

Anna-I agree with Patrick. Do not start with the sweeter wines next thing you know you'll be drinking (gasp!) whit zin-Yuck!!!! Go for the reds they are good for your health. Try a nice light red such as a pinot noir-this red goes great with fish- salmon (wild only-no farm raised) and tuna and all your meats. Try a nice pinot noir with strawberries you'll be amazed at the sensation. The reds also go nice with chocolate. If you are going to Italy you will love all the red wines even the local table wines are wonderful. Enjoy!!!!

I love red wine but have never been a big pinot noir fan. Everyone has different tastes. Definitely try it, but if you find you don't enjoy the pinots, try the opposite end of the spectrum, a lush shiraz from Australia (Rosemount is really good, about $6 at Costco). My husband who doesn't like wine at all will drink a good shiraz. France uses lots of Syrah (same grape as Shiraz) in their blends.

jmv's recommendation of a book by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher is excellent except for one point: the column appears in the Wall Street Journal on Fridays and their book is recently updated and titled "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved".

The column of January 9 is an excellent starting point and is titled "A Road Map to Great Values". Start your education with it.

Only someone uneducated, unsophisticated, with deep-rooted feelings of inferiority would think enjoying wine has anything to do with snobbery or peer pressure or the price of a bottle. How sad and ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous is pitting sweet against dry or red versus white. If you're serious about an education in wine, it's very important to keep your mind open and try them all. Also, be sure to focus on the art of pairing wine with food. The best way to learn about wine is to go to tastings. Comparing one to another is a great way to determine what pleases you.

Thank you, jsmith, for providing the correct road to Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher. I have been reading their column for many years and loved their appearances on the Martha Stewart show. They are a lovely, unpretentious couple who make it very easy to guide any novice into the wine tasting experience.

mrwunrfl
>Here are the necessary tips for drinking wine:
1) unscrew the cap...<

UNSCREW THE CAP!!!!!!!!!????????

What are you drinking?

Hi Anna,

The lighter German and Italian whites (Orvieto, Frscati) are good starters. Light Italian reds (Lambrusco, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo)are good starters.

Rose' d'Anjou is much better than white Zinfandel.

These are just suggestions to get you started. Once in Europe, ask for the house wines. These are intended to be wines that no one dislikes.

Enjoy drinking your way through Europe, and do not accept any wine that has a screw top.

Ira, before you dismiss all wines with screw caps, you might like to have a look at this report -

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_787616.html?menu=

Hi Xenos,

There is a reason why wines have corks, not plastic plugs or screw tops. It is to permit a very slow diffusion of air into the bottle, which mellows the wine and enhances its flavor.

Part of the pleasure of dining is to remove the cork and sniff it before pouring.

Screw tops are, of course, cheaper and easier to open, and might be suited to very young, cheap wines. They use them on the wine you get on airplanes in cattle class.

Chacun a son gout

This wine from the new mayor of San Francisco was recently released at over $100.00 a bottle
"PlumpJack was the first winery in California to sell a high-caliber wine with a screw cap. Co-owner Gavin Newsom made news when he released two versions of the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1997, one with a cork, and another ( for an additional $10 ) with a screw cap.

Ira, I don't know if you've actually read the article, but the first sentence is

"Wine experts have raised their glasses to screw-cap bottles, but it may take longer for ordinary drinkers to do the same."

From the wine reviews I've been reading in the UK press for some time now, it would seem that the prejudice against screw caps is based purely upon snobbery and lack of knowledge/experience.

But as you say, to each his own, or maybe, to each his own way of getting gout :-)

"Unscrew the cap" Must be a lambrusco! :)

Anna: one more thing, wines in Europe are "mellower", not as acidic or bitter as, say, Californian wines. I tend to prefer the "dry" French white wines to the Californian dry white wines. So, if you want to try a "dry" wine, try a European one. It will not taste as "bitter".

I'm guessing that you want to start with the less bitter tasting wines when you say you don't care for "dry wines".

The suggestion to drink the local house wine is excellent.

There are lots of sweeter wines which are drunk with meals. The Hungarian Tokaji comes to mind.

Have fun! Go slow! You are embarking on a lifelong adventure! :)

Hi xenos,

Yes, I read the article.

ChatNoir,
Are you still in a bad mood? I have found that whenever I write a nasty note it helps to not send it.

Lovejoy,
They charge extra for the screw cap? Why would they do that to a Cab? A good 1997 should just be reaching its maturity. How can it properly age?

Hi easy,
Good point. European wines are generally lower in alcohol.

Yea, that screw cap thing is going to take a long time to earn acceptance. But a friend who's a server and attends some pretty top notch wine courses repeated what that article says. It is now a pretty proven fact that a screw cap will do an even better job than a cork -- all that nonsense about "breathing" through the cork has pretty well been dismissed by the experts. But it sure will be hard for most people (myself included) to accept screwing off the cap and drinking a fine wine. Let's face it, part of the reason for feeling or sniffing the cork was to see if the cork did the job it was supposed to do, and sometimes it didn't. Can you see being handed the screw top to sniff or to feel?

Hi Patrick,

Well, I guess that we shall just have to accept the experts' word for it.

It will be interesting to see what a first-class Brunello laid down with a screw cap bottle for 8 - 10 years tastes like compared to one that had a proper cork.

Getting back to Anna1013's original comments, my DW would only drink sweet wines (Gewurztraminer or White Zinfandel or the like) because she didn't like dry wines, and especially hated reds. I tend to prefer dry wines (cabs, dry chardonnays, etc.). Since our trip to Europe this past fall, the only wines allowed to cross our threshold now are Chianti and Pinot Grigio, although I do slip some nice French selections through the door as well.

One of our favorites while in Rome was Brolio, which we were pleased to discover here in our local Publix for about $18 a bottle, which compares nicely with the 13E we paid for some in a shop in Florence near the Ponte Vecchio.

Anna, take some of the previous posters advice and try a lot of different varieties...you never know what's going to hit your palate until you do.

Hey Anna here's a good online resource:

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Wi...,1181,,00.html

Don't miss their primers, at the bottom of the page.

And while in Europe, remember that the 'house wine' is nearly always a good bet - especially if you're ordering 25 or 50ml pitchers (pots/pichets). I had a seat near the bar of my fave bistro last time in France, and their house plonk was Brouilly . . . very drinkable indeed!

HTH and have fun exploring the wonderful world of wine.

There are some people on this board who make this experience a very unpleasant read. I wrote a note to the editors asking that ChatNoir be expelled from this board. The subject of wine and the ramblings of someone with such a filthy mouth doesn't belong here or anywhere.

Watch out for the red wine headache !!

For Anna, You might like them better mixed with something to start off. For instance Sangria (made from red wine, fruit and juices, ice) or a wine-spritzer (white wine, soda water, lemon slices). A dear Swiss friend starts her mornings with a Mimosa (which she makes with pink grapefruit juice and dry white wine).

None of these suggestions are for true wine purists, obviously. Nor do they take expensive wines to make.

One other thing to remember, once you're in Europe, you can order small carafes or pitchers of a local wine at a cafe or restaurant. If two people share the smallest size with a meal, it'd just be a few sips along with each course. Just a thought.

Whew! Never knew I would get so much respones! Thanks to everyone for there replies.

I watch Food Network alot, and I think the suggestion to try Sangria first to get used to wine is a good idea. Then, I will probably try some german wine since they seem to be a bit less harsh for a beginner.

Many mentioned ordering the house wine while in Europe - how is this different than ordering regular wine??

We will be traveling to Paris, Rome, Austria, and London.

Anna,

"House wine" will be of the restaurant's choosing, something they most likely have in larger quantities (your only choice will be to pick red, rose, or white) and it comes to your table in a small glass carafe or pottery pitcher with two glasses. I mention this because it's easy to order, inexpensive, and you don't have to know a thing about wine to do it! Nor are you out much $ if you don't care for it.

"Regular wine" means you are ordering a full bottle (or sometimes 1/2 bottles are available), you will need to choose exactly what kind you want from a Wine List (menu) and the waiter will uncork the bottle for you at your table. This will almost always be anywhere from a little to alot more pricey than 'house wine'.

Anna, you said "Never knew I would get so much response(s)".

There are two things we Fodorites are really good at:

1)Whining
2)Wining

Chatnoir, you are right on the mark.

In fact, it's uncanny that whenever the NYCFoodSnort is "traveling", that "Wesley" appears in full force, with a writing style and obnoxious slant that is remarkably similar to the FoodSnort.

NYCFoodSnob = Wesley

Anna, the suggestions given to research other threads and wine web sites are really good. My own expertise as an oenophile is rather limited. However, I do know that German whites are relatively lower in alcohol than other wines- something I appreciate becacuse I am prone to alcohol-induced headaches. They are often made with the Riesling grape, which is well suited to growing in cooler climates. I don't think Rieslings are sweet so much as full of character - they've got a really complex taste, especially since the residual sugar is necessary to balance the acidity common to cool-climate wines. (And one reason, sadly, why the attempts of German wineries to make the more popular 'dry' wines might not work out very well, so don't try any German white labelled 'dry' - at least not when starting out.)

If you don't normally drink a lot of wine,you might find it helpful to alternate glasses of wine with glasses of water. This will also help stave off any post-drinking headache by keeping you well hydrated.

One last note: certain German wines are meant as dessert wines, such as eiswein (literally 'ice wine' because it's made from grapes that have actually frozen on the vine.) You won't easily mistake these with regular table wine because they're generally quite a bit more expensive. They are very fruity, almost syrupy, and thus might be an acquired taste.

Have fun.

I think you've gotten some great advice to get you started. Have guests to dinner to try that new wine...if it's good you'll know to get more, and it is not there probably won't be any left if there are 4 or more of you. Though tastes are changing, I still like the "Whites with fish and seafood, Roses with chicken and lighter meats, Reds with Beef/heartier meats (exception--German white Mosel wines with Sausages)

The main idea of wine WITH the meal is to enhance the total of the two separate entities- a synergistic effect you could say.
I really enjoy wine but am not a conoisseur and while I will splurge for higher priced bottle of wine from time to time I don't get outrageous. Avoid the really cheap wine in general.

You'll really make headway during your travels... rely generally on the wine of each establishment you eat at. Since you are still in the "trying out" mode I would look for either the house wine served in a carafe (in France if you as for "un quart", literally a 1/4 , you get enough for one person or two "non-drinkers" to share. Most of these house wines are very acceptable, occasionaly not--but the experience hasn't cost you an arm and a leg either. If they don't have a carafe available, try a half-bottle.

I prefer to think of wine as a finishing touch...something to enhance the taste of the food in your mouth, NOT something to help force down a wad of masticated pulp! Small sips enjoyed vs. huge gulps and you will enjoy the experience more and there won't we any hangover from over consumption either. Use water to cleanse the palate or for thirst--gulp away all you want.

I also don't sip any wine I've order when I've just had something acidic like v/o salad dressing--it just affects me personally like chewing on aluminum foil--yuck!

Happy tasting!

Patrick,

You know, I had the same experience. I never could warm up to wine, despite everyone's attempts to introduce me to the "lighter, fruitier" wines.

Then I got a nice S. Australian Cab as a gift and gave it a shot and really loved it. More so a glass of Chianti I got in a nice little neighborhood restaurant in St. Louis's Italian Hill area. I was hooked on Cabs and Chianti's and later Shiraz as well. Still haven't found a white I really took a shine to, but I like what I like.

Glad to see I'm not crazy at least (or crazy solo)