Basic Checklist for Buying Wine In A Store

Buying wine can be a tricky proposition for many of us. In this article, we take a look at a basic checklist of subjects that need to be considered when determining if a bottle is worth your hard earned money.

Importantly, this article is not about the merits of a particular wine. Instead, we are focusing just on what to consider when standing in a shop and looking at various bottles of wine. Obviously, you can’t tell if a wine is good or bad per se while just standing there, but you can determine if there might be a problem with the way the winery packaged the bottles or the store treats them.

The first thing to consider is temperature. Wine usually sits out on the shelves or racks in a store. Wine needs to be stored in a cool environment. I’ve been in a few places selling wine that were uncomfortably warm. Wine will go bad under such circumstances and you should strongly consider finding another location that keeps the temperature down.

The needs of wine contrast with the marketing needs of a shop. Wine is best when it is not exposed to light. Wine shops need to put wine on display if they hope to sell it. This catch-22 has led to situations where I’ve actually seen stores place wine in the long, tall windows that run down the sides of the place. Ah, wine boiling in the sun. I bet that is going to taste bad!

Assuming you’ve found a decent wine shop [most are], it is time to take a look at the bottle. Modern wine production has eliminated most of the issues that used to arise, but two still need to be considered. First, check the cork. It should be flush with the top of the bottle. If it is noticeably sunk into the bottle, it could be a sign of a leak which could make the wine go bad over time. Obviously, avoid such bottles. The other issue is cloudiness. Hold the bottle up and look through it. The only wine that should show any cloudiness is an older red. Anything else needs to be avoided!

Buying wine was much more of an art 20 years ago. Production values have risen dramatically during that time, so the only real issues that arise have to do with the quality of the store selling the wine. As long as the wine is out of the light and temperatures are cool, you should be okay.