How to Buy a Bottle of Wine. Made Easy

If you are new to wine, you’ll soon find that the choice is endless when it comes to buying a bottle of wine – you’ll come across styles, prices and quality at all levels.  But if you are keen to bag yourself a decent bottle of wine (and at a decent price), you need to be savvy with your wine choices.

Pick your bottle of wine for the occasion

It’s worth thinking about the occasion and who will be drinking the bottle of wine when you buy it. A light, crisp Pinot Grigio may sound like a great option but if you serve it with a heavy red meat, like steak or lamb, the meat will be far too overpowering to do the bottle of wine justice. Similarly, there’s little point in buying your partner an expensive bottle of Bordeaux if they don’t like Classic red bottles of wine.

Hunt down the value

When buying your next bottle of wine, look to where the value is.  Chile, Argentina and South Africa are currently on the up and producing bottles of wine offering excellent value for money.

Look out for clever marketing

Watch out for the label that appears on the bottle of wine.  While a trendy label or fancy words may catch your eye, it has little bearing on the wine within.  Similarly if you go for a famous name or region, you’ll end up paying a premium.  The trick?  Pick a similar wine from a lesser know region.  An unoaked Chilean Chardonnay is a great alternative to a classic French Chablis for example.

Go for small producers

If you want to get the most value for money out of a bottle of wine, it’s worth picking a bottle of wine from small winemakers rather than big brand producers.  Why?  Well, the winemakers at these estates are not so concerned by profits and purchasing power like many of the mass producers.  Instead, they are simply looking to make great tasting bottles of wine, so you can be sure that you’ll be getting the best value for money as possible.

Focus on the “wine style” rather than grape or country

Rather than getting hung up on grapes and counties, it is often better to concentrate on wine styles as these can give you a lot more scope to choose from.  For example, if you find out that you like Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, chances are you’ll stick to that in future, but if you discover that you like “Huge Reds” (full bodied, fruity reds) then your choice will be opened to a host of different grapes including Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Zinfandel from Old and New World Countries.  Look to a retailer who classifies wine in this way and see for yourself.

Understand what goes into the price of a bottle of wine

Finally, it’s worth knowing your budget and what goes into the price of a bottle of wine to make sure that you pay the optimum price for you.  If you buy a bottle of wine costing £3, only a few pence will go towards the wine.  Pay a little more, something in the region of £5, and you’ll get about 50p-£1 worth of wine.  But by the time you get to £7, you’ll be more than doubling the amount that gets spend on the wine.  However, don’t be fooled into thinking that the more and more you pay the better the wine, as by the time you get to £10 or above, it’s unlikely that the improvement in quality will rise in equal proportion to the increased spend.