One of the great things about wine is that there’s so much variety. Of course, one could say the same thing about beer or just about any other kind of alcohol, but wine always dominates for one simple reason: it looks classy.
What I mean to say is that drinking it looks classy, even though I’m joking… sort of, anyway. I’ve seen many a person drink a bottle of wine (notice I didn’t say glass) in a decidedly non-classy fashion, and that’s okay too. The most important question is, how did said person find a wine that they loved so much that they were willing to forgo the glass and guzzle from the bottle itself?
Here’s the trick…
The Secret to Finding a Favorite Wine
Choosing a wine can be absolutely overwhelming for some people. They enter the wine or general liquor store, look around a moment, and are greeted with a seemingly endless ocean of different red and white wines from which to choose.
If you’re anything like me, you don’t really know a lot about wine. I drink enough of it that people assume I do, but at the end of the day I’ve just recently decided on my favorite type. I’ve managed just fine until now by doing the following: randomly picking a bottle.
Before you sigh and move on, here me out.
There’s a lot of value in appropriately pairing wine (the map below will help with that) and being strategic with your wine purchasing, but you can also make some great new discoveries by throwing caution to the wind and picking something that has an interesting name or label. You certainly can’t judge a wine by its label, but since you don’t have much more to go on…
Well, I’ve found some of my absolute favorite wines by randomly picking bottles.
It’s true, some won’t be great, but so what? That’s true of almost anything in life. Think about your absolute favorite restaurant. What if you never took a chance and tried it that first time? What if there weren’t a ton of reviews, so you decided to play it safe and skip it? See where I’m going with this?
Wine is much the same, and the discovery of great brands and even tastes far outweighs the potential for wasting $14 on a bottle you don’t love.
Interactive Wine Map from HTF Wines
Now, as I mentioned earlier, appropriately pairing wines for meals and special occasions is great. I do that too, or enlist the help of someone that knows better. In this case, the interactive map below knows a whole lot better than I do.
So… what do you think? Have you ever found a fantastic wine by picking a random bottle? If so, which one is it? I’m always on the lookout for new wines, so let’s work together here.
If you have any suggestions, leave me a comment below.
