Recommending Wines

I periodically, as in almost daily now, am asked by someone to recommend wines. Now, that could be a wine, a wine pairing, a particular bottle, a grape, a style of grapes, or practically anything else. That's okay; I enjoy doing it. I think most of us enjoy sharing a passion of ours with others no matter what that passion might be.

From what I hear, most of the wines that I do recommend are successful recommendations. That is, the people that I make the recommendations to are pleased. Sometimes, they make it easy. Other times, well, they don't make it even remotely easy. 

As I said, I am more than happy to work with you. But, if you want me help make you happy in this fashion, help me to help you.

What do I mean by that? Give me information. The more information, the better.  

Here's an example of a challenging request that came up during my essentially weekly visit to Costco last weekend. A nice enough lady (NEL) saw me looking at the assortment of wines they carry and began to ask me questions presumably to help her. It went something like this.

NEL: Hi, you look like you know about wines. Can you help me?

Me: I can try. How can I help you?

NEL: I want to buy a good wine. What is the best wine they have in here?

Me: It's hard to say what the best one is, but this one here (pointing to the 2017 Ducru Beaucaillou that I had never seen in Costco before then) certainly is an outstanding wine. 

NEL: But, it looks red. I only like white.

Me: Okay. [Walking over to the white wines and finding a Ramey Chardonnay] This is likely as good a white wine as they have in here.

NEL: But, it's expensive.

Me: How much do you want to spend?

NEL: No more than $10.

Me: Okay. And, I pointed out a Kirkland (their store brand) Sauvignon Blanc.

NEL: Is it sweet?

Me: No. It's very dry.

NEL: I only like sweet wines.

And, so it went. As I said, help me to help you. 

Far better, or at least helping me to help you, might be something like this. I'm looking for a red wine in the under $20 price range that I can drink tonight. I'm thinking about making pasta in some sort of red sauce and using lots of herbs. I don't like too much bite (tannins) in my wines. 

Okay, I admit it. This one is pretty easy. Sangiovese is almost always a good pairing with foods of this type and there are plenty of them that are not expensive. It's not particularly tannic, has nice acidity to work with the tomatoes in the red sauce, and usually is quite approachable when young even if it will age well.

Bottom line, the more good information you give me, the more I can help you. Tell me what you like or what you don't like. If you hate okay Chardonnay, say so. If you love the sugary sweetness of bad Moscato, say so. If you like your mouth to pucker up when you are drinking, say so. If you hate green bell peppers, say so. With information like that, I can point you in the right direction. But, asking me for my favorite won't necessarily get you anything you like.


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