Klaus' Wine Rules
It's all about the taste
We can probably all agree that everybody experiences tastes and smells differently. Which means, only YOU can determine the best wine for your taste. You are in charge! If the wine tastes and smells good to YOU, it is a good wine, regardless if the wine costs $6 or $ 200 a bottle. While I can give you general guidelines about a certain wine, it is up to you to trust your own taste and smell experience. It isn't about the price of the wine, it's about the taste! Read more about wine tastes.
Don't drink wines that give you headaches
Again, the price of the wine doesn't always reflect the quality of the wine. For me, a quality wine tastes great and doesn't cause unwanted side effects such as hot flashes, headaches, stuffy nose or other unpleasant sensations. Read more about wine headaches. What causes these reactions? We all know that wines contain sulfites, since it has been an FDA labeling requirement since 1986. Sulfites are preserving agents added to wines by all vintners to stop fermentation and help wines last longer. Sulfites are usually blamed for wine headaches, but the actual culprits are also often histamines. Read more about sulfites and histamines. My point here is that if you ever experience unwanted side effects from a particular wine, stop drinking it and do not buy it again. It's not fun and wine drinking should be fun!
Try to use the right glass
I confess that I've been known to drink wine out of whatever glass or cup that is handy, but you should not underestimate the effect of a proper wine glass on the taste of your wine. You will be amazed in the differences in taste when you sample the same wine from different glasses. There are glass companies out there that spend a lot of money marketing the differences in wine glasses and rightly so, because the right glass in the right shape can make or break the taste of a good wine. This is especially true with sparkling wines-there are actually glasses designed to improve speed of the bubbles! Read more about wine glasses.
Don't be a "label drinker"
What is a label drinker? "Label drinkers" are people who will only buy a wine that has been awarded a certain number of points by a certain publication or wine expert. This is not a bad place to start when choosing a wine, but in the end, those points were awarded by someone who has completely different taste buds than you do, and oftentimes the wine companies use points awarded to a wine from a particular year to a wine made with grapes grown in a different year. Do not rely totally on somebody else's taste or point system. Your instincts are correct. Do not allow a 'label drinker' or other expert spoil your fun.
Try a variety of wines
The only way to find out what kind of wines you really like is to try wines you have never had before. One way to do this is at a wine tasting. Read more about wine sample packs. When you sample wine at a winery or a tasting party, it's a good idea to follow the rules of the house and "swirl", "sip" and "spit." Sometimes this is easier said then done, especially when tasting very good wines. As a wine broker, I have a lot of experience in sampling wines. Once, I sampled over 50 wines in 2 days. Without practicing the "swirl", "sip" and "spit" technique, I would have been drunk after 2 hours. However in order to fully get the full experience swirl, sip and let it run throughout your mouth and swallow. Go for the full experience. Life is too short. Here's another idea. Instead of spitting out the wine, enjoy a flight of wines. Read more about wine flights.
Develop a relationship with your wines
You don't have to marry them, but it is interesting to find out that some wines taste better at warmer or cooler temperatures, or that they taste better with food than alone or vice versa. How do you find this out? There are no short cuts. The only way to start a relationship with wine is to drink it and enjoy it in different stages. For instance, you can open a red wine and let it breathe for 10 minutes and try it, for 20 minutes and try it and so on. Each time you change a variable, you should notice how the wine has changed and developed a different character. Add food to the equation and it will change completely again. Drink it in the summer or winter, warm or cold, opened fresh out of the bottle or opened out of the fridge. Take notes if you want to really understand the wine. White wines are not as sensitive as red wines, but you will find that the temperature at which you serve them makes a big difference. With each degree in temperature change, you should notice a different flavor nuance that comes through in the wine. The warmer the wine is the more flavorful it usually becomes. This is not to say that you should drink white wines when they are warm, it is just interesting to note the effect that temperature has on the taste. Keep track of the desired temperature for a particular wine to get the most enjoyment out of the bottle.
You don't have to drink the whole bottle
You'd be surprised at how many wines still taste great a day or two after they have been opened. I've even had wines that were opened two weeks prior and they still tasted great, if not better, than on the day they were opened. Of course it helps if you try to keep air out of the bottle. Use any method to close the bottle, fill gas in (very fancy) or just put the cork back on and enjoy the wine the next day. The point is that if the bottle is open, the wine reacts with the air. If it's a white wine, store it in the fridge. I'm not promising that every wine will taste great two weeks after opening, but you can always give it a try.