Here are 3 tips for finding new wine to love and enjoy.

• Once you discover a wine that you like, note the vintage (year it was made) as well as the producer and variety (type of grape, e.g. Syrah) and where you bought it.  It’s also helpful to write down the price & whether it was on sale. You can use a notebook that you keep in your kitchen & grab when you go shopping, or you can use a computer program.  Once a vintage is sold out, you won’t be able to find that wine again, so I recommend buying at least a case (12 bottles) if you have room to properly store it.

• Some wineries (winemakers) maintain a similar taste profile year after year, while others let the grapes express themselves as purely as possible to represent that year’s particular influences (weather, ripening etc.).  This is why vintage matters with some wine, and much less with others (i.e., 2 Buck Chuck).  If you like a particular wine, go ahead and try that winery’s other vintages.  Once you pay attention to vintage, you start to understand why you suddenly don’t like a wine that you previously loved.

• It’s perfectly legitimate to use scores, awards and recommendations by wine critics/enthusiasts (like myself) to try new wine.  However, it is not the point to like a wine because it has a high score; the point is to see if that reviewers’/judges’ tastes fits your own.  For me, I’ve noticed a high degree of synergy between my palate and the scores in Wine Enthusiast Magazine.  Your palate may be in tune with the scores from Wine Spectator magazine.  What I’ve learned is when I shop for something new, I ignore certain reviews/points/awards and pay attention to others.

* While tasting at parties, sometimes it’s easier to take a picture to remember the wine you like.

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