How to Learn About Wine

Okay, now I have butchered the definition of wine and hopefully in the process inspired you on your quest to magic, what is the best way to go about it? How do you learn about wine? How does one even begin to tackle a whole world?

Before I answer that, a couple of things I would urge you to bear in mind.

Wine is so convoluted and complicated that it is impossible for anyone to know all there is to know. Even Masters of Wine have to specialise in a specific area. I am inherently suspicious of anyone who tells me they know all there is to know about wine. I encourage you to be the same.

Let this knowledge take some of the pressure off your lack of knowledge. You’re not going to be able to know everything about wine, but you will be able to learn some of the things and those things will help you understand and appreciate the rest of it. Think of it as a solid foundation to build your curiosity on. After all, a life without questions would be quite boring wouldn’t it?

Another thing I would like you to bear in mind is that there is a difference between being able to buy wine regularly and knowing about wine. Money never equates to knowledge, remember that. I can guarantee that you can master the wine section in your local supermarket and you’ll probably know more than those who buy Burgundies on the regular. 

All you need to do, to really know wine, is to pay attention.

You see I could sit here and encourage you at this point to enroll on the formal qualification route to education. Spend hundreds of pounds on a course and even more on the required drinking involved. Inhale and ingest a textbook so you can obtain a certificate as proof of some knowledge. Learn to taste wine with a systematic approach in examination conditions. But that doesn’t sit well with me.

Because I did that. I put myself through my WSET Levels 2 and 3. I wanted people in the wine world to take me seriously and I thought that was the only way to make that happen. I got those certificates and I presented them to those people I wanted to impress and guess what? Still not impressed. The people who make you feel like you need an exam to prove your worth are not the people you need to be wasting your time on in your one precious life. I can, of course, only speak for myself here, but unless they are required for work or career progression I’m never going to recommend the formal qualification path to knowledge.

So what else is there? How can you learn about wine on your own terms? 

Well, this is where paying attention comes in.

A lot of people come to me to ask what is the best way to learn about wine and I always struggle to answer in a useful and succinct manner. To me, wine is taste and taste is subjective, a personal truth. But whilst taste is a form of identity, it is also a tool that can be used in your learning. 

Next time you drink a glass of wine in an environment you feel safe to do so pay attention. I want you to lean into your curiosity here. Take note of what you like and what you don’t like. Write down any words that come to mind, they can be anything from ‘fruit’ to ‘that feeling when you hold heavy silver jewellery in your hands’. As long as they are truthful they are right. 

Look at the label on the bottle. Are there any words that you don’t understand? I imagine most of them won’t be familiar, I still struggle with labels and I’ve been doing this for some time now.  Write down three words, look them up when you have time. Are they a place? A grape? A winemaking term? If they contributed to a wine that you liked maybe look for that word again. See if the words change meaning depending on what bottle they can be linked to and how that bottle can taste. Make note of that too.

Over time you’ll develop quite the collection of words. Words that you like and words that you don’t like. As long as likes and dislikes are not harmful they are truthful and that means they can’t be wrong, so hold onto that. Take these words with you when you wander down the supermarket aisle, when you venture into your nearest bottle shop, when your favourite bar opens and you are once again engaging with front of house staff.  

Those words and those tastes can then be expanded on. Perhaps Beaujolais is a word often found on bottles of wine that make you feel playful and capable of fun - ‘more of those feelings when I drink wine please!’ I hear you say. There will then be articles, books, a podcast perhaps, maybe even a tasting at your local wine bar, all focusing on Beaujolais. Chances to learn about what contributes to those playful, fun wines - Gamay, granite soil, carbonic maceration. The list can go on as long as your curiosity can. 

Because here’s the thing, being curious is half the battle. You’ve taken the time to read this, you’ve begun to ask the questions, you’re well on your way to learning about wine. You have the ability to taste, you just need to pay attention in order to nurture that ability.

What seems like a huge, intimidating world of wine becomes quite simple when you take it bottle by bottle, word by word, taste by taste. You’ve got this.