How to buy wine online or at the wine shop

By Mark Adams

Mark is a professional winemaker, former winery owner, author and frequent speaker on wine.  He currently teaches wine classes throughout the United States.

How to shop for wine sounds pretty easy doesn’t it.  It is and certainly doesn’t have to be hard, but people seem to make it much harder than it needs to be.

There are many ways to buy wine.  Whether it be the wine shop or supermarket, wine superstore or even the winery itself, the principles are pretty much the same.

OK, here’s what to expect.

In years past almost all wine stores were laid out by the region.

Meaning every store had a French section, an Italian section, a Germany Section and so on.

You would find different varieties mixed together within that countries section.

I never quite understood that because we typically shop for a certain variety, not necessary the country.  I do understand that model is based on the European model and since that’s how they do it, it made sense in the early days of American wine to copy that.

But as wine has grown and evolved here, wine merchants finally started to figure out that consumers wanted to compare pinots, not countries.

So most modern wine stores will have their wines laid out by variety.

Once you’re there standing in the aisle looking at the bottles how do you know if you’re buying the right wine?

The real answer is to know what you like and then be able to describe your tastes to the wine staff. And since you have taken this course, you should have no trouble doing just that.

In a good shop, they will be more than happy to help you.

No person in any shop has tasted every one of the wines of course, but they still will know the characteristics of wines you are considering.

I’m a big believer of buying wine from a small wine shop or directly from the winery.

Yes, you might pay a little bit more, but a helpful, knowledgeable staff will make up for it many times over. Wine is not a commodity like tube socks that you buy at Wal-Mart.

There are so many subtle differences in wine that you get what you pay for.

To me buying the wine is as much of the experience as tasting it.  As a former winery owner, I’m obviously biased, but I think buying wine directly from the winery is as good as it gets.

You not only get to taste samples for a nominal amount or sometimes even free, but in most cases you can talk to the staff or even the winemaker and get their take on how and why they make their wine a certain way.

It’s like meeting the author at a book signing. You always value those books more.

Buying wine online can be a viable option.  As time goes on buying wine online continues to become easier and in many cases even cheaper.

If you find a certain brand and variety you like, and know you want that particular wine, take a look online. Keep in mind that each state determines if wine can be shipped into their state.

At the time of this article there are only about 40 states that allow wine to be shipped into their state.  So check first before ordering.

Someone 21 or over must sign for the package as well.  The best way around this is to have your wine shipped to a business address.

So next time you’re shopping for wine consider these tips and I’ll bet you bring home a really great bottle of wine!

If you would like to learn more about wine click here.