My own experience is exactly counter to this. I didn’t like wine at all until I discovered flavors beyond the “grocery store” profile. I had to move up a notch in quality before wine was even desirable to me, and for a long time I had thought that I just didn’t like wine. Once I learned to really pay attention, I finally realized that it wasn’t actually true. What I actually didn’t like was lousy wine.
My advice is to do exactly what you’re doing: Start in the $17-$25 range and pay attention. Taste several wines at a time and compare and contrast. IMO, that’s the only way to develop your palate and figure out if the nuance in mid- to high-end wine is “worth it” for you.
That was kind of my story too. I tried a bunch of stuff and it all tasted like “wine” to me so I didn’t really understand or see what the point was of spending over $20 on a bottle until my friend open a bottle of old Calon-Segur for me. But i’m figuring financially, it might be easier on both of us if I open a few grocery-story wines and if he hates all of them then i’ll go to the other end and open up something better.
Fair enough, in my case as well it was a Grand Cru Chablis that turned me on to wine after years of thinking I didn’t like it.
I guess in my head when I thought “grocery store” I wasn’t thinking Apothic or Sin Zin or Yellowtail or something, I kind of meant stuff like Chateau Ste. Michelle Indian Wells or Charles Smith which actually sort of tastes like the wine variety on the label for $12. I think what this says about me is that I forget the truly awful stuff even exists since it’s never on my radar. But yeah if you’re into it, paying slightly more than $20/bottle will probably net you better results, but even at that price point it can be a total crapshoot.
Knowing some of his food preferences can help narrow it down a bit.
What kind of beer does he like? Lighter lagers or Stouts?
Tea or coffee? if so what kind? Green tea or Espresso?
Dinner salads or meat and potatoes?
Hard liquor at all? If so clear vs brown?
If the first parts of the questions describe his prefrences start with white, if towards the latter big bold reds. If somewhere in between rose, Pinot Noir, cold climate SY/Zin/Cab. I have found most beginners to be at one end of the spectrum or the other and over time head towards the middle once they get better at what they like. Loads of great values from Spain/Italy, WA, Central CA, etc.
Here is the big problem. For most of his life, he’s been more of the eat/drink to live and live to eat/drink. So beer was usually something like an Amstel Light, food is whatever is given to him, and hard liquor was… college so i don’t really remember.
So As You can see, I don’t really have anything to go off of.
I think you’re overthinking it. If your friend has shown an interest in wine, just drink with him. Drink great bottles and not so great ones. Drink common varietials and obscure ones. Drink young and old wine. In doing so tell him what you think of the wine. In the end you’ll probably learn a lot yourself and hopefully your friend as well.
Malbec from Argentina (I know we are taking California but…) you can get it for way under $20 easy. I use to drink the heck out of pascual toso malbec at $9/bottle back in the days. When I first started drinking wine it was all grocery store stuff and this was my go to wine. The regular BV Napa Cab use to be a splurge for me.
Open up the best bottle you own, give him the “holy shit” experience we’ve all had at one time or another and let him free into the world to try and replicate it himself.
The crack dealer doesn’t give a first time user the shitty stuff.
I don’t have a real deep cellar since I haven’t been drinking that long but that means… I have to open up an 05 Dominus, 03 Pontet Canet, or 96 Lynch Bages. Hm…
i agree…good friend of mine used to only drink beer…we are talking cheap beer (miller lite) one night he was over and asked why i liked wine so much…so i cracked '97 Joseph Phelps Insignia. he was so blown away and still remembers that night when i hooked him in to this slippery road, this was about 15 years ago…now he is on many of the list such as scarecrow, rivers marie etc…
Since Barolo is very tannic, that seems like an odd choice to try on a newbie. That’s not really in the mainstream of reds in terms of structure. (Don’t get me wrong: I love Barolo.)
Agreed. We will have some food so that should help, and he has mentioned that he really doesn’t like sweet wines and likes dry wines (which I will translate to mean drying tannins)
Allow me to translate…that means he’s had some inferior quality domestic fortified wines and he will probably still like a very ripe fruit forward table wine. At least that has been my experiences when people tell me something similar.
People who aren’t too familiar with wine will almost always say they like “dry” wines when asked, even if their favorite is a chardonnay with some residual sugar. I certainly wouldn’t interpret that to mean a preference for nebbiolo tannins!
Screw that, there’s plenty of $25-and-under Cali stuff that’s awesome and delicious and not wasted on someone who leans “eat to live” and drinks light beer.
On my mind because Ken posted about them, but the Uphold wines by the lovely folks at Ryme are delicious for $15. I think the Inconnu wines are all $25 and under and they are f*cking ON POINT; her Cab franc is ridiculous good. Awesome balance of Cali fruit but still with classic cab franc pepper. Albarino is becoming a popular grape (I made some, too!) and Ian Brand does a super version for his La Marea label that’s clean and salty and fresh. Hell, get some Edmunds St John Bone-Jolly - I think it’s like $17? That stuff is rad.
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