The Only Wine Advice You Need – Trust Me

Wow, this is my 700th blog post on the TC! To mark the occasion, I wanted to write about something I have been meaning to for quite some time now. You may have seen the precursor to this post on Facebook last week. I really wanted to see what your thoughts were before I published this post.

Wine is meant to be enjoyed, to have fun with and to make you feel good. It’s alcohol after all. Wine shouldn’t make you feel stupid or intimidated or embarrassed.

Exception: that is unless you consume far too much, lose control and perhaps deserve it.

Therefore I believe the only true wine advice you need in life is: Don’t judge!

This goes two ways:

• Don’t judge someone based on what they want to drink
• Don’t judge a wine before you try it

So what do I exactly mean by these?

Don’t judge others or let people judge you

The thing which pisses me off about the world of wine is the people who get kicks out of judging you about what you choose to drink. Or the people who make you feel like you need to know every technical wine term under the grapevines (pun totally intended) in order to enjoy that glass of Chardy in your hand.

A lot of these people fall into that ‘wine snob’ category where they think they know everything there is to know about wine and use that to make you feel inferior.

As a side note, no one knows everything about wine. The wine world is immense and we should focus on sharing knowledge rather than using it to make people feel bad.

We are humans. And humans judge. Unfortunately. But today I’m taking a stand and I’m saying when it comes to what people want to drink, just don’t be a dick okay?

I really loved an article I recently read on Reverse Wine Snob about wine being a consumable. It really resonated with me and gave me that final push to finish off this blog post and help spread the word about letting your taste buds call the shots.

One of the saddest effects of the notion that special knowledge or lots of money are needed to buy a good wine is that it creates a barrier to entry for new wine drinkers.” – reversewinesnob.com

Wine Influencers

While on the subject of drinking what you enjoy, I wanted to have a quick word about wine influencers. I recently saw a post on social media which was making fun of wine influencers who do things like drink cans of Moscato. I thought it was a bit of a sad attempt at drumming up attention in spite of others.

On a side note, you should totally check out my Moscato Wine Guide 😉

What I think should have been said is that, yes there are plenty of people ‘influencing’ our wine choices these days, but you shouldn’t drink something just because someone on social media said they like it.

To be honest I think we all need to be savvier when it comes to consuming information online.

A wine influencer (I prefer the term ‘wine inspirer’) has the responsibility of:

• Disclosing any collaborations or free wine samples/events etc they get
• Always push the fact that it’s their opinion and that you should make your own mind up

Everyone has different taste buds and we should embrace that! As consumers who follow influencers on social media, we need to be savvy in this day in age too.

Don’t judge a wine before you taste it

I love this piece of advice because there are way too many people who are missing out! Missing out on so many amazing wines that their taste buds will love! Just because you don’t like one Sauvignon Blanc, doesn’t mean you won’t like another.

A couple of small sips is needed before you can safely say you don’t like a wine.

Wine is constantly evolving, from how a wine is made to how it changes in the bottle, to the fruit which is harvested every year. We shouldn’t judge a wine just because of who makes it, where it comes from, what grape variety it is or how it looks.

I’m not saying you need to go and try every wine. If you love your old favourite, then drink that. All I am saying is to keep your mouth shut if you have an opinion on a wine and haven’t tried it.

Also it’s important to note that there are so many factors that influence your thoughts on a wine from the weather to your company, to what you’re eating. Therefore I am all for giving wines second chances too 😉

In conclusion

I am going to end this post with what I put at the end of all my tasting notes:

All opinions are based on my own taste buds. Wine is subjective & always evolving, so make sure you drink what you enjoy!