Tips For Buying Wine

Aside from choosing a variety and vintage of wine that you might enjoy, there are some issues that you need to be aware of when buying wines for your collection or for personal enjoyment. Here are some easy to remember buying tips.

First, do some preliminary homework and choose a wine that will best suit your tastes. Some people enjoy dry wines, while other do not. Some wine tasters prefer a hearty fruity flavor and strong aroma, while others like vintages that are tamer. If you know what to expect from a wine and know what you like, you will likely make wiser buying choices.

When you pick up a bottle for inspection, hold is against a light or white background. There should not be any debris in the bottle. Debris would be a sign of a defective cork, which is not uncommon, but it does contaminate the wine and can alter the taste. The corks with a small percentage of wine may rot or shrink due to improper transportation or storage. A wine contaminated by cork debris is called a “corked” wine. The color of the wine will usually not tell you very much, because the color of wine varies from one variety to the next.

It is easy to assume that the wine we buy has been transported and stored properly, or at least in such a way that has not harmed the wine. But that is not always the case. If you treat wine poorly, they taste can sometimes be altered dramatically.

Wines do not fair well with dramatic temperature swings. A wine that has been exposed to heat for too long is called a “cooked” wine. Imported wines are more likely to have suffered from being cooked, because they’ve been brought to the U.S. in ships that are usually not air-conditioned. Wines from Australia and South America cross the equator in large containers in ships. But even domestic wines can suffer the same symptoms from poor storage and shipping.

Fortunately, wines that have been cooked leave clues that can tip off a wise wine lover. Closely inspect each bottle you consider buying. If the cork appears to be coming out or is pushing against the lead foil covering it, the wine may have been cooked. High temperatures cause the wine and air inside the bottle expand and can push the cork out of place.

Another telltale sign is dried or sticky trails on the bottle from where wine has seeped out through the cork and dripped down the bottle. Exposure to air is the enemy of wine. If air enters a corked bottle or the wine has seeped out, the wine may have spoiled.

Younger wine vintages should not have very much air space between the wine and the cork. Bottles in which the wine level has dropped to the shoulders of the bottle should be approached with suspicion, because they are not bottled that way. Sometimes a wine store may find bottles that have leaked or have bulged corks and they may clean up the bottle and push the cork back into place. The telltale sign is the missing wine.

Bottles of wine with any or all of the above telltale symptoms should be purchased with caution, if at all. The wine won’t necessarily be damaged, but you are taking the risk that it may.

Wine drinkers sometimes assume the worst when they notice other flaws in their wine selections. But that is not always the case. For example, a cork that has mold across the top is usually harmless. Just make sure that the mold doesn’t intrude down the length of the cork or violate the cork’s seal. Even though it is usually harmless, it is a good idea to gently wipe any mold from the top of the cork before opening the bottle.

Some white wines–particularly those from France and Germany–develop tiny white crystals around the cork or at the bottom. The crystals look like sugar granules, or tiny pieces of rock candy. Those are tartrates, which is a precipitate of a chemical that is present in grape juice. They are harmless and don’t affect the wine’s taste.

These tips for buying wine should result in more successful wine purchases and help assure that you get what you expect from your wine selections.