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The cheat’s guide to choosing a great wine every time

Read time 3 Mins

Posted 29 Feb 2024

By
Amelia Ball

Five ways to hack it and end up with a winner.

Whether you’re browsing the bottle-o for a wine to share on the couch, take to a party or gift to a good friend, settling on the right one can feel like an impossible decision. So many bottles, so much confusion. But even if you’re only just starting to explore wine or don’t actually drink the stuff, there are a few ways to make a great choice. 

Ultimately, what makes a wine great will always be subjective and you’ll be the best judge. And that’s all well and good for anyone who’s tried loads of different wines and can remember the ones they enjoyed the most. But until we all hit that same level of experience and recall, there are certain wines that will tick all the quality boxes. To help you pinpoint these winners, we have five tips below.

1. Look for a compelling storyThis is an especially good tip if you’re buying wine for a present, but bottles that have an interesting backstory make great choices because you can share this info with the people you open it with. Maybe the wine was made by a brother-sister duo, the winery recently converted to biodynamics, the release might have won a major award, or perhaps it’s a rare variety you haven’t tried before. These are all details you can pick up from the back label, a quick Google of the producers or a chat in the shop with staff, but knowing a few extra details about a wine can make it a much more interesting proposition.
2. Choose a regional heroWhen it comes to Australian wine, all of our regions are renowned for their own flagship varieties. That doesn’t mean they’re the only wines they do well, but sticking with the celebrated ones will give you a clear run to our benchmark Aussie styles. Think Hunter Valley semillon, Clare Valley riesling, McLaren Vale grenache and Yarra Valley pinot noir as just four top examples. Take some time to browse the varietal sections of your local bottle shop, favourite wine lists or our very own Vine Guides, and this will reveal many of the same wine styles come from the same regions. These are a great place to start.
3. Go for the big namesThere are always exciting new producers emerging out of wine regions, but if you’re choosing a bottle and don’t want to take a risk – maybe you know it’ll be opened in front of everyone over dinner – then the big names can offer a safer bet. If you’re rocking up to a wine-loving crowd who knows their stuff, a solid producer’s name on the label will get you a nod of approval. That said, not every big-name wine will be to everyone’s taste, but you can rest easy that it will be made well, show the typical, expected characters, and make a great addition to any dining table.
4. Seek out an internationalAnother tip that’s particularly helpful when gifting wine is to consider international releases. Your recipient is less likely to already be familiar with it, so you can be confident you’re giving them something different. The same goes for you. Why stick with the same old wines when there’s a literal world of options out there? Just like we suggested above with our Aussie hero varieties, international regions all have their own celebrated styles, so zoom in on them. We’re talking about wines like Tuscany’s famed Chianti, Spain’s Rioja or France’s Beaujolais – and these delicious examples all get bonus points for also offering brilliant value.
5. Ask the expertsIt can be easy to dismiss offers of assistance while wandering a store’s aisles or studying a wine list, but the staff in these places often live and breathe wine, and they genuinely want to help. It doesn’t matter what wine knowledge you have – if you know the types of flavours you like in a wine (and even if you have no idea), they’ll have some ideas. Tell them how much you want to spend and any criteria you might have, regardless of how basic you think it sounds, and let them do the work for you. You’ll make their day while you come away with a winner.
Brush up on your wine knowledge with our collection of Wine 101 articles, covering everything from how to to taste wine to whether a spoon will keep an open bottle of sparkling fizzy.  
image credits: Charlie Hawks (photography), Bridget Wald (styling).
Authour image
Amelia BallAmelia Ball is a journalist, editor and former Editorial Director of Halliday Wine Companion, who specialises in drinks, food and travel.
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