Wine Buying: how to make better purchasing decisions

When we meet new wine students for the first time, we like to chat about their current wine buying situation. How confident to they feel shopping for wine or choosing wine in a restaurant? Do they like to be adventurous, trying a different grape or region each time? Or stick to a ‘tried & tested’ wine that they buy week in, week out?

So, how can you improve your own wine buying power without having an expert standing next to you in the wine aisle? Here are our top tips to help you make better, smarter wine buying choices and improve your wine experience at the same time.

• Don’t judge a bottle by it’s label.  Quite often, very average wine brands make up for what’s in the bottle with lots of cool, clever and funky marketing.  Many a person has bought average wine simply due to clever marketing gurus – including us!  Judge a bottle by where it’s from & the facts on the label – not it’s visual appeal.

• Head off the beaten track.  A lot of the best buys are from wine regions you may not be familiar with or that you frequently head to for wine buying.  It can be scary and off putting but these regions don’t come with the prestige (read price tag) of the big names we are familiar with.  Key areas to look out for are Southern Italy, appellations within the Languedoc-Rousillon region of southern France – Fitou, Minervois, Picpoul, Corbieres – plus Spain and Portugal offer superb value for money if you stay away from the big names etc Rioja or Ribera del Duero. Spend some time looking at a few wine maps for more ideas.  The other great advantage of this buying approach is that you quickly broaden your wine knowledge and experience – plus discover new regions you might not have heard off.

• Buy from the ‘satellite’ wine regions.  The ‘classic’ wine regions of the world – Chablis, Sancerre, Pouilly-Fuisse  – are a source of wonderfully complex wines but, due to their provenance, the do come with often a substantial price tag attached.  A great way to buy a wine that’s very similar to the wines of classic regions but considerably less in price is to buy from the ‘satellite’ wine regions – those regions that surround the ‘classic’ area.  You’ll often find the grape variety is the same, the climate & soil are very similar and, broadly speaking, the aroma & flavour of the wine are comparable.  So grab a wine map from the internet and get exploring!

• Narrow down the region on the label:  If you buy a wine that says “Chardonnay; SOUTH EAST AUSTRALIA” you are buying a very big brand of bulk wine – the quality simply won’t be that great.  A better approach is to try and get the regional name on the label to be as small as possible for example Adelaide Hills, a small hillside area of vines in South Australia, which is in turn inside the catch-all South East Australia region.   Because you’ve gone to a small region you are much more likely to be buying ‘personal’ wines – wines with a story behind them, a sense of place and craftsmen and women making them.  You might end up paying a touch more but, overall, the quality will be infinitely better. The major benefit is that the wine will have a real sense of being and place – reflecting the character of the hillside or region it’s from.  So, even if you’ve never heard of the named region before, if it’s a valley or hill or small area within a larger zone, you’re on the right track.

• Buy lesser known grapes.  Give something new a go – maybe try a Tannat wine, perhaps a Bobal, or a Petit Syrah? They are not as well known, nor as marketable, as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay and so frequently sell at lower prices.  A Bobal from Spain, a Tannat from Madiran (France) or perhaps Uruguay offer unusual options to seek out.

• Drink less and buy better.  We pay a fixed amount on any bottle of wine to HMRC – around £2.23 per 75cl plus VAT. Which means around 50% of the cost of a £5 bottle is taxation.  Once you then take off the cost of marketing, importing, labelling, the bottle, transportation etc you then end up with a very small proportion of that £5 going to the vineyard grower for his grapes.  You can’t expect good quality at that price.  If you up your per bottle spend to £10, the taxation stays the same which means the grapes that went into that wine ‘cost’ considerably more – which means much better quality for you.  So maybe a few nights off wine followed by a night of enjoying a great quality bottle? Easy to write on paper – perhaps harder to follow in practice!

One of the best ways to increase your confidence when it comes to buying wine is to study for a WSET qualification. You don't need to be working in wine to study something you love. A qualification in wine can give you the confidence to explore new varieties, decode the jargon on a label, and discover new favourites. You wouldn't eat the same thing for dinner, so why stick to the same wine?
Ready to go back to school? You can view all of our upcoming WSET courses here.

Many thanks to our colleague Victoria Aldwinkle at Kent Wine School for assistance with this article.