TIP! Develop a relationship with your local wine store. Not every shop is the same.

Any time of year, you should stock your cooler with an array of interesting wines to serve to company. use these tips to pick great wines for various occasions and foods.

TIP! Properly store your wine to keep the flavor fresh. You do not want your wine to be too hot or too cold; it can hurt the flavor.

Pinot Grigio is a great choice for a wine served with your seafood dinner. This wine draws out the food’s flavor. Other white wines go equally well with seafood. It is almost like they were made to be together.

TIP! Inexpensive wine can be good at times. If you are looking for a good tasting wine at a good price, look toward Chile.

Trust your own instincts when it comes to trying wine. For example, if you have a friend that tells you they love a wine and you don’t enjoy it, don’t spend any money on it. The result will be that you spend money on an item you were aware you might dislike to begin with.

TIP! Trust your instincts when you purchase wine. Professionals will offer different opinions, but it all boils down to your specific taste.

Take some of the advice of people that are experts in wine, but know that they make mistakes. The best wine expert is one that continues to evolve, and whom can admit their mistakes. Besides which, each person’s wine taste is as individual as themselves. It is important to trust your own tastes, also.

TIP! Serve wine at the proper temperature in order to coax the best flavor from each glass. Red wine is best and more flavorful at about 60 degrees.

If you want to visit a winery, you should plan your visit in advance. Set your budget ahead of time and be prepared with a designated driver before you arrive. Jot down a few questions you would like to ask, and think about the types of wine you would like to try.

TIP! Know whether the wine you wish to store away will age well. It would be a wise idea to learn about the particular type of wine you plan to store to learn just how long that particular type will store.

The variety and color of grape used determines whether the wine is white or red. Despite the name, a red wine actually uses the purple grapes. For a more delicate wine, opt for one of the many white wines made from green grapes. There are more subtle differences, however, than just the color of the grapes.

TIP! When ordering at a restaurant you don’t have to always stick with what you know. If you are trying to make an impression on your friends, pick a wine they are not familiar with.

Don’t fall for marketing strategies. Some restaurants and bars might promote certain brands of wine. These usually carry an exorbitant mark-up, however, sometimes as much as 20 times the wholesale price. Remember, not all expensive wines taste better. Pick a wine that you like and don’t fall for the hype.

TIP! An post dinner drink is the perfect ending to a meal, so choose a nice, rich dessert wine. When selecting wines for dessert, look at California Port, French Champagne or an Italian Moscato.

The vintage of a wine is the year the grapes were harvested, not the year the wine was produced. For instance, if the grapes were picked in fall 2010, 2010 would be the vintage year. After being harvested, the grapes would be allowed to ferment until being bottled and sold. The wine likely won’t make it to the shelf for another year or two.

TIP! Search for wine forums online. You can learn many things for other connoisseurs, and you might be able to teach them something as well.

There is an endless supply of wine information available on the internet. Feel free to take along print-outs of this information as you go wine-tasting for the best ones. Compare notes, get opinions from employees and do not allow a bad judgment to make you choose the wrong bottle.

TIP! When serving wine, be certain to use proper glassware. It is very important that you are using stemware that looks clean and sharp, because it can make the wine seem like it’s of a higher quality.

Don’t let the opinions of others determine what wine you prefer. Some say that the single best wine is the one you like. That is the golden rule of choosing wine. You have your own palate and you should strive only to please it. If someone doesn’t like a wine you are drinking, wonderful! It means you won’t have to share it.

TIP! Some wines are great with dessert. Usually, wine you would have with a dessert is sweeter than those used with a meal.

When tasting a wine, you should start by tilting the glass slightly so you can look at the color of the wine. Gently stir the glass and put your nose above the glass opening to inhale the aroma. Take just a tiny sip, let it sit a bit in your mouth as you taste it, and then spit the wine back into your glass.

TIP! Vintage is not when the wine was created, but rather the year that the grapes were harvested. 2010 wines will have autumn grape harvest in 2010.

Wine is great for cooking with as well as drinking alone. Red wines can coax out the flavor of meat. White wines are great with seafoods. You can add a lot of flavor to fish or scallops by adding some wine.

TIP! Just one grape type can create varietal wines. One example is Pinot Noir.

Make sure to drink the wine in a quiet and calm environment. This helps to concentrate the taste-buds, leaving them less distracted by the other senses. Loud noises and bright lights can actually distract you a great deal from the task at hand, so be careful to only judge a wine in the right setting.

TIP! If you don’t know what kind of wine to choose, select Pinot Noir. Universally complementary, Pinot Noir has a light or medium body and is appropriate for pairing with almost any cuisine.

If you are at a social gathering and drinking wine, it is possible that everyone may want to make a toast. This results in the clinking of everyone’s glass. Did you know it is possible to shatter your wine glass if you clink it improperly? To avoid such a violent outburst, clink your glass at a slight angle. The bell of your glass should be aligned with the bell of the other sipper’s glass, with the rims pointing away from one another.

TIP! Red wine should be opened and left to breathe for a while. The wine will interact with the oxygen as the bottle is left open.

White wines and reds are not the same regarding the temperature they are to be served at. Generally, red wine should be warmer than white wine, by around ten to fifteen degrees. You should chill your wine first, then allow it to sit out for a while at room temperature. You want the white wine to be served at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and the red around 60 degrees.

TIP! Breathe in the aroma and sip a wine when you drink it for the first time. That’s right, you’ve got to slurp it! Gently move the wine all around the inside of your mouth to taste its sweet, salty, acid and bitter tones.

Before you drink a wine, allow it to breathe. You may use a carafe or a decanter(or just a big glass). Pour some wine into your container. Let it sit there for around ten minutes. Sample both the wine from the bottle and wine that was exposed to the air. You will see why it is best to allow the flavor to come out by letting it sit before you take a drink.

Pinot Noir

TIP! Store your wines in a wine cooler instead of your refrigerator. You do not keep a steady temp in the refrigerator.

If you can’t decide, go with the Pinot Noir. Red in color, a Pinot Noir can be paired with a lot of different foods. This is because it is not strong in flavor. There are a lot of different types of Pinot Noir, so there is sure to be one that suits your needs.

TIP! Wine is a good cooking aid, but make sure to only cook with something that you would actually drink. You needn’t buy the most expensive wine, but don’t purchase a bottle simply because it’s labeled as “cooking wine”.

Just like with lots of things in life, sticking to the wine you love is the easy thing to do. However, you shouldn’t be afraid of experimenting. There are a lot of choices out there to be tried. Try the bottle the clerk recommends, you might love it.

TIP! To enjoy your wine, you don’t have to have a temperature-controlled refrigerator or cellar. Store bottles in a cool, dark room that maintains a constant temperature.

There are many kinds of wines available, ranging from reds to white. When you are purchasing wine, be prepared to know what you are looking for. The information here gives you a great guide so you know you’ve got the perfect wine for any meal.