Where One Wine Can Take You

Happy Friday,

When you’re getting into wine it’s easy to be overwhelmed by everything. I mentioned this a bit in my email the (other) French Paradox, but when there’s so much to learn, where should you start?

With the wine you love, of course.

“But, Brian, how can the wine I love teach me everything I want to know?”

Great question.

Let’s start by looking what’s on the bottle.

What’s on the bottle?

A wine label contains some vital information about the wine. And if it doesn’t, maybe your red flags should go up.

In my opinion, Ridge is the gold standard in wine label design and information. Beyond style, the label is easy to read. And since 2011, Ridge has put an ingredients list on their already iconic wine labels.

However, not all wines and wine labels are created equal. They might be in German, French or Spanish.

While there’s no shortage of label dissection how to’s on the internet (here’s a great one from the New York Times), no one tells you what to do with that information.

Mapping It Out

I’d argue that most wine pros are know-it-all-types with a penchant for trivia and an existing system for cataloging random facts 🙋‍♂️.

But if you don’t have a system or context for wine learning, acquiring new information can be tough.