How do you choose a wine?

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I freely admit I know very little about wine. I know various different grape varieties, and some of the World’s wine-producing regions, but as for knowing how to choose a ‘good’ wine I’m pretty much making a stab in the dark. Unless I recognised a bottle of something I had previously tried and liked, I would generally just pick something in the sort of mid price range, of a grape variety I know I like, largely based on the description on the label and the appeal of the design. Some years ago I actually signed up to one of those wine club type things, where you pay a monthly subscription and every month get a case of wine delivered, supposedly hand picked by the experts. I had to give that up though because I just didn’t drink enough, I was paying quite a lot for it and my partner (who was then drinking alcohol) drank most of it. Since then he has given up alcohol and this has caused a whole different issue, because I would still like a glass now and then but it doesn’t seem worth buying expensive wine if it’s going to take me at least five days to drink the bottle on my own. By the final day surely it won’t be at its best any more. So now I’m trying out the cheapest ones. This is from Aldi and is basically their bottom-of-the-range option (£4.99) – and I confess I really liked it. I drank one bottle and have gone back and bought two more! I have labelled the bottles so I will remember which they are, because there are a few other bottles on the rack, some of which were gifts and some were fairly expensive purchases. In a few weeks when I have forgotten which is which I will have no idea which are the cheap ones and which are the fancier bottles, so if I need to take something to a party or dinner invitation hopefully at least I can choose a ‘good’ one. If I turned up at your house with this, would you know it was the cheapest option? How do you choose a good wine? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.