New to wine? Here’s how to choose something you’ll like

While industry insiders lament the current downturn in wine sales across Canada and grapple with why that is, one thing is certain: Anyone who has fallen in love with wine will always have a place for it in their lives. Few other drinks draw us in quite like it.

Of course, not all wine is great or deeply memorable. But those bottles do exist from every wine region in the world now. In fact, there has never been a better time to get into wine than today because the industry is now global and fiercely competitive, and quality is at an alltime high — at every price point.

But shopping for wine can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to it. So, if you’re looking for a toehold, here’s how to tell a wine’s flavour before you buy it.

Glance at the grape variety on the label. That’s where most of its flavour comes from. Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like black currant, Chardonnay like apple, Pinot Noir like raspberry and so on.

The fundamental flavour of the grape variety remains the same — especially when the wine is young, which is what most of us drink.

So here are descriptions of five popular grape varieties with a textbook example of each.

Pinot Grigio

Pinot Grigio is a light, lively wine with feathery strokes of lemonlime. The best Pinot Grigio possesses a gentle floral-stony character rather than just featureless fruit. And the wine is almost always bone-dry, stainless-steel fermented and unoaked.

A reliable bottle is the 2022 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio Valdadige DOCG from the Alto Adige-Trentino region of Italy (Vintages Essential $20.95 till Oct. 8, reg. $22.95). This popular drop is a bit of a bargain here in Ontario because the average price of this wine in the US is $25 US. With just 2 g/L of sugar and 12.5 per cent alcohol, this charmer streams in silky-smooth, cool and bright. Each sip tastes laced with lemon zest, grapefruit, salt and stone with impressive length. It’s an international bestseller for good reason. Score: 91

Chardonnay

In its pure form, Chardonnay is crisp and refreshing with flavours and aromas of apple and citrus. When fermented or aged in oak, it can take on such allusions as buttered toast, praline and spice. Wet stone and saline notes can emerge, too. But the bright apple-citrus character always shines through.

The always-popular 2021 Boschendal

1685 Chardonnay from the Cape Coast of South Africa

(Vintages $18.95) is a classic, wooded white. Each sip sweeps in spiralling with baked apple laced with caramel, orange zest, and hazelnut. Easy win. Score: 92

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a refreshing white that tends to taste of lime and fresh herbs. Its expression from Marlborough, New Zealand, tends to be quite fruit-forward, while that from Bordeaux, France — where it’s often blended with a bit of semillon — is more restrained and less herbaceous. And when Sauvignon Blanc hails from elsewhere, it tends to hover somewhere between those two extremes. But this variety is always bright, clean and quenching.

The 2022 Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Reserva Sauvignon Blanc from Chile (LCBO $14.95) is always a delight with its dancing aromas of lime, damp herbs and Granny Smith apple that echo on the palate. This light-bodied, drytasting, well-balanced wine offers commendable value. Score: 93

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon smells and tastes like black currant. Yet, it can be one of the most complex wines in the world, taking on flavours of cassis, tobacco, cedar and chocolate — especially when it spends time in oak. The texture tends to be velvety and the wine itself robust. And it can hide a fair amount of residual sugar easily, so check the sugar content on a bottle’s product page at lcbo.com if that matters to you.

The newly released 2021 Rcabernet from California (Vintages $21) is true to form. It’s easy-drinking and chock-full of ripe blackcurrant flavours laced with creamy vanilla, a touch of milk chocolate and toasted almond. This accessible crowdpleaser nails the style. And though it’s sweet-fruited and sundrenched, it clocks a mere 2g/L of sugar. Score: 90

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir tastes of red berries, often with a fluttery note of violet. It can be ripe and fuller-bodied when grown in Oregon or lean and ethereal when it hails from Ontario or from Burgundy, France. And there’s an easy trick to determining how light- or full-bodied a wine will be without tasting it. Look at the alcohol level on the label. Lightbodied wines are 12.5 per cent alcohol or less, medium-bodied wines hover around 13 to 13.5 per cent alcohol and more than that is into fuller-bodied territory. This holds true for dry table wines, including Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir is called the heartbreak grape because it’s tough to grow well, so it’s seldom inexpensive. But one that over-delivers is the 2021 Roux Pere & Fils Les Cotilles Pinot Noir Vin de France (LCBO $19.40). This wine smells like cranberry and violet with a touch of white pepper and smoked meat. The expression is completely dry, delicate and smooth with the characteristic lift and impeccable balance. And at 13 per cent alcohol, it’s the lighter-side of medium-bodied. Bargain. Score: 93

If you’re a wine lover, you’re no doubt aware of the charms of these five grape varieties. If you’re new to wine, ask yourself which flavour profile you find most tempting and start there.

CAROLYN EVANS HAMMOND IS A TORONTO-BASED WINE WRITER AND A FREELANCE CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST FOR THE STAR. WINERIES SPONSOR SEGMENTS ON HER YOUTUBE SERIES BUT DON’T SELECT THE WINES SHE REVIEWS. HER OPINIONS ARE HER OWN. PRICES SUBJECT TO