7 Wine Buying Tips

The wine world can seem intim­i­dat­ing at times. Find­ing and select­ing the right bot­tle can be a daunt­ing task, espe­cial­ly at huge wine shops or busy tast­ing rooms. Are you sick of feel­ing like a novice? Want to be able to impress friends and fam­i­ly with­out spend­ing time study­ing wine? If this sounds famil­iar, this blog post is for you! We’re going to look at sev­en empow­er­ing wine buy­ing tips to help you choose the best wine, every time.

1. Ask for Advice, You’ll Nev­er Regret It. What ter­mi­nol­o­gy do you use to describe a wine you’re look­ing for? What is a grün­er velt­lin­er or madeira or tocai friu­lano? Wine stew­ards and wine sales­peo­ple under­stand that find­ing the right wine can be dif­fi­cult, even if you’re a fre­quent imbiber. You don’t have to use fan­cy descrip­tions or spout top vin­tages or regions. Be hon­est with them and ask for help. If you want to study up before enter­ing a wine shop, down­load an easy-to-use dia­gram of wine vari­eties like this one from Wine Fol­ly.
2. Think About Food First. Great wine is best enjoyed with great food, and it’s often eas­i­er to decide what wine to buy once you know what you’re cook­ing. Check out our 10 Com­mand­ments to Wine Pair­ings for a beginner’s look at what foods work best with fine wine, and why.
3. Tim­ing is Impor­tant. When are you going to drink the wine you’re buy­ing? If you want a wine to drink right now, look for old­er vin­tages or a new­er vin­tage of a lighter vari­etal. If you are build­ing your wine cel­lar and won’t drink the wine for months or years, buy wine that will age well in bulk. If you’re not sure when the wine will be opened, look for a dif­fer­ent or unique wine you don’t nor­mal­ly purchase.
4. Buy by the Case. Once you’ve found a wine or win­ery you love, stock up. Winer­ies and wine shops gen­er­al­ly give a dis­count when you pur­chase wine by the case. We offer a 10% dis­count when you pur­chase 12 or more bot­tles, which can be eas­i­ly mixed and matched to suit your needs. Sav­ing mon­ey and guar­an­tee­ing that the wine in your cel­lar is delec­table? It’s a win-win.
5. Rule of 3. If your bud­get is tight and buy­ing a dis­count­ed case isn’t an option, pur­chase three bot­tles of one wine at a time. The first bot­tle can be read­i­ly shared with friends or fam­i­ly, the sec­ond bot­tle opened for a spe­cial occa­sion or a par­tic­u­lar food pair­ing, and the third bot­tle stashed away for when you tru­ly want to savor the wine. Pro wine buy­ers snatch up mul­ti­ple bot­tles of the same wine at a time because they know once a wine vin­tage is gone, it can nev­er be replaced.
6. Vari­ety is the Spice of Life. Wine is made from rough­ly 1,300 dif­fer­ent grape vari­etals; wine­mak­ers can blend vari­etals, use dif­fer­ent types of oak or stain­less steel to age wine; each vin­tage is total­ly unique. The point is… there’s a lot of dif­fer­ent wines to be drunk! Spice things up and try new wines, you’ll nev­er know what you might discover.
7. Join a Wine Club. Join­ing a wine club is a sim­ple and easy way to ensure that good wine is nev­er far from reach. If you’ve found a wine you like, why wouldn’t you want to receive the wine at a dis­count, deliv­ered direct­ly to your door, with access to lim­it­ed pro­duc­tion and exclu­sive wines no one else might know of? You’ll be able to buy direct­ly from the win­ery, with some­one there to per­son­al­ly guide you through the shop­ping process (ahem, you’ll be able to ask for their advice). Plus, you’ll also get bonus­es such as vis­it­ing the vine­yards on VIP sta­tus. Learn more and sign up for the Beck­men Wine Club.

Over­all, look for a store or win­ery you trust to have a wide array of options, with capa­ble and friend­ly staff. Ask for rec­om­men­da­tions and ask ques­tions if you don’t under­stand some­thing. You don’t have to spend a for­tune on fine wine if you know how, and where, to look.