One question that is asked a lot of wine industry people is the question of wine selection. What variety of wine would I like? What I like this particular wine? What price should I be paying for a good bottle of wine? Should I buy wine from online wine sites?

Choosing wines is a personal choice. But how would I know what I like? There are many options to taste wines before buying them. Many bottle shops that stock a large range of wine will usually have one or more wines for you to try. Many wine companies provide these stores with promotional products to help sell their product.

By all means, try these wines that are offered without any feeling of guilt. Most of the time, these promotional tastings are also accompanied with a sale of the product so good value can also be found.

Another good way to try wines is by visiting wineries. Most wineries are beginning to introduce a “tasting fee” to try their wines, but the fee is generally minimal and most times is waived if you purchase some of the wine you’ve just tried. There are many ways to go about visiting wineries. If you have knowledge of a particular winery region, you can plan the trip yourself. You can also gather information from the internet to help you plan a trip.

If you’re planning a trip yourself, information can also be gathered from the wineries you visit as they will have a lot of knowledge about the area. If you’re not confident organising one yourself, you can always pay to go on an organised trip. There are generally companies that do this among the larger winery regions.

There’s two options you have if you’d like to try different wines from different wineries all from the one location. One option is to join a wine club. Many of these clubs have wine tasting parties which are sometimes sponsored by wineries and or companies selling wines.

Online wine websites are great if you know what you are buying. Otherwise, read what they have to say. Most online wine sales sites have wine clubs where you can join and try different wines every couple of months which also allows you to gain knowledge of region and varietals.

In the end, its completely your personal choice. Somebody can’t tell you what you should like, but rather what you might like.

Wine can be a great shared experience, but above all else, an enjoyable personal experience.