Summer nights, hazy evenings, you’re sitting out on the restaurant patio, watching people walk by or you’re enjoying the summer breeze on your back porch, talking with your loved ones. It’s one of those nights when you’re in the mood for something refreshing, something tasty…but you’ve grown tired of mixed drinks? And you’re not in the mood for a beer? How about a glass of wine? But you’ve no idea what to pick.

I know the feeling.

Five years ago, I planned a trip to Europe, and some of the planned meals were accompanied with wine. I was nervous because all I’ve known was mixed drinks, particularly vodka. I wanted to try and appreciate wine while in Europe, so I decided to start tasting some of my dad’s wine whenever he opened a bottle for dinner. After a few bottles, I was beginning to feel hopeless. I didn’t like the taste of any of them, I felt like I was choking the wine down. How do people do this?!

Basically, I sucked it up. I tasted all kinds of wine while I was out on a five-week tour in Europe. There was even one incident, when I was at dinner with the entire tour group, and I was sharing a bottle of wine with two other guys. Both of them kept topping off my glass. I think that’s when I started to really enjoy wine. At the end of the five-week tour, I came home with three bottles of wine from Germany for my family to try.

I liked wine. But I didn’t know exactly what I liked. I definitely preferred white over red. But would try anything. Now comes the trial and error! I used to work with some ladies who enjoyed wine and champagne. That has helped refine my taste for wine, I learned that I liked Riesling and Gewurztraminer, the best (I Googled it, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to spell it correctly, if only I could pronounce it!).

Here’s a description of my favorite kinds of wine:

Gewurztraminer is a white wine that produces distinctive wines rich in spicy aromas and full flavors, ranging from dry to sweet. This varietal is a popular choice for Asian cuisines and pork-based sausages.

Rieslings are white wines known for their floral perfume. Depending on where they’re made, they can be crisp and bone-dry, full-bodied and spicy or luscious and sweet.

This link has a great description of all the wines you can think of!

I also lived with two other girls who loved white wine, so whenever we were in the mood to have some wine, we’d go off to the World Market, or some other store, spending some time trying to pick out some wines we’d like to try. Occasionally, there would be someone to help us pick some wines out (usually those turn out to be the ones we don’t like!)

I don’t know about you, but I tend to go about this strategy: Pick wine based on its labels. My mom says she does that all the time. It’s fun! but that’s not the only thing I look at, I also look at what fruits are made in the wine. I know I like citrus flavors, but not so much peach flavors. I’ve had quite a few hits with the wines I’ve chosen, now if only I could remember what they were!

Often times, I come across the dilemma, I’m out to eat and I want to have some wine with dinner. But I never know what to pick! I know the general flavors I like, but not all of the wine lists have descriptions of wine. This is when I ask the waiter to tell me a little about some of the wines that i might want to try and go off of that (I’ll be lucky if I completely understand what they’re saying). However, I think I’ve had more misses than hits when ordering wine while at a restaurant.

It’s hard to ask someone to recommend a wine that you might like, simply because everyone has a unique palate. Some are going to like drier wines, others prefer a sweeter wine. You also can’t always go by price because sometimes a pricey wine isn’t suited to your tastes.

Here’s what I suggest to do when ordering wine in a restaurant: the first thing is to decide whether you want white or red. That cuts your choices in half (if it’s a small group of people, choose one, but if you have a bigger crowd, perhaps try ordering one in red and one in white). You should also determine what will go good with what you’re eating. That’s as far as I can go with choosing wine. It depends on what you like! You should check out this list of suggestions on how to choose wine.

Now, you’re in a wine store or a grocery store and the choices are overwhelming! I know. I feel like that every time. Sometimes I try to remember what wine I really liked last time. I usually don’t remember the name of the wine, but on occassion I’ll get lucky and remember exactly what the bottle looked like. Now, I think you should be able to pick a wine based on the description of the wine. Also, location of where the wine came from does make a difference. You should also pay attention to how the wine is stored (upright or on the sides–wine is kept longer if stored on its side.) Try this website for some suggestions.

Now if you really want to learn what you like and don’t like, I suggest trying some wine festivals. Those tend to be fun, especially when you get a few friends to go with you. This gives you an opportunity to try the local wines, which I think promotes awareness of the environment. We have the Maryland Wine festival and the Virginia Wine Festival Incidentally, we’ve got something coming up for this weekend at Linganore Winecellars.

How do you choose your wines? Do you have any favorites?