Wine Online
Despite years of shopping for wine on the internet, most people still find it hard to get used to the idea. Wine, after all, isn’t like a book or CD. Holding a bottle, inspecting its label—you just can’t replicate that experience inside a browser window. Yet we do most of my wine buying online. Why?
For starters, the comparison shopping is unbeatable. With search engines like Wine-searcher.com and Google (which most retailers love), you no longer have to go to the Montrachet; the Montrachet will come to you. Cross-referencing the latest scores and top recommendations is blissfully easy, and especially pleasurable when you can do it at home in your bathrobe on a Saturday morning.
Selecting a wine site
Certain things separate the top Web sites from the also-rans. Ease of use and good customer service matter, for a start; so does price. But ultimately, what really counts is selection. Perhaps that’s why so many of the 10 terrific sites are established retailers with online divisions: They have the best access to a wide range of wonderful wines.
Sites that sell rare and older wines should be clear about the source and condition of the bottles and offer some guarantee about condition. Vinfolio, for instance, will issue a credit or replace a flawed bottle within 90 days.
Auction and consignment sites often charge the winning bidder fees of up to 18 percent. Be sure to check before bidding. Handling charges may be added too, even for wines picked up in person.
While shipping wine is easier than ever, it can add to the final cost—up to $15 or more per bottle. A good retailer will also warn you of shipping hazards, notably hot or cold weather; but according to NapaCabs.com’s Tom De Grezia, "people will still order when there’s a major heat wave going on."
Not every store can mail wine interstate. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, for instance, have a ban.
Many Web inventories aren’t updated immediately. If you find a must-have bottle, phone the merchant right away. "If you put a really highly rated Pinot online nowadays," says Twenty Twenty Wine Merchants’ Bob Golbahar, "you’ll be sold out of the wine in 10 minutes."
Wineries often sell their own wine online, but not always at the best price. Comparison shop. The best tool is Wine-searcher.com. Serious buyers should splurge on its Pro service ($30 per year).
Coming upon the long wall of wines at your local grocery store can be an intimidating experience. With so many different choices within so many different wine categories, how can you possibly choose the perfect wine to serve with your meal? Perhaps more importantly, without knowing what all these wine terms mean, how do you choose a wine that you and possibly others will enjoy? To be quite frank, unless you sit down with every bottle and taste it with the meal (not recommended), you will never know exactly what wines will go perfectly with that meal.
Wine and food pairing is not a perfect science that you can learn. Instead, Recipe4Living would like to offer some general guidelines for success in pairing wine with food and several do's and don't for the beginner's enjoyment of wine. This article will outline the most popular wine varieties and how they differ. In no time, you'll feel comfortable schmoozing with the biggest wine snobs.
