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In article >, says...
>
>I am not a regular drinker, but wanted to try to start drinking a glass of
>wine a night or as an appetizer/dessert. The problem is that every wine I
>have tried tastes terrible to me. I have tried cheap, mid priced, and
>expensive. I know virtually nothing about wines but figure I just have not
>found the right one for me. Any suggestions?
>

Mel,

You do not indicate why you want to try to start drinking a glass of wine, and
that might be important.

First, I'll assume that you are legit in your expression of both desire to
drink and enjoy wine, and in your feelings that the enjoyment has been missing
in your previous attempts. I'll get slightly personal and anecdotal: I too did
not appreciate wine. Beers and ales and a few "hard liquor" drinks were more to
my tastes. My wife and many of her friends enjoyed wine and attempted to get my
interest up, but didn't meet with much success. About every wine that I tasted
seemed unpleasant in some way. As this was the 60's in the US, Mateus Rosé and
Lancer's Rosé were becoming popular. I found that I enjoyed both, but still
didn't really embrace wine in general. At least I now had two wines from which
I could derive enjoyment when in the company of my wife's friends. They didn't
look down their noses too much and just accepted my un-refined tastes - at
least I was drinking wine. Outside the boundaries of these two wines, not much
else was appealing to me. I still sampled other wines and just didn't get it.
After many wasted years, a very good friend introduced me to a Bordeaux from
the Pomerol over a wonderful dinner. The wine was phenomenal. Over the course
of evening, it changed several times in the glass much to my amazement and
delight. Over that glass of wine, I had a catharsis. Had my tastes changed so
dramatically? Had the evening with great friends changed the wine? Was this
just such a different wine that I had ever experienced? Who knows, other than I
found that I loved wine totally. I had a complete 180º turn. My biggest regret
is that I wasted so much time before I made this discovery.

OK, where is this leading, you might ask? To know if you will ever like wine,
you should experience a good deal of it. Considering that there are literally
tens of thousands of wines available someplace, that will take several
life-times. Pretty bleak endeavor, if you finally decide that NO, you just
don't LIKE wine. My advice is to attempt to sample a very broad spectrum of
wine in the most favorable conditions, and then make that decision, knowing
that your personal tastes might well change at some point and then you might
wish to start over. I'd suggest that you not concentrate on what price a wine
is, and also ignore someone's rating of a wine. Price, while giving a clue as
to quality leaves so many variables unaddressed as to be worthless here. One's
personal rating is just that a personal observation based on their individual
preferences - not yours. A possible start to your quest would be a book by
Andrea Immer, Master Sommelier, "Great Wine, Made Simple." ISBN 0-7679-0477-X.
Her approach is based on tasting wine and follows, IMHO, a very logical
progression. Hers is more a "workbook," than a traditional wine text. Because
it does involve actually tasting many wines, it might help to have a few
friends around so you don't end up with a bunch of bottles that do not get
consumed. The process is about experiencing wine at many levels and there is
also quite a bit of information to be gleaned from the reading of the book -
along with the fun of actually drinking the wine. She covers some background
material, i.e. serving temps, glassware, and the like, which should help put
each wine in the most favorable light. Again, having those friends around can
do far more than just allow all the wine to be consumed.

While certainly every available wine is not covered in this book - it has fewer
than 300 pages, sans appendices, it covers an extremely broad range of wines,
giving you a great opportunity to see if there really isn't something out there
that you DO enjoy. Even if you discover that you really do not enjoy wine,
you'll have experience and knowledge and can keep up the conversation with
those who do like wine.

Good luck and I hope you find the starting point that you need for a life
accompanied by wine.
Hunt