How to choose a bottle when you don't know anything about wine

You're standing in front of the bottles and you don't know which one to take. It happens all the time. There are hundreds of them, labels don't always say much when you're starting out, and the more you try to understand, the more complicated the choice seems.

Yet finding a good bottle for tonight doesn't require knowing every appellation or being able to recognize a grape variety blindfolded. A few pointers are enough. And the first one isn't even written on the bottle.

What are you doing with this bottle? A glass at the aperitif, Tuesday night pasta, a steak on the BBQ, dinner at friends', a gift? Start there.

The wine you open while making dinner doesn't need to play the same role as the one you bring to friends. And the perfect bottle for a Friday-night pizza might not be the one you'd pick for a birthday. It's not about prestige. It's simply a matter of occasion.

That's where the idea of "Tonight" at Le Premier Verre came from. Rather than asking which wine you should know, we prefer to know what you have planned.

Your budget is an excellent starting point. If you want a bottle around 20 $ for a weeknight dinner, there are very good ones. If you feel like spending a bit more because you're hosting on Saturday, that's fine too.

A more expensive bottle isn't automatically one you'll prefer. The price can be explained by a lot of things — where the grapes grow, the quantity produced, the winemaker's work, the ageing, the rarity — but none of those things knows your tastes.

So if you're asking for advice, just say how much you want to spend. "Around 20 $" or "no more than 30 $" is exactly the kind of information that helps find something that suits you.

You don't need to speak like a sommelier to talk about wine. If you like very crisp whites, say so. If big, robust reds aren't your thing, say that too.

That's more than enough to start.

Over time, you might find more precise words for what you like. You'll understand that some whites you find especially crisp have higher acidity, or that you generally prefer lighter reds. But there's no rush to learn the vocabulary before you've learned your own tastes.

And if you don't know what to say, simply think of a bottle you've liked before. You can even take a photo of it. Next time, show it and ask for something in the same spirit. That's often how discoveries start.

As you taste more, certain names will start to come up. That's when the label becomes interesting.

Look first at the grape variety. Gamay, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot noir… If you realise that several bottles you like are made from the same grape, keep that in mind.

Also look at where the wine comes from. You don't need to know the wine map of France. But if it's the third Beaujolais you like, it might be worth remembering.

And then there's the producer. When a bottle really pleases you, see who made it. The other wines from that person or estate won't necessarily taste the same, but it's a very good lead for continuing your discovery.

Little by little, all those names that seemed abstract start to be attached to real bottles and real memories. It's much easier to remember them that way.

You can go into the SAQ without knowing whether you're looking for Gamay, Grenache or Sangiovese. That's not a problem.

Instead of just asking for "a good red," say in one sentence what you'll be using it for.

Or: "I'm looking for a very crisp white for an aperitif, around 20 $."

Or: "I'm going to dinner at friends' place, I don't know what we'll be eating and I'd like to bring something around 30 $."

You've just given everything needed to start looking. And if you want a surprise, you can always add that you'd like to discover something you wouldn't have chosen yourself.

We could have suggested fifty. We'd rather start with six. They're different enough from one another to let you taste, compare and above all see what makes you want another glass.

There will inevitably be bottles you thought you'd like that will leave you rather indifferent. It's not a wasted bad choice. You've simply learned something about your tastes.

And then there will be the opposite: a bottle picked almost at random that you'll love. Keep that one somewhere.

No need to write a complicated tasting note. "Very crisp, loved it, buy again" is already an excellent note. The important thing is to be able to find it again a few months later.

That's exactly the idea behind My Cellar and My Notebook: to keep a record of the bottles you've drunk, the ones you want to try and the little markers that become yours.

After some time, something changes. In front of the same hundreds of bottles, a few names now mean something to you. You recognise a producer. You remember that you liked a Gamay. You see a region you've already come across.

You haven't learned wine by heart. You've simply begun to know what you like. And that's much more useful.

Tell us what you're eating, what you feel like and how much you want to spend. We'll start from there.

And if you'd rather take your time, browse the wine pages, save the ones that intrigue you and come back to them when you're in the mood to open something.

To occasionally receive our new discoveries, the producers we like and the places we want to stop by: