Selecting Wine: Dave’s Rule of Thumb

Hello Infinity Wine lovers!  I thought now would be a great time to share some of my favourite tips for picking a decent bottle of wine, whatever the shop. And because dinner party season is right around the corner, I’ve also covered how to give yourself a fighting chance at getting the bottle you bring to a dinner party served and not squirrelled away by the host.

Let’s start with ‘Dave’s Rule of Thumb’ — or how to choose a decent bottle from the supermarket wine wall.

At the bottom of some wine bottles is a dimple called a punt. If you’ve never seen one, check out a champagne bottle. Punts increase the strength of the bottle, and because champagne is under pressure (6 bar / 90 psi for the average bottle from France), these bottles need to be very strong to keep the glass from cracking. Bottles with punts are good and sturdy and are a top choice for bottling good quality wine. I’ve also discovered, the deeper your thumb goes in, the better the wine! When you find a bottle with a punt in your price range, job done. You will definitely be holding a good quality bottle in your hand.

But if you can’t afford a bottle with a punt and need to drop to a lower price point, don’t worry — you can still find a drinkable wine among the shelves. First, look at the bottle. If the bottle looks cheap and thin, I can guarantee the wine inside will also be cheap and thin.

Bottlers don’t use good bottles for low-quality wine. Occasionally, supermarkets will put cheap wine into slightly more expensive bottles with nice labels to make them look premium so they can charge a few more pounds, but it’s still a good rule to remember.

The next thing to look at is the origin of the wine.

Wine regions are split into Old World (think Europe) and New World (everywhere else). Supermarkets, major online wine clubs and online retailers focus on volume sales. They will ship massive quantities of wine from New World vineyards in South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to the UK using bulk tankers to be bottled here. Bottle quality will be low to hit a low price point.

Often these New World bulk wines are entered into paid competitions where awards are handed out like confetti. That award on the label has added a couple of quid to the price, but it hasn’t made the wine better!

When looking for a decent bottle of wine in the supermarket, ignore Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa. Instead, look for wines from France, Italy and occasionally Spain. Most of these wines are bottled at the winery and transported to the UK, giving you a higher chance of choosing a quality product.

This advice also works in reverse. You will now easily be able to figure out if the bottle of wine your mate brought over is worth drinking or if they plucked it from the supermarket special offer shelf.

However, there is one caveat. While these tips can get you a reasonably decent bottle, they can’t tell you if it’s going to taste nice. Wine preference is entirely personal.

Alright, say you’ve used Dave’s Rule of Thumb to choose a bottle to take to dinner with your pals. How do you make sure it ends up on the table, not in the cupboard?

I’m not sure whether I should confess this, but I used to get really frustrated going to dinner parties. Sarah and I would bring along a lovely bottle that would be happily received before being put to the side. Instead of our beautiful bottle, they would serve some Australian plonk with a fancy award badge from the supermarket. (Yep, just the sort of thing I warned you about earlier.)

Having been a wine merchant for six years now, I have learned a few tricks to make sure your wine is drunk if you take it to a dinner party.

If you are bringing white or fizz, be sure to chill it before the party, so it’s ready to drink when you arrive.

When you present the wine, be enthusiastic and say something like, ‘I’ve bought this especially for you because I really want to share it with you. It’s chilled and ready to go. Where is the corkscrew?’ The chances of getting your wine served have massively increased because now it will seem rude not to open it.

If you bring a red, you can still make a fuss about the wine. Say you fell in love with it and have been so looking forward to drinking it with everyone. You might not have tasted it, but if you have spent £15 to £20 on your bottle, it will be much better than the £6.99 special about to be served.

And if you’ve spent a little extra on a bottle as a gift for your friends to be kept, be sure to tell them, ‘This one is for you later. Put it in the cupboard. I’ve got this one ready for us to drink now.’ This will help ensure your gift doesn’t get opened accidentally in the course of the evening.

And finally, what to do if someone comes to your house bearing a flat-bottomed bottle with a screw top? Generally, this will be the nastiest wine in a shop, and my recommendation is to make them drink it. Say, ‘Oh! This looks lovely! Let’s open it now!’ Pour them an enormous glass first and keep topping it up while you nurse your small glass. When their bottle is finished, bring out something good for you to enjoy.
As a good wine merchant, I’ve got loads of ideas for drinkable wine for various situations in a range of price points, and I’m happy to help. You can always skip the multiple retailers altogether and drop me a note.

If you enjoyed this article and have a question about wine or the industry in general, please let me know. -Dave