DRINK

Wine shops vs. grocery stores? What you need to know

Rob Stein
For The Tennessean
Choosing a bottle of wine on your own can be a difficult task, and costly if you don't choose wisely.

In Tennessee, we are on the brink of a major change in the landscape of wine appreciation. Starting this summer (July 1), we will be able to buy wine in grocery stores. How should this affect us?

Learning about wine is a lifelong journey, an adventure. No matter how much you have learned, there is always that much more to know. Each time I purchase wine, it presents another opportunity to explore and broaden my wine-tasting experience.

No question that the best way to learn about wine is to taste wine. Be inquisitive. Remember what you liked and what you didn’t like — and why. Recognize that tastes and palates will change over time due to experience and age.

So where should you buy wine? My feeling is that for the best success, you would do well to establish a relationship with a particular wine shop and a particular person in that wine shop who is knowledgeable about wines — and not every wine shop employee is.

Find that knowledgeable person and ask them for advice. Let him or her know how much you would like to spend. By and large, the sweet spot for quality and value is in the $15-$25 range. At that level, you should be able to get good quality, varietal definition, and plenty of options.

Furthermore, many wine shops have a strong suit. They may be particularly strong in European wines, southern hemisphere wines or California wines. Perhaps all of those areas are well covered — even better.

When my wife and I first came to Nashville 40 years ago, there wasn’t a single wine shop that sold vintage port. Selections of wine were severely limited and fine wines were almost impossible to find. Today, we are fortunate to have several fine wine shops in Nashville and surrounding communities that offer first-tier wines and excellent advice.

Wine bar in grocery stores bill approved in Senate

Liquor store cap passes Tennessee House, heads to Gov. Haslam

At this point, it is unclear what wine sales in larger grocery stores will accomplish for many of us. My experience in surveying major grocery chains in states that currently permit wine sales has been that most offerings are mid-level wines from mass producers that usually do not provide much excitement.

Occasionally, high-end grocers will carry premium wines. However, there is almost never anyone around to give advice about what to purchase — that means you are on your own. That is not a good way to learn and to calibrate — it's inefficient and potentially costly. Whatever you may save in price (and that is not entirely clear), you lose in a scrambled selection.

The road to success in selecting and enjoying wine is to find the person at the wine shop you choose to go to whose palate matches up with your own. Tell that person what type of wine you would like, how you may plan to use it, and what you would like to spend. Ask her/him to select six bottles for you to try based on your preferences.

Use this opportunity to expand your frame of reference, be it grape variety, country of origin, or how the wine was made. Then, over time, taste the selections and see how much success you achieved. High congruity means you have the right person. If the wines don’t give enjoyment or match up with what you had hoped for, then try someone else or another destination.

Now, more than ever, the emphasis at local wine shops will be on service and advice. Use those criteria to help you in your never-ending quest to learn about wine and, most importantly, enjoy!

Rob Stein, an orthopedic surgeon in Nashville, has been a wine enthusiast and collector for more than 40 years.

As wine in grocery stores looms, Tennessee alcohol head resigns