What are the best buying cues if you want to find a wine you like?

By Jamie Goode | 13th July 2023

There are tens of thousands of wines made every year, and most of these are vintage-dated products, so the number of wines you might encounter is enormous. This makes choosing a wine from a wine list in a restaurant or on a supermarket shelf really difficult! Here are some of the buying cues that you can use, with comments on their strengths and weaknesses.

Grape variety

The best guide to how a wine might taste is indicated by the name of the grape variety on the label. Of course, different varieties produce wines with a wide range of quality levels, but as a shorthand, variety plus price can help you get close to finding your wine even if you have no other useful information. In South Africa, you generally know what you are getting if you buy a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinotage, a Cinsault, a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Chardonnay, for example. For Chenin Blanc it is a little trickier because this variety is so versatile and makes wines in lots of styles, but generally the cheaper ones are fresh, bright and fruity, while the pricier ones tend to taste richer and may have some oak influence. I reckon grape variety is a good place to start.

Region

South Africa has a wide range of wine regions, each with their specific characteristics. Stellenbosch is the largest and most famous, and is big enough that specific bits of the region have their own characteristics. There are wamer areas, like the Swartland, Franschhoek, Paarl and Wellington. And then there are cooler areas, such as Elgin, Elim and Hemel-en-Aarde. Some of these regions have specific talents for certain wine styles. Pinot Noir from Hemel-en-Aarde, for example, or Chardonnay from Elgin. Swartland Chenin Blanc is developing quite a reputation, too. It’s worth learning a bit about the different Wine of Origin regions in South Africa to help guide wine choice.

Vintage

Some vintages are better than others, but some wine regions show a narrower band of vintage variation than others. It’s good advice to follow vintage as a buying cue in cooler regions where there’s often rainfall at harvest, because the variation can be striking. South Africa, with its Mediterannean-style climate (wet winters followed by warm, dry growing season, and generally rain-free vintages) is consistent enough year to year that vintage isn’t a vital factor in choosing a wine. Almost all vintages produce some pretty good wines, and there aren’t many shockers. The not-infrequent droughts tend to affect yields more than they do absolute quality.

Producer

This is generally the best way to choose wine, because the producer (winery or winemaker or brand) has such an important influence on wine quality. There are some producers where I’m happy to buy any wine they make even if I’ve never tasted it before. So if you are in a wine region, learning the name of the top 10 producers in that region can help you find a great wine. The problem with this approach is that so many people know only the names of a handful of producers in each region, their wines become hotly sought after, and so prices rise and availability is reduced. Usually, there are other producers doing great work who aren’t so well known, and they are the ones to go for – but this does require some background research.

Reviews

There are lots of critics busy scoring wines, usually out of 100 points. A good critic rating can be a helpful, but not infallible, guide to quality. The problem with critics? First, they tend to rate only the fancy wines, not all the wines out there. Second, their reviews tend to be paywalled so they are hard to access without taking out a subscription. Third, you may not share the same taste as the critic you are reading, so they’ll be an unreliable guide. If you get to know the taste of a critic and find it matches your preferences, and you are buying the sorts of wines critics review, then this is a very good option. I think that Wine Magazine in South Africa does a very good job reviewing wines, as does British critic Tim Atkin who spends a lot of time in South Africa each year and has an experienced palate. Platter’s Guide is also really useful, if perhaps a little over-generous in its ratings these days: a five-star Platter wine used to be a rare thing indeed!

Apps like Vivino also try to match customers with wines. The great thing about these is that all you need to be able to access these is a mobile phone and an internet connection. Grab a picture of a label, and you are in business. You might even be able to scan a wine list and the app will find out the wines this way. The bad side of wine apps? They are a bit like Trip Advisor – the reviews are provided by customers, and not all customers either share your tastes or are reliable guides. The wisdom of the crowd often isn’t all that wise. I’ve asked apps to show me the top 20 wines from a particular wine region, and the corresponding list, if it had been compiled by a human, would have led me to disregard them as a source of sound advice. I’m not a huge fan.

Medals

Lots of bottles have stickers on them, telling you they’ve won a medal in a competition. This is a useful indication that the wine is of good quality. But there’s a caveat: not all competitions are well judged, and some dish out medals to pretty much every wine. I’m a co-chair of one international competition, which I think judges wines very competently, but I clearly have a conflict of interest here so I can’t say any more.

Retailer or restaurant reputation

Finally, entrust yourself to someone with a great reputation for selecting wines. Great retailers only list wines that they have tried, and that they believe in. This can be a very satisfying way of buying wine: in the best case scenario, a wine shop might have knowledgeable staff who can steer you in the right direction on the basis of your preferences or experience. The same is true of those restaurants that have great wine lists, where they have a sommelier who knows the list. Ask for advice if you think you are at such an establishment.