Dr. David Muhleman

The-Wine-Educator    WINE & SPIRITS EDUCATION AND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE CONSUMER AND THE PROFESSIONAL

Who do you trust?

Recently I had the opportunity to ask a few of my friends where they get their wine information and advice. Unfortunately, most people are getting their wine information and advice from people who don’t know much more about wine, than the people they are giving advice to.

I often overhear diners in restaurants asking/taking advice on their dinner wine from the wait staff. One of the things I like to do is ask my waiters/waitresses where they learned about wine before I ask for their advice. When I find they have no formal training, and probably never attended a wine class in their lives, it becomes obvious that they were taught a few wine terms and sent out to sell the house wine.

The same goes for most retail stores. Clerks in grocery stores and stock persons in warehouse stores rarely know a Burgundy from a Bordeaux; but yet people ask for their advice and most are eager to steer the customer towards the wines the clerks like to drink. The largest retailers of wine are Safeway and COSTCO, and at the floor level, 99.9% of the sales staff have no clue when it comes to the wines they sell. They just sell it. But yet the consumers turn to these folks for advice and information on the wines they want to buy.

The problem is no less in the wine stores. Although the wine manager often knows what he is buying (and training his/her staff to sell) the advice you get from a wine store is normally affected by the profit margin on each wine. The wine with the greatest profit margin is the wine most likely to be recommended; and for any occasion.

Some of my friends suggested they get their wine advice and information from publications and websites. In many ways I would compare that to getting financial advice from Time magazine and Google; some resources MIGHT be okay, but most are giving you what you are paying for: nothing for nothing.

My suggestion is that you get your wine information and advice from the same place you get your car buying information and advice, your home buying information and advice, or your jewelry information and advice: not from the salesmen, but from educating yourself so you know as much (or more) than the seller.

I believe there is a world of difference between wine information and advice, and wine education. Wine information and advice is having someone else tell you what to buy. Wine education is someone teaching you what you need to know to pick out your own wine. The more you know about wine, the less you have to rely on an “advisor” who may know less than you do. An educated consumer has very little need for a salesman’s advice.

There are very few areas in our lives where we turn over our financial decisions of what we buy to someone else. In most other financial decisions (even buying a pair of shoes) we educate ourselves before buying. Rarely would a lady go into a shoe store and ask the clerk to recommend a pair of shoes for tonight’s party. But we do it everyday with a bottle of wine and usually think nothing of it.

My suggestion is to educate yourself, as you do with every other area of your life. Take a class, learn some basics, taste some wine, and maybe even read Wine for Dummies (it’s an excellent book). Once you learn some basics you are no longer at the mercy of the salesman or the “expert” that knows little or nothing about the wines they are advising you to buy..

.

Until next time, drink good wine.