How can you tell if a bottle of wine is any good?

[OMGWTFBBQ]

I am in no way a wine aficionado. Due to recent circumstances that are about to blow up over the next month, I need to stay on the good side of someone. I figure I will appease them with wine.

But I don't know anything about wine except that it is made from grapes (unless it is Boones Farm apple wine).

So I went into the best liquor store here that I know of (doesn't at all mean it is good, just means that I know about it), and I looked for the most expensive bottle of wine I could find.
That bottle was $150 (I didn't look all that hard). Close to it was a bottle for $106.

They were both from Napa Valley in California, and they were both Cabernet Sauvignon. The more expensive one was from 2000 and the cheaper one was from 1998.
The more expensive one had a paper label on it and I didn't see anything on it that read as "I am totally a great bottle of wine".
The cheaper one was a black glass bottle and had a white print directly on the bottle of some fields, a tree, and a house - it looked like a farm or something equally pastoral in a linocut sort of way.

I ended up going with the black bottle one for $106. I can't really say why except that it had a slightly modern feel to it and that is about it.

So for future reference, in case I need to do this repeatedly - what are some good ways to find a good bottle of wine.

I figure the chat section of an internet fitness board where the majority of the readers are in college and use drugs is pretty much the best place to ask such a thing.

 

[jerkbox]

i'm sure there are tons of websites out there that rate wine and such....try google, assclown.

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

i'm sure there are tons of websites out there that rate wine and such....try google, assclown.

Okay good, good. So I'm out in town, standing in a liquor store. I have an array of bottles in front of me - what to do?

I'll just ask them if they have a net connection and then cruise to Google and type in "good wine"?

Excellent, I should have thought of that myself.

 

[velvett]

$$$$ does not always = good taste

Experiment, ask people what they like (real people not the "it's in the dirt people") speaking to the wine seller and see what comes up in your taste testing. Oh and don't be afraid to try different thing from countries you may have not first thought to try.

The reason why some wines are so expensive is becasue the specific vineyard of that wine only made x amount of that vintage.

 

[PoyeBoy]

if it tastes good, then it tastes good

 

[from zero]

lol

What is the exact name of the 2 wines, brolaximus?

 

[Ganryu]

Okay good, good. So I'm out in town, standing in a liquor store. I have an array of bottles in front of me - what to do?

I'll just ask them if they have a net connection and then cruise to Google and type in "good wine"?

Excellent, I should have thought of that myself.

So are you going to print put this thread and take it with you next time you buy wine?

 

[Fragadelic]

Ask the liquor store owner if they have a net connection and then cruise to Google and type in "good wine"

 

[from zero]

$$$$ does not always = good taste

Experiment, ask people what they like (real people not the "it's in the dirt people") speaking to the wine seller and see what comes up in your taste testing. Oh and don't be afraid to try different thing from countries you may have not first thought to try.

The reason why some wines are so expensive is becasue the specific vineyard of that wine only made x amount of that vintage.

Exactly. I could recommend you a great wine and you wouldn't be spending more than $20. Seriously.

 

[WODIN]

I really wanna know what ya fucked up to even consider buying a smoothing things over gift?