This is probably the more frequent question people are gonna ask you as soon they will get to know about your knowledge on wine, regardless you are a wanna-be sommelier at his very first lesson, a worldwide famous expert or a very experienced wine drinker.
Personally, when I’m asked this question, I have a double reaction. On one side I’m happy as I take it as a positive curiosity from the questioner who’s asking me a suggestion to raise his/her level of pleasure; on the other hand I’m often afraid of the question being a mere continuation of the chat and that my suggestions will end up nowhere
If I think about it, however, what’s the matter about the aim of the question? By the end of the day wine, as many other life pleasures, has a personal purpose and, in being so, it can’t be judged, so questions welcome!
Let’s assume the question is genuine, asked by a person really interested to get to know a new wine to increase his/her tasting expertise.
If the question is easily understandable, the answer is not so straightforward. Having said that “good” is clearly subjective, the problem in answering is to understand the palate and the sensibility of the person I’m suggesting the wine to.
It often happens to me to be present at situation in which someone suggests a wine to someone else and this is part of the beauty of wine, the sharing. Unfortunately too often the suggestion is exclusively based on our own judgment, on what we liked. The needs of the person who asked the question are usually not taken into consideration, given the fact that if a wine is good, then is good for everybody!
Willing to give a reasonable answer, first of all it’s necessary to understand the habits of the person we’re talking with about wine, his/her ability to comprehend given differences between different wines and other elements. It’s necessary, above all, understand the aim of the purchase: personal satisfaction, dinner with friends, present, thousands of other reasons?
This rapid analysis also require the ability to interpret the indications of the questioner who, if not “trained” to the oenological slang, could easily be not technical and very subjective.
Recently I gave as present to a friend of mine a bottle of white wine with few years on its shoulders, to make him tasting it and possibly, selling on his bar. The wine had very specific smelling and tasting notes, clearly derived from evolution in bottle as well as from the winemaking process. Regardless the introduction to explain the wine and making my friend ready for a taste I was sure he was not accustomed to, it has been firmly marked as oxidized and old (I can guarantee and other tastings can guarantee, it was not!). I love that wine!
The difficult part in suggesting a good wine is in the end to connect the wine with the person, creating a link between them, a kind of blind date. We need to be the friend that makes two persons meeting, hoping that they will like each other and potentially fall in love with the other. It’s not an easy task, nor simple, you can run the risk to give a delusion because you’ve not been able to understand the other’s need or simply because you don’t have a hand the right tools.
So if you ask me a suggestion, be ready for a short interview! Made for the pleasure to share with you some nice experiences. And be suspicious with those answering to your question too quickly, because they would give the same answer to everyone or just thinking about his/her own tastes instead of yours… After all wine is a means of connecting people, so why should we waste an occasion to get to know each other a little bit?