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If I Knew Nothing About Wine, These Are the Wines I Would Buy
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If I Knew Nothing About Wine, These Are the Wines I Would Buy

Because it’s almost impossible to go wrong

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Charlie Brown
Apr 02, 2024
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If I Knew Nothing About Wine, These Are the Wines I Would Buy
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Welcome to The Sauce, deep travels through food and drink culture written by me, Charlie Brown, founder and former owner of what was once named Britain’s best independent wine store.

The Sauce is 100% reader-supported. For $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to hundreds of recipes and an ever-increasing number of food and wine commentaries and articles, as well as discounts on my remote wine consulting service.

I’ll teach you how to cook better. How to buy better drinks. How to cope with wine culture when it threatens to overwhelm you.

Your donation keeps the oven on and the pantry stocked. Thank you.

There is a lot of terrible wine out there.

Thanks to clever marketing, misinformation and general BS, when it comes to buying wine, it’s very easy to go very wrong.

How do you know if a wine is going to be good? How can you reduce your chances of crying whilst pouring your bottle down the drain?

Whilst I would normally tell you to choose your wine store carefully or ask someone you trust for recommendations, there are also some wine regions where it is almost impossible to go wrong.

Regions where even the cheapest examples are perfectly drinkable, if not rather good.

Regions where if you’re prepared to spend just a little more than the very lowest of the low, you’re in potentially mind-blowing territory.

If I knew nothing about wine, these are the regions I would focus on.

Because no one wants to pour money down the drain.

Pass the Rioja, please

Most people know about Rioja’s big, oaky styles of wine.

But there is another red wine from Rioja. One that pre-dates the oaky styles we consider classically Riojana today.

The carbonically macerated red.

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