Let's talk about Mar-Ket-Ing!

We've all fallen victim to the cute animals on some wine bottles (Aw! It's a cute little turtle!), only to discover that when we brought the bottle home it tasted more like childrens grape cough syrup than wine. This is what I call the Yellowtail epidemic. After Yellowtail became so popular because of the cute little kangaroo with the yellow tail on the label, wineries started catching on as to why it was selling so well. The wine is not good, the marketing is.

In the last 3 years, 18% of around 500 brands of wine have featured some type of creature on their label. These wines sell nearly twice the amount of wines without furry creatures on the front. Why? you ask...Because marketing works. You don't know what a wine is going to taste like until you buy it and bring it home so the only thing wineries can do to entice you to buy their wines is to draw your eye to their bottles with bright colours and cute animals. Once you've picked up the bottle, perhaps to read what they say it's supposed to taste like they make promises of "Blackberries, smooth tannins and currant." I have found that the reds are way too sweet (red wine is not supposed to be sweet) and the whites leave nothing special on your palate either.

Don't be afraid to pick up an "ugly" label. Not to say that if a label isn't bright and colourful that the wine will be good, just don't fall victim to selecting your wine based on the label alone.

I know not everyone is as big a nerd as me and might not want to read reviews before they shop for wine but it may help you to select a wine that is both affordable and pleasing to the palate.

My dad bought my uncle this book for Christmas called "Had a Glass: Top 100 wines under $20 for 2006." They are putting this book out every year with the newest wines. I glanced through it and found I had already tasted a lot of the wines in the book and liked almost all of them. If you see this book, it's probably around $15 or so, I suggest picking it up. It will save you time in the liquor store and you will discover some wines that you would never have tried otherwise.

Just because skunks are cute, little, furry, creatures doesn't mean they don't stink when you get too close to them.