Leave prejudices aside and give these a shot

There are lots of different kinds of wine consumer. There’s the one who never spends more than a tenner and sticks faithfully to one or two brands. They like wine but it doesn’t really interest them. Then there’s the sort that spends up to €20, especially at the weekends. They have a few favourites but can be persuaded to experiment, if only a little.

There’s the enthusiast who, regardless of budget, is constantly looking for new experiences and puts a lot of time and work into exploring. And there’s the connoisseur, usually self-styled, who has seen it all and developed a conservative streak, sticking almost exclusively to classics such as Bordeaux and Burgundy.

However, all of us are informed by our prejudices, justified or not. For example, you won’t find me buying Barolo and keeping it for years. And not just because it’s bloody dear; it’s more that most of them still taste tough and dried out when supposedly at their peak.

And I won’t buy wines that are supposed to be savoury but contains lots of sugar. They just taste cloying to me and I might as well name names. Brands like Apothic (16g of residual sugar per litre), 19 Crimes (12g) and Dada (8g to 10g) are just too sweet for me. They are, however, good at getting people to cross over from the white side to the red side. Just for context, dry wines generally contain 2g or less residual sugar per litre.

My other prejudices include a bit of an aversion to skin-contact natural white wines, many of which taste a little too close to the farmhouse cider made by a former neighbour of mine and which I used to buy for a fiver for 2.5 litres. There’s nothing wrong with the taste and style but I don’t want to pay a lot for it.

There are big brand Champagnes that I tend to avoid because I think they are even more overpriced than Champagne in general. Examples include Moët & Chandon (but only their non-vintage one), Mumm, Piper-Heidsieck and Lanson.

Other people will have their own prejudices. An aversion to red wine is surprisingly common and there are those — usually men of a certain kind — who won’t touch whites and talk about ‘girly wines’. And then there are those who think that sherry all tastes like Harvey’s Bristol Cream.

Well, thank heaven it doesn’t.