There is a bottle of wine somewhere in the world you will love more than any you have tasted. Have you found it already? Wine is a treasure hunt across regions, climates and cultures. Every glass is a clue, every discovery leads you somewhere new.

I recently wrote about how many restaurants in London can no longer afford wine-educated staff, and how this pushes their lists toward safe, familiar choices like Chardonnay. That article wasn’t against Chardonnay. It was about what happens when guests are left without guidance, and restaurants can only offer what people already know. Indigenous varieties and less mainstream terroirs disappear from lists, small producers lose their outlets, diversity shrinks.

This article is the other side of that story. What can you, as a guest, do?

Be curious! To know what you love, you have to explore first and then explore again to discover new surprises.

The best wine is always the one you love most. But you can’t know what you love until you have tried many different varieties from many different climates. Cool and warm, coastal and mountain. Volcanic, limestone, schist, chalk, terra rossa and others. Only through tasting widely do you start to understand your own palate. And then you can go deeper.

The easiest way to start is by the glass. A glass is low risk, and it is yours alone – you are not committed to a bottle. And a wine you do not love is not a failure; it is part of a discovery. You have learned something about yourself.

In London, wine bars and restaurants like Noble Rot often have excellent selections by the glass/Coravin. Many independent restaurants worldwide do too. In Maribor, Slovenia, there is a small bistro called Fudo that lets you have any wine they have by the glass – a wine lover’s dream. If you know of places like this, places that make wine discovery genuinely accessible, please let us know. We are collecting them to feature in future articles.

My own approach is to study the wine list at home before going to the restaurant. I shortlist 3-5 wines that intrigue me, then choose from those at the table based on what we are eating. It takes a little time, but it turns every meal into a discovery.

For me, exploration led me to understand that I have a special passion for cold climate wines. Jura, Savoie, Trentino-Alto Adige, Mosel, Friuli/Brda, Burgenland, Styria are just some examples of regions I love. I love the tension, the freshness, the precision. Within those regions, I explore small independent winemakers who let the vineyard do most of the work. Winemakers who honour tradition, who work with minimal intervention, whose wines carry the character of variety and place.

But even when you think you know what you love, wine can surprise you. Deep in the south, on the island of Pantelleria, the Bini family makes wines like nobody else. Their Serragghia wines are fresh like cold-climate wines, even though they grow in hot Mediterranean weather. Their flavour profiles are unlike anything else.

My favourite is their Fanino. Tutto Wines describes it beautifully as “a roughly equal blend of Catarratto and Pignatello grapes which spend seven months on skins in terracotta amphorae buried in the vineyard. Bright cherry red in the glass, this offers soaring aromatics and refreshing flavours of blood orange, minerals and spice. Neither rosato nor rosso, this is seriously invigorating and truly one of a kind.”

When I drink it, I can sense the red oranges and the salinity of the capers that grow close by. These wines are not from a cold climate, but they sit among my absolute favourites. This is the beauty of exploring – you never stop discovering.

If you ever have the chance, go and visit winemakers. There is no greater pleasure than walking through their vineyards with them, listening to how they work the land, understanding the soil, then tasting wines vertically or horizontally in their cellar. It gives you a much deeper insight into what makes each wine what it is, and it raises your curiosity in a way nothing else can.

There is a distinction worth noting, even briefly. Wines shaped in the vineyard by terroir and traditional methods taste very different from wines shaped in the cellar to please mass markets. Both exist, both have their place, but they offer very different experiences. I like the wines that are honest, authentic and lively. Just like the food I love.

You may prefer something completely different. Aromatic whites from Alsace. A great Bordeaux from a serious winemaker. Bold Australian Shiraz. I love aromatic Alsace wines too, and I love a great Bordeaux when it comes from a real winemaker who cares – that is exactly the point. The journey is yours, but you cannot know where it leads until you start walking.

What Comes Next

This piece is the first in a series. Over the coming weeks, I will be publishing advice from people I trust: wine writers, sommeliers and industry insiders sharing their practical wisdom on how to navigate wine curiosity, especially when you find yourself in a restaurant without a sommelier on the floor.

Melinda Joe, Tokyo-based food and wine writer, will share a modern tool that can help you narrow down choices from an unfamiliar list before you even sit down.

Amanda Wassmer Bulgin, wine director, will offer a sommelier’s frameworks for building confidence around a wine list, from how to talk to staff to the psychology of ordering.

Simon J. Woolf, award-winning wine writer and author of Amber Revolution, will share his personal strategy for finding the good stuff on a wine list without any professional guidance.

Marko Kovač, founder of Karakterre wine festival, will map out a full path to educating yourself beyond the mainstream – through books, importers, wine shops and festivals.

Simona Zdovc, owner of Fudo in Maribor, Slovenia, will share how her restaurant philosophy of offering every wine by the glass – removing barriers to discovery – has transformed how people explore and learn about wine.

More voices will follow.

Go with curiosity. Every glass is a new treasure and a new discovery.

 

Andreja Lajh is the founder of Haut de Gamme, a London-based PR agency working with chefs, restaurants and food producers worldwide. She writes about food, wine and the restaurant world at hautdegamme.net.