When you shop for wine, most people want two things: tastes good and fits their budget. However instead of organizing wine shops by taste (fruity, earthy, strong, etc.) and price, most wine shops organize their wines by country, and region which really only makes sense if you're familiar with the world of wines. This may not be the best way if you are new to wines, but it's the standard so we’ll have to work with it.

Country organization is like browsing for movies. Every country has it's own style, like a movie genre, and a plethora of sub-regions with their own unique take on the overall style just like movie sub-genres. Unless you know how to "read" the countries then you're going to have a hard time at the shop. Like movies, you don't want to dive into the hard-core foreign film section, you want to start off with something easy and approachable and decide if you like it before moving on.

One thing to keep in mind; if you are new to wines, do not drink anything from Europe, especially France. You may have heard that French wines are the best, and that wines from a place called "Bordeaux" is the creme de la creme of the wine world but don't step into this mine field unprepared. France may arguably make some of the best wine but they also produce millions of liters of the absolute worst crap imaginable. The same holds true for Italy; "Chianti" may be their most famous vino but an embarrassingly large quantity of introductory priced wines from this country are guaranteed to give you a headache.

So to ease you into the wine buying experience, we are just going to grossly generalize each country and assume you are going to be purchasing introductory wines in the US $5–$15 price range. We will also be suggesting a route for the curious wine drinker with the most dependant countries first, before progressing into the unknown:

Step 1

When you go off to try some wines and familiarize yourself with what there is on offer, there are two countries that produce dependable wines with little fuss or worry, Germany and Chile.

Germany

German white Rieslings (Riesling is a type of grape that grows fantastically here) are very fruity, a bit sweet, and can be found at bargain bin prices. Because of the sweetness found in almost all of their Rieslings, these wines are very easy to drink. They're so nicely balanced with good apricot offset with a crisp acidity that you really cannot go wrong.

Chile

Chile also makes very solid wines at very reasonable prices. If you don’t know your Cabernet from Chardonnay start by trying a Chilean one. Chilean wines are built tasting like the grape variety they are made from. It’s a very good way to familiarize yourself with the various types of grapes without getting distracted by oak, heavy flavors or wine making styles. Almost all Chilean wines are well made, and meant to be easy drinking. Vintage doesn’t matter, just buy something young. When in doubt, a Chilean Merlot is very easy drinking and you won’t go wrong bringing it to a party, despite what your friends who have watched the movie "Sideways" may say.

Next steps:
Step 2 – Stronger please, the wines of Australia, California & New Zealand

Or skip to:

Step 3 - Keep it mellow, the wines of Italy and Washington/Oregon