Why You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Appreciate Wine

Wine consumption in America is on the rise. Recent statistics show consumers drank a combined 949 million gallons of wine in 2016, compared to 769 million gallons in 2009.

“Each individual person is the captain of their own palate,” said David Falchek, executive director for the American Wine Society (AWS), a non-profit with 180 local chapters across the country. “Discovering wines and tasting wines is a wonderful journey.”

Cheers to fun

For over 50 years, AWS has been helping consumers learn about and appreciate wine. “Unfortunately, wine is intimidating,” said Falchek, who got started covering the wine industry during his first job as a reporter in New York. Since then, he’s written extensively about wine for consumer and trade publications. His main takeaway: you don’t have to be an expert to appreciate wine. “Wine is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be exciting,” he said. Falchek encourages consumers to host tastings with friends to try different wines and talk about them with others. Everyone has different sensitivities and can pick out different things from the same drink. “The most important thing is to not be afraid to try something,” he said, explaining recommendations can come from friends, signs in a store, or other sources, like a sommelier.

New versus old

According to Falchek, Americans see wine as just a cocktail, while in other parts of the world, such as Italy and Spain, it is meant to be enjoyed with different foods. He said American wines are grouped with New World wines, like those from Australia and South America. He said New World wines try to do it all — be flavorful, weighty, and give drinkers acids/tannins. New World wines tend to have more alcohol because the grapes hang Falchek are Falchek always more on said the sugar encourages talking California vine and about longer, a fruitier winemakers consumers hang producing taste. time. holidays, to drink American like the Fourth wines on of July, U.S. Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. He also recommends that you keep sipping until you find the right wine for you. “Try it and keep trying other wines and, ultimately, you’ll be able to really zone in and put a finger on what you like about wine,” he said. “You have to figure out what you like. You have to taste a lot of different wines and explore on your own.” n Kristen Castillo

David Falchek of has the been American a member Wine Society since 1999 and became its executive director in 2016. He began writing about wine in the early ‘90s, and frequently judges regional, national, and international wine competitions.