by Gordon Haynes

Created on: June 02, 2007   Last Updated: December 10, 2011

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I've been studying and enjoying wine for over thirty years and consider that the foundations I laid back in the early 1970s have been the most important element in my appreciation of it. Although it's good to keep an open mind and to take advice from time to time, that's no substitute for having engaged in research first and for approaching the subject with an informed knowledge base. Don't rush out to your local supermarket and buy on the basis of price and attractive labels. Never do this.

Wine gets under your skin, so the first important message is to ensure that your bank balance is healthy. You also need to have storage facilities, because people interested in wine don't just go out and buy a few bottles when the need arises. Part of the joy of buying and drinking wine is the expectation factor. There are bottles in my collection that have been there for thirty years, gathering dust, the occasional cobweb and, most importantly, legendary status. Every bottle has its moment in the spotlight and having at your fingertips the right one for the right occasion is a sort of unwritten rule amongst all wine enthusiasts.

But what of this research? Number one: buy and read books. Although it's interesting to thumb through Maurice Healy's 'Stay Me With Flagons', anything by Andre Simon or George Saintsbury's 'Notes on a Cellar Book', this will only give you a (sometimes alarming) window on how life used to be lived. The best writer today, by a long way, is Hugh Johnson. Get his book 'Wine' and devour it, several times, before you go looking for any bottles to buy. This, along with Edmund Penning Rowsell's tome 'Bordeaux' were my serious bedtime reading and they are still the best ways into the world of wine. I would also recommend The World Atlas of Wine and the Mitchell Beazley Pocket Wine Book. Numbers two and three are also buy and read books.

Learn the language of the labels and, through that, how to spot a bargain - not as easy these days, sadly. Find somebody, preferably as keen as you are, to share your wine experiences with and make notes. Never mind all the flowery language, which is more to do with television entertainment than serious wine appreciation, just note down your thoughts and conclusions. You will find this is invaluable.

Buy to learn. By this I mean that you should set up blind tastings of similar bottles, either horizontal or vertical, where for instance you consider three different Marlborough Sauvignon

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