Top 5 Purchases For Beginners Under $20
Everyone is introduced to drinking wine in different ways. Apart from celebrating with the odd Prosecco, prior to moving to Texas, I couldn’t really tell you much about wine.
So if you too are starting out and wanting to enjoy and learn, the following purchases will make your life so much easier, without breaking the bank and making a massive commitment – leaving you so much more money to spend on drinking wine!
Cheers,
the Lone Star Lass
First up – A Corkscrew
There is nothing worse than being unable to open your wine.
This one might seem like a no-brainer – but getting into your bottle of wine is pretty important.
While it seems straight forward, there are so many different options – and price ranges to choose from. A quick search will show you options from $5 – $500, I kid you not.
Personally, I still use a pretty cheap corkscrew, a wing corkscrew where as you screw into the cork the “arms” lift up, allowing you to push them down and the cork pops out. You can definitely find these most places, including the supermarket – and they shouldn’t break the bank.
Another good, and cheap option is a Wine Key and Waiter’s Corkscrew – these fold up, so are easy to transport if you’re taking a bottle for a picnic or want to ensure your vacation won’t be inconvenienced by a lack of wine.
You can always upgrade and get something battery operated, but I would recommend always having a manual option on hand, for when you inevitably run out of juice.
Must have – Wine Glasses
Game changer.
One of the easiest ways to up your wine game, is to invest in a couple of wine glasses. Again, there are so many options, and as your taste expands and grows – you might want to upgrade. But starting out I would recommend looking for a couple of things: specifically the wine glass material and shape.
Buy a couple of basic clear glass (not stainless steel or plastic) wine glasses. Make sure they have stems and that the rim of the glass is narrower than the bottom. If you’re struggling to picture what I mean – it’s your stereotypical wine glass shape.
Why is this so important? So you’ll find there are so many speciality wine glasses if you look – for specific types of wine and at different price points too. But why wine glasses are designed this way is to heighten your experience of the wine. The stems allow the wine to stay cooler, above the table surface, it also allows you to look at the wine, without it absorbing the color of its surroundings. Wine tasting is about using all of your senses – sight, smell, mouth-feel, taste – all together to really get to know the wine.
When you’re starting out some general purpose wine glasses will do the trick, and you should be able to pick these up for less than $5 a glass, and fairly easily – even at your local supermarket or home good store.
A Wine Aerator
Good things come to those who wait…
When you drink red wine, it’s generally recommended to let it breathe to allow the flavors and aromas to develop. However, that requires the foresight to open a bottle before you cook dinner, and patience and self-control to let it be…
You can easily test this out how the wine changes by having a sniff and a sip when you first open a bottle, versus 15 minutes, then 30 minutes later. The traditional way to help the wine do this is to use a decanter and wait – a while….. but for those of us with less impulse control, a wine aerator is a perfect solution for helping it reach its potential more quickly.
You can pick up a simple aerator which doubles as a pourer starting around $5, expediting that time to the perfect sip.
Foil Cutter
Splurging out….
Another (physical) barrier for entry between you and that delicious wine is the foil wrapper around the cork. Some wine openers will have a tiny knife build in to help open it, or you can even sometimes slide the foil off completely by hand – but a good foil cutter allows you to twist around and remove a neat circle of foil from the top. This is a beginners “splurge” item as there are plenty other tools that will do the job, but you can pick up a dedicated foil cutter for less than $5 too.
Notes App or Notepad
Note down what you’ve liked.
When you’re starting out with wine drinking – everything can be overwhelming, especially if you’re picking from a long wine list or stocked shelves.
Do yourself a favor and snap a pic of the label and take a couple notes – nothing fancy – did you enjoy it, what were you eating (or not), would you drink it again? That way next time you’re unsure – you have something tried and true to order again – or ask for a recommendation based on that. As you start to learn more, you can expand your notes but for now just sip, try, and repeat!
Some of these choices may seem obvious but these small purchases will make the world of difference. You can upgrade and expand your collection later, and I’ll make sure to recommend some of my favorite purchases too.
Cheers!