A How-To Guide to Buying Wine Right

Due to the recession, we have come to value our hard earned money. For many, this has meant sacrificing a long night out on the town for a weekend party at home. Staying at home has become the new way to go out. With data showing that 11% of food costs are spent on alcohol, more and more people are buying one or two extra bottles. But when you're at a "dine with me" gathering, or wandering the aisles trying to buy a bottle of wine for a rare Friday night treat, how do you make sure that your purchase is really good for your wallet and your taste buds?

With endless choices of style, price, and quality, going wine shopping is often like searching for a diamond in the rough. In order to get a good wine, you need to be savvy about wine selection, know what to look for and where to find the best deals.

The first thing you need to be aware of is how the marketing game works. Be aware that if you are looking through the shelves of the supermarket, you may become a victim of marketing. Seventy-five percent of the wine sold in supermarkets is sold on "special offers". You may be wondering how so many deals are available. However, we learn that these "special offers" are actually funded by a few select money-making wine companies that are more concerned with improving their profit margins than the quality of the juice in the bottle.

This is supported by the fact that the average bottle of wine sold in the UK is worth only £30. The rest is spent on marketing, packaging, and other things that we can't taste. It's certainly an eye-opener when you look at the wine shelves in supermarkets, where the prices are overwhelming.

In other words, if you buy three pounds of wine, only a few pence will be spent on wine. But this doesn't mean that the more you pay for a bottle of wine, the better it will be; at around a tenner, the quality and cost will probably not increase proportionately.

So what can we do about it? You could buy wines from smaller, lesser-known winemakers who don't have the financial resources to be found in UK supermarkets. This is because the winemakers at these wineries simply want to make great tasting wines without worrying about profit or purchasing power.

The question is, how do you find these wines? One way is to use the Internet. There are many retailers on the Internet that can help you purchase wines from small, passionate winemakers that not only taste great, but also cost less.

In addition, online stores often offer more guidance and advice on the type of wine you like, customer feedback, and in some cases, the ability to talk to the producers themselves. As a result, you get a better product at a lower price.

Naked Wines is an online farmer's market for winemakers who want to spend their lives making great wine, not selling it, and who can buy wine worth staying in for any night.