Three stages to evaluating a wine: the attack, middle and finish

WHAT do we look for in a wine? Some people want a catchy name or pretty label, as long as it says "chardonnay". Many prefer dry wines, while some favour sweetness in their vino. And judging by the number of fat, clunky bottles on wine store shelves, wineries think we prefer to pay more for packaging than quality on the inside.

"What do you look for in a wine?" is a question I get often, around the water cooler at work or at dinner parties with friends. These are people who don't obsess about grape juice the way I do, who don't re…