The most important thing to know about wine is what you like and what you don't. Everyone's palate is different and responds to different flavors and profiles of the wine. There is the tough question that comes with those preferences though. We get the question from distributors, winemakers and toughest of all from friends. The scenario goes something like this. Someone is really excited about a wine, whether it is one they distribute, make or bring to a party, we know the question is coming, "So what do you think?"

With folks in the wine business it is an easier answer since they understand the give and take the like and don't like of wine and the simple fact that it is unlikely "their" wine will appeal to all consumers. So the answer to "pros" is simply the wine is well made but not really the style I like, or it doesn't fit well with the collection we have in the shop.

That answer is truthful. There are few wines we taste on a professional basis in our day to day work that are poorly made; most times it is just stylistic differences that cause the wines to be unappealing to us. Many of those selections will likely find homes with some other wine professional as their palate will respond differently than ours. Winemakers and wine distributors get that and with rare exception accept the news like the professionals they are.

In social gatherings the challenge is greater for all of us as wine consumers whether we work in the business or not. Our friends and acquaintances get excited about wines they purchase. It may be a new one they just tried and fell in love with, or it may be one they bought some time ago in large quantities because they really liked it, they may be ageing it for a long time and only pull out a bottle to have on special occasions. As friendships go we all like the confirmation that an item as passion driven as wine appeals at the same level to those we are close to, so how do we handle that tough question when the wine is well made but just does not taste very good to us?

We still find that in most cases an honest objective approach is best. With a wine that someone has been ageing a frequent occurrence is that the wine might have appealed back at the time of purchase but our palate has moved on. For all of us who consume wine regularly our palates change and evolve, and most times that is to a more nuanced appreciation for wine so the big robust flavors may no longer taste so good. Explaining this evolution to a friend is a great way of explaining our current taste for wine, and letting them know that the aged special bottle they have is no longer our favorite, although it might have been in times past.

The new wine they have discovered and really like can be handled similarly. Always appreciating that the wine is well made but going further to break the wine down letting our friend know the parts we like and the parts we don't. With virtually every wine we taste there is something redeeming in it, whether that be the fruit profile, the softness, the full bodied nature or the long finish, we could go on and on with all of the possible descriptors and characteristics of wine but finding parts we like to balance our overall feeling that we don't like helps folks understand that it just comes down to taste without criticizing choices.

Perhaps a more uncomfortable conversation though is when a wine is flawed, when through no fault of the winemaker something has gone wrong. The most frequent problem is a bad cork. The presence of TCA (trichloroanisole) in a wine cork is undetectable by any screening process, but when it is present in a cork it spoils the wine. The wine will smell of wet newspaper or wet cardboard and also strips the fruit off the wine so on the palate all you taste is alcohol and oak (if the wine was aged in oak barrels). This is never bad winemaking it is simply a bad cork and it can affect the wine to varying degrees.

Many wine consumers are unaware of the problem and unfamiliar with how to detect it or what to do about it. When you are offered a glass of wine at a gathering and find that it is corked no matter how excited someone is about the wine it is best to not only explain what is wrong but how it happens and that you would very much like to retry another bottle with them some time to see how the wine really is.

Flaws notwithstanding there are few wines we have ever tried where we like nothing about them. While they may not be our favorites or something we would buy, letting friends know our straightforward opinion will lead to other chances to try wine together in the future and appreciate each wine for what it is.

If there is a topic you would like to read about or questions on wine you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner with his wife Mary Lancaster of the dinner party - a wine and table top decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George is also the managing judge of The North Idaho Wine Rodeo and is the wine editor for Coeur d'Alene Magazine (www.cdamagazine.com). You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles as well as other great wine tips by friending us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.