Some day, you’re bound to be at a bridal shower or a wedding or some other fancy soiree where there’s wine only. Or maybe you want to bring a bottle for a hostess gift. Ty Dotson is a wine associate at Gail’s Hops & Grapes. She is studying to be a wine sommelier, which is a certified wine expert. She has these tips for the novice:
1. Trying your first wine? Go for a lighter bodied variety. If you want white, maybe a riesling. If it’s red you’re looking for, get a beaujolais.

2. Sure, all that swirling and sniffing looks funny. But smell accounts for 80 percent of your taste and swirling releases that smell. You also want to hold the wine in your mouth for a few seconds. And you want a small sip but enough to bathe your tongue in the wine.

3. You can get quite tipsy in very little time drinking wine. Most wines have an alcohol content of 12 to 16 percent. Five ounces is equal to about one beer or one shot of liquor.

4. You can get a good bottle for $15 or $20. And it’s not tacky to go to a wine shop and ask for a good bottle within a certain price range.

5. That red wine with red meat, white wine with chicken and fish rule? It’s looser now. You can have a fuller bodied white with a pork chop or a lighter red with salmon. If your chicken has a rich, heavy sauce, the bird may actually go better with a lighter bodied red. Again, you can ask a wine associate.

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