How much should I spend on wine?

A complex question - but one which does have a sensible answer.

Like most products, wine will generally improve in quality as the price goes up. But most people underestimate what's a realistic starting price for decent wine. The associated costs of selling wine in the UK include alcohol duty at £1.90 per bottle (£2.30 after VAT) plus shipping costs to the UK (wine is heavy), add a bit for the cost of the bottle and labelling, and don't forget a retailer profit. So on a £6 bottle of wine you are probably spending about £1 on the wine itself. Not a great ratio.

However - if you increase your spend to £10 you will allocate about £5 to the wine itself - 5 times more! So there's the maths, and that is why most of my wines retail at around £10.

But it's not a decision based purely on the numbers. In practice there are good reasons why wine tastes better when you spend a bit more. At the bottom end of the market where wine is sold for a euro or two, little time or money is invested in the wine making process because there is no return on the investment. Grapes are literally batted off the vines mechanically, crushed, fermented and bottled.

But when I visit wineries where the trade price increases beyond 5 euros per bottle there is a massive difference in quality. At this price the winemakers can afford to invest more time and money in the vines as they grow, reduce yields, harvest carefully, employ better equipment and working practices in the winery, and allow their wines more time to mature in vats or barrels before release. The result is a handmade product expertly crafted with real character and distinction. In other words - proper wine.

Another important consideration is where you buy your wine. If you buy a bottle on the high street or supermarket the price will have to cover staff, rent and rates and an additional mark up from an importer/distributor before it even gets to the retailer.

My advice is to buy directly from an importer and if you spend between £10 and £20 a bottle you will find fantastic value for money and a lifetime of enjoyment.

Is blind tasting wine useful?

I've tried blind tasting wines a few times with friends and it's a fun activity to combine with dinner. In case you were wondering you don't have to actually blindfold yourself or decant every wine - you can buy numbered wine tasting bags that conceal the bottles. You would think this is a pretty reliable way to assess the quality of wines, but it's not that straightforward.

Some people argue that the label is part of the experience of buying and drinking a bottle of wine - much like the ambiance of a restaurant affects our enjoyment of food. Or that knowing the basic facts about a wine such as the grape variety, age, country of origin (and let's face it - price) creates a better context in which to appreciate it. I agree with both of these arguments but I am nonetheless interested to know how wines perform under more 'scientific' scrutiny.

The problem with judging a wine after a few sips is that the more powerful, up-front wines tend to perform better. They explode with flavour and create an impact. But that's not necessarily what we really want from a wine over the course of an evening. It's great to know how each wine scores in a blind tasting but when I reveal the bottles and we drink them with dinner I pay close attention to which bottle is finished first.

Sometimes this concurs with the scores from the blind tasting - but sometimes not. So which is the better steer?  When people stop analysing the wines and relax with some food and conversation it's the more balanced, subtle wines they reach for and this tells me which wines my customers are more likely to enjoy time and again.

It's not a perfect way to judge wine but it's useful and enjoyable and there are worse experiments for human guinea pigs to endure.