Finding confidence in wine: why you dont have to know everything

When you’re the nominated wine person in your friendship circle, whether through training or simply blind enthusiasm, it can feel daunting having to make wine choices for the whole table. The questioning looks and the faith in your abilities can all add to the pressure.  Wine writer and WSET Level 3 graduate Annona Dodoo knows how daunting wine can feel when you’re still finding your feet. Here, she shares what helped her build confidence and why you don’t need to know everything to enjoy wine or make a good choice.    You’re at dinner with a group of people and as the person studying wine, you’ve automatically been given the responsibility of choosing the bottles for the table. The wine list comes to you, and so does the waiter. You can feel all eyes on you as you make your way through the list, hoping to make a good choice. You recognise a couple of wines, and using what you’ve learned, you’re able to make your choices.  The bottles arrive and are poured for you to taste. You give a nod of approval, then you wait anxiously as the wines are poured for the rest of the guests.   “Oh, that’s really nice,” you hear one after another around the table. You wipe the invisible sweat from your brow… and relax.  This was me not too long after completing my WSET Level 2 Award in Wines. I was relatively new to wine education, but suddenly I was the person everyone expected to know what to choose and in that moment I felt the pressure to get it right.  Why did their approval matter so much?  Why can something as simple as choosing a bottle of wine feel like a test of how much you know?    Why can wine feel intimidating?  Wine can sometimes feel like an exclusive members’ club. There are grapes you’ve never heard of, regions you’ve never visited and language that seems to come naturally to people who have been drinking and studying wine for years.   Am I swirling my glass correctly? Am I even using the right glass? What if I don’t want to spit? What if I do? When we feel like we don’t know “the rules” or are not speaking the same language, we may feel out of place.  If you’re beginning your wine journey, it can be tempting to think you need to know a lot before you can feel confident. And when you’re surrounded by people who seem confident in what they know, it can be easy to assume that confidence comes from having all the answers.  When wine can feel snobby or unwelcoming, having some knowledge can make it easier to feel like you belong in the conversation.    Knowing isn’t the same as feeling confident  Experienced tasters can make tasting seem effortless, which can make a beginner think they are supposed to do the same.   When you’re new to tasting, you may not feel comfortable describing what’s in the glass out of fear of getting it wrong or embarrassing yourself. I thought being able to identify what I was tasting was evidence that I knew wine.   When I couldn’t, I questioned my knowledge. For me, feeling confident with tasting has always felt like the “final boss”. You can learn about acidity, tannins, fruit character and so on, but recognising those characteristics in the glass is another skill, and learning how to taste takes practice.    Learning to trust what you taste Sometimes confidence can come from a very small moment. I remember one moment while tasting a Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne. I could taste a distinct marzipan note, but I didn’t say it out loud. When someone else said they had tasted marzipan too, I felt a boost of confidence. I felt even more validated when I saw marzipan was listed in the official tasting notes. Even though I knew that tasting was subjective, and that everyone's palate was different, it still felt like a personal achievement.  That moment also made me think differently about what it means to feel confident while tasting. Not everyone will experience wine in exactly the same way. Two people can taste the same wine and reach for different words based on their experiences, cultural backgrounds and sensitivities.      Finding a way in through education Knowing where to start can even feel like a challenge. One of the things that can make wine feel more approachable is having a framework for understanding it, and that’s where formal education can help. Having the opportunity to focus on one area at a time can make the bigger picture easier to understand, rather than feeling like you have to understand the entire world of wine at once. It isn’t just about collecting facts; you start to see how they fit together.  Learning feels easier when you’re doing it with other people. You can learn alongside  like-minded people, guided by experienced educators, in a space where not knowing is part of the process. Alongside that support, the knowledge you build gives you an invisible safety net to fall back on, making real-life situations easier to navigate, whether that’s reading a wine list or feeling more comfortable asking questions. With that foundation in place, you may start to notice a difference in how you engage with wine outside the classroom. You become more intentional about the types of tastings you choose and the wines you want to explore.  When I went to my first walk-around tasting, I wanted to try everything. As my knowledge grew, I became more selective and was able to make more informed decisions about what I wanted to taste and why.  If you take a course where you are working towards an exam, passing can feel like such a great achievement. All the hard work you’ve put into it has paid off, and it can give you a real boost of confidence. But getting a qualification doesn’t mean you've finished learning. The more you learn, the more you realise there is still more to discover.   As Oz Clarke describes it, wine is continually renewed, with every vintage bringing another opportunity to discover something new. Education gives you the foundation, rather than a finish line, and that can spark curiosity about where your learning might take you next.  So, what does confidence with wine actually mean?  Perhaps confidence with wine isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about feeling comfortable with what you know, trusting yourself enough to use it and being willing to ask questions when you don’t.  You may still be the person people turn to for the wine choice, and you may still feel some pressure to get it right. But having a foundation of knowledge gives you something to pull from, and the confidence to keep exploring when something is unfamiliar.  Everyone has to start somewhere. Even if a question seems basic, you won’t know the answer until you ask. It’s all part of learning, and you don’t have to know everything to feel confident with wine. You just have to stay curious and be willing to keep learning.        About the author  Annona Dodoo is a freelance writer who has written for publications including Decanter. She holds the WSET Level 3 Award in Wines and is a French Wine Scholar graduate.