8 Tips for Buying the Best Wine Every Time

The experts spill their tips for buying wine highest in the good stuff and lowest in the bad stuff. (GIF: Yahoo Health/iStock)

Bringing a bottle of wine to a big gathering sounds easy enough — until you walk into your local store and realize you have no idea what you’re looking for.

For the most part, we all want the same thing: Something that not only tastes good, but is good — for our waistline and overall health. After all, studies do show that, in moderation, vino may be beneficial for people with Type 2 diabetes and might even promote brain health. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines “moderate” drinking as one drink a day for women and two for men for a single day, though this isn’t necessarily a day-to-day recommendation as 15 drinks per week for men and eight for women is considered heavy drinking.)

But recent reports about dangerous levels of arsenic in wine are enough to keep us out of the wine shop for good. And no one wants to be left with a terrible hangover (or a sugar overdose). The good news: With the rise of antioxidant-boosted bottles and organic wineries, there are ways to pick the right bottle out of the bunch — and keep your health in check.

We consulted top wine pros on how to do just that. Follow these eight expert-backed suggestions for picking the best bottle every time.

1. Get to Know Your Local Wine Shop Employees

You don’t have to know every type of bottle in the wine store — you just have to know someone who does, Brett Vankoski, vice president and co-founder of Latitude Beverage Company, tells Yahoo Health. “I recommend fostering a relationship with your local wine shop employee. Although it can seem like a daunting task, talking through your likes and dislikes will almost always end in a satisfying purchase.”

How do you know the employees are actually knowledgeable? “The employee’s willingness and desire to help you should be the biggest indicator,” he says. And check to see if the store is just selling popular labels or if they have ones you don’t recognize, too — which could signal that the staff is well-versed in lesser-known selections. Lastly: “It’s a good sign if the store produces [its] own shelf-talkers — as opposed to the promotional materials of the distributor or winery.”

2. Go for a Burgundy, Bordeaux, or Pinot Noir

If you’re looking to reap the health benefits from red wine’s potent antioxidant resveratrol — which research shows can help everything from your memory to your heart — some bottles prove better than others. “Certain wines are higher in resveratrol than others, most notably red wines,” Vankoski says. That’s because “resveratrol comes from grape skins — and red wine is typically fermented with the skins for a longer period of time. Specifically, grapes grown in colder regions or places with a higher threat of disease tend to contain more resveratrol such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, or a coastal climate like Oregon.”

Wines made with the Tannat grape —such as Madiran wines — and Pinot Noir tend to be richer in resveratrol, too, Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California, tells Yahoo Health.

Related: Compound Found in Red Wine and Chocolate Shows Promise Against Alzheimer’s Disease

3. Look for Wine With ‘Minimal Intervention’

“If you’re concerned about where your food comes from and how it’s processed, you should have the same questions about your wine,” Christy Frank, owner of Frankly Wines and Copake Wine Works, tells Yahoo Health. Why? Because, as she puts it, there’s a long list of additives and processes allowed in winemaking. “Bucolic shots of sun-drenched vineyards aside, much of winemaking has more in common with soda pop than small-scale agriculture,” she says. None of this ever shows up on the label, though she notes that none of these additives or processes are “bad” — it’s just important to remember that wine is far more than just fermented grape juice.

If you want to carry your clean eating over into the drinking world, ask the people at your local wine shop for wines made with “minimal intervention,” suggests Frank. These are wines made in a way that minimizes the additives and processes. “A good retailer will know something about who’s making the wine and what goes on in the vineyard and winery,” she says. “There’s a growing trend toward making wine this way, and you can find them from almost any place in the world. … You just have to ask.” Just as you opt for whole foods and steer clear of overly processed ones, doing the same with wine ensures you’ll know exactly what you’re putting in your body.

Another suggestion? Sign up for The Feiring Line newsletter. “It’s the only newsletter that focuses solely on these sorts of wines and the people who make them,” Frank says.

4. Consider Organic or Biodynamic Wines

“Organic viticulture (grape growing) is concerned mainly with the health of the soil and the plant,” says Frank. It means that no inorganic pesticides or fertilizers have been used in the cultivation of the grapes, adds Grahm.

Meanwhile, “biodynamics is concerned with the health of the overall farm,” Frank says. There are several certifications covering these practices, but the paperwork and fees can make it difficult for small farmers to make it official, she adds.

It can also be confusing to choose an “organic wine,” she notes, because certain language — say, "made with organically grown grapes” — will only cover the grapes, not what happens once the grapes get to the winery, she says.

Related: The 14 Foods To Consider Buying Organic

And are organic and biodynamic wines even healthier in the first place? “If the intent is to start with beautiful, healthy grapes, and the finished wines require less processing to get to the shelf, then —as with food — I think less is more,” says Frank.

Of course, as with organic foods, the most important thing is really knowing what is going on in the vines and the winery. “I’m not sure we can say that a presumptive absence of toxicity is precisely equivalent to ‘healthier,’” says Grahm. “It just speaks to the absence of toxicity.”

5. Look for ‘Small-Lot’ on the Label

“Very little of what matters about wine is found on the label,” says Frank, who worked as a marketer before opening her store. “The conversations we had about label design had everything to do with getting you to pick up and buy the bottle. Conveying meaningful information? That didn’t really enter in to it.”

One thing you should look for on the label: the words “small-lot,” says Brian Smith, the Chief Wine Officer at Club W, an online wine service. “Small-lot wines offer the most unique expression of a wine and are typically made from one varietal, vineyard, or appellation,” he says. When wine is made in larger lots, it is often blended with different — and sometimes lower-quality — wine, he explains. “Seeking out small-lot producers gives you exposure to stylistically interesting wines of superior quality — many of which practice organic or natural winemaking techniques.”

6. Pay Attention to the Importer

“One of the most useful pieces of information on the label is who is importing it,” says Frank. “The best of them are actually out there in the vineyards, at the wineries, meeting the winemakers, and deciding which wines to import into the USA,” she explains.

Choosing wine from a respected importer will ensure quality every time, but many importers also focus on minimal intervention wines, Frank says. (This means you’ll nix unwanted additives and processes in the wine making.)

Keep an eye out for just a few of the great ones: Zev Rovine, Jenny & Francois, Indie Wineries, Louis/Dressner (specializing in organic and biodynamic wines), and Rosenthal Wine Merchants Imports, she suggests. Kermit Lynch is also incredibly reliable for the highest quality standards, adds Grahm.

7. Look for a Bottle with a Lower Alcohol Content — and Therefore, Less Sugar

“Some of the richer, jammy red blends often contain higher alcohol — and higher levels of sugar,” says Smith. So look for wines with lower alcohol and less residual sugar. And pay attention to the ABV (alcohol by volume) levels on a bottle, suggests Grahm — and skip anything above 14 percent. He also recommends eschewing bottles that have labels suggesting the wine contains residual sugar (think: wines with “cake” or “pie” names).

One good tip: Look for “Old World” style wines, says Smith. They tend to have lower levels of alcohol and less residual sugar, he says. Lighter-bodied red wines — such as Pinot Noir — generally tend to have fewer calories, he adds.

8. Avoid Mass-Produced Wines to Avoid High Levels of Arsenic

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that can make its way into wine through a vineyard’s water and soil (among other things), says Smith. And in small amounts, it’s nothing to worry about (you’d have to drink multiple bottles per day to have any effect), he says. “When it exceeds those small amounts, that’s when you need to be careful.” Long term exposure to arsenic in high levels can lead to everything from vomiting and skin changes to certain kinds of cancers.

How to avoid it in high levels, then? Unfortunately, there’s no surefire way to do so. But Grahm recommends avoiding “very large-scale, mass-produced wines, as they are typically made with more processing ingredients and steps, as well as from lower quality grapes, which themselves have received more intervention in their cultivation.”

Read This Next: Alarming Arsenic Levels in 98% of American Red Wines

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