I was once one who thought wine wasn't suited for me, due to having a wine which tasted a bit sour to me on my first time to try it. After a visit to Italy and having tried out 5 different red wines, ranging from the northern wines to the southern ones all in one dinner, it was then that I discovered the pleasures of identifying the different flavors in wine, and the enjoyment in selecting one that I like.

If wine could only be described as either only "good" or "bad", then I would have a hard time selecting say, Chardonnays. I prefer oaked buttery Chardonnays to the unoaked, more fruity ones, while a seller may prefer things the other way around. So what may be "good" to the seller may be "bad" to me and I would be disappointed if I bought from him what he said would be a "good" Chardonnay.

Incidentally, here in Japan, wines sold on the supermarket shelf are generally described on a 5 point scale for whites (between dry on one end to sweet on the other) and for reds a 3 point scale of "light body", "medium body" or "full body". This may simplify things for the general buying public, but as a result, it is harder to determine if a wine might suit one's particular taste preferences, because they often cover up the fine print describing flavor notes on the back label with a different one containing uninformative data such as the producer, importer, volume and the rating on this general scale.