It is often said that one can’t figure out if the wine is good or not by just looking at the bottle and reading the notes. However, by looking at awards and appellations to tasting notes, one can definitely get the idea if the bottle you are holding is perfect or not.

Look for location: “Look for a place,” says Kevin Meehan, Tesco wine product development manager in an interview with Guardian.com.

“Good wine should offer a sense of where it comes from, and wines that proudly call out their origins on the label will have been made with a sense of pride in that place. It’s often regulated too, so there are minimum standards the wine must meet in order to use the name of a region.”

Tasting notes: For those who have studied a lot about wine, your tasting notes can help you with wine choices. So, if your first love was a cabernet sauvignon, for example, seeking its tasting notes elsewhere might lead you to a black-fruit-aroma pinotage. And if you like beaujolais, chances are you’ll go on to love valpolicella ripasso – it has the same red and black cherry flavours, but more depth and is great with pasta.

Depth of the wine: The wine will almost certainly taste fruit when you hold it in your mouth and swirl it around but can you detect other layers of flavor beyond the fruit? For example a touch of nuts or grapefruit in a white, or chocolate or coffee in a red? You will be amazed to know how wine changes during the course of the meal