Consistency and balance are the two first elements of good wine.  A big problem is that labels never tell you about those two things inside the bottle.  You have to learn which producers make the consistent and balanced wines you like and you will have to learn where to buy them.  Another thing you will have to learn is the name on the label rarely if ever means the same thing one year after another.  Different years on varietal wines (those are the ones who have years on bottles) mean the taste is different.  No one can tell you exactly what that difference might be.  You just have to be prepared to find that out. 

No sommelier, waiter, or salesperson can tell you exactly what a wine in a particular bottle will taste like but you can learn to trust some people who can give you analogies as to what consistencies and qualities you might be looking for.  Be ready to buy some wines that may be different that you are used to but be prepared to be surprised.  And be prepared to be disappointed if you pick up a California wine that has a particular grape’s name on it as it may be totally different than any other country’s taste with the same grape name.  Now that’s probably not a particular problem as long as exploring  is part of the excitement you experience when you look to buy wine. 

Just remember that if you find a wine you really like, buy a case (at least) because you may never find the same thing again.  Try to figure out how long it will take to consume the case because keeping a wine for longer than a year will give you a different wine in most cases (pun not intended).  However, older reds and whites (15 or more years old) will tend to be as good many years later as they are today.  But remember that many wines today are grown to be consumed within four or five years because only a few rich guys have cellars and the number of wine consumers grows by at least 5% per year world wide.  Ask if the wine you are interested in will improve or deteriorate with age.  Be prepared again for the sales person not to know the answer to that question but ask it anyway.  Maybe they will learn something that the public needs to know. 

Anyway the next element of tasty wine is sweet or dry.  Some wines now carry a dry(1)/sweet(9) number on the bottle.  This can help when you’re faced with an unknown bottle.  The system lacks subtlety, however, and furious arguments can break out between merchants as to whether a given wine is a 4 or whatever.  That is one reason the system has not found a lot of favor and few European producers use it.  They harp that the system really panders to the American taste where everybody wants dry so why use it.  Actually whether a wine tastes dry or sweet depends upon the last something you ate so it is often impossible to tell exactly.  Nevertheless a lot of drinkers stop at some number and decide they like sweet or dry and are reluctant to explore others tastes. 

The fashion for dryness has blinded a lot of sophisticated people to the charms of softer, sweeter wines and has condemned them to stand through many a party sipping a tart, dry, mouth numbing wine when something a notch sweeter would be far more enjoyable.   In the same fashion, sweet-wine drinkers miss the refreshing taste of dry wine with certain foods.