Wine is an ancient drink with uncountable varieties. With such a lengthy history, the culture surrounding it has also had a long time to evolve. This has produced an immense mountain of information about it, and makes stepping into the wine world a daunting task. These 14 infographics won’t make a sommelier out of you, but they can can help get you started in the right direction.

1. A Beginner’s Guide to Wine is a great place to start. The infographic shows some general stats about wine, and some basic info for describing and identifying wines.

2. A Question of Taste shows the proper way to taste wine, and a little bit about the anatomy of grapes.

3. To see all the Different Types of Wine, and how they are related, this taxonomy of wine is great.

4. To sample some of the top wines from 2012, check out Wine Spectator’s Top 100 of 2012.

5. If that list is too daunting, try starting with French Wine.

6. Once you’ve sampled some wines for yourself, it’s time to learn How to Choose a Bottle of Wine.

People don’t talk enough about how personal wine tastes can be. Someone’s absolute favorite merlot might hit you as a total letdown, while that dusty old Chianti your uncle brings out every holiday could be the sleeper hit of the party. It’s really trial and error, and sometimes you’re just paying for the label or tradition more than the actual taste. There’s also a kind of quiet thrill in stumbling on a cheap bottle that knocks your socks off, especially when someone else shrugs at it and you get it all to yourself.

7. It’s also important to know how to Pair Wine and Food.

8. Pairing Food and Wine Flavors for Mealtime Magic takes pairing a little bit further, describing flavors that match well.

9. And the Food & Wine Pairing Guide is probably the most extensive out there, comparing both the wine and the paired food.

There are whole weekends that disappear down the rabbit hole of trying to match wines with meals. Sometimes you nail it, sometimes the flavors fight so hard you wonder if you even remember what you cooked. The guides help, sure, but nothing replaces just messing around and finding that, hey, cabernet with pizza isn’t sacrilege after all. The so-called rules are a good starting point, but there’s plenty of room to break them—nobody’s grading you at dinner.

10. So, Where in the World Does Wine Come From?

11. And How Does the Wine Bottling Process Work?

12. Now that you know where most wine is from, and how it gets bottled, maybe it’s time to learn How to Make Wine.

13. But beware, making wine is an intensive process. It takes a lot of Water and Energy to Make Wine.

14. So, let’s have a Toast to Wine!

Drew Skau is Visualization Architect at Visual.ly and a PhD Computer Science Visualization student at UNCC with an undergraduate degree in Architecture. You can follow him on twitter @SeeingStructure

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