To us, a wine shop is a playground. We stop at almost every one we see and always enjoy strolling along the aisles. It's fun to see old friends - 'Look, they have a Bully Hill' - and even more fun to see labels that are new to us. But we understand that many people find wine stores confusing, overwhelming or just plain annoying. All those wines, all those labels, all those neck cards claiming a 90-point rating from someone for just about every wine on the shelf (and often for a different vintage to boot).

对我们来说，葡萄酒专卖店就象游乐场。我们每见到一家卖葡萄酒的店都会进去逛逛。在一排排的酒柜间徜徉，是多么地快乐。熟悉的酒就像老朋友，令人开怀──"你看，他们也有一瓶Bully Hill"──看到以前没见过的酒，那乐趣就更大了。但我们明白，很多人被葡萄酒店搞得晕头转向，无所适从，或者干脆就令他们讨厌。所有的葡萄酒，所有的标签，以及所有瓶颈上挂的卡片都声称该酒被某个酒评家在某个种类的酒中评为90分（通常还是不同的年份）。葡萄酒货架上陈列的所有的酒几乎无一例外。

As a result, too many consumers fall back on the familiar, like that so-so Chardonnay that's not great, but certainly OK, or they choose entirely based on labels, which accounts for the herd of critter quaffers on shelves that feature enough animals to outfit an ark. This is a shame because good wine stores offer an ever-changing array of interesting wines at all price ranges.

因此，太多的消费者被吓退到他们熟悉的酒上去，比如味道一般般、称不上美妙的霞多丽酒（Chardonnay），不过肯定也还过得去。或者他们干脆全凭标签来选酒，正因为这一点，酒标上充斥着林林总总的小动物图案，足够填满诺亚方舟的了。真是可惜啊，因为好葡萄酒店要提供不同价位且令人感兴趣的酒，而且品种还要不断地变化。

In this column, we focus on types of wine you should embrace or avoid. We don't think consumers should have to walk into a store with a long list of specific wines to buy or shun. Instead, we're trying to make the wine shop smaller. Regular readers should be gaining a general sense of which types of wine are most likely to offer good value. Even we - when we walk into a large store - need to make some immediate judgments about where we think we'll have the greatest chance of success finding wines to enjoy in our off-duty wine lives. We'd guess that people who know something about gambling do the same thing, focusing on games with the greatest odds in their favor and avoiding the others.

在这篇专栏中，我们要着重谈谈你应该买或远离的酒。我们并不认为消费者在踏入葡萄酒店时都应该怀揣一张清单，上面清楚明白地罗列着哪些酒该买、哪些不该买。相反，我们尽量缩小范围。我们的老读者们应该已经大概了解哪些类型的葡萄酒最可能有好的性价比。即使我们自己──当我们步入大型葡萄专卖店时──也需要立即做出判断：哪些角落里最有可能找到我们可以在下班后享用的酒。想必略懂赌博的人也都如此吧，即集中心思在最有胜算机率的游戏上而避开其它的。

Secrets of Success
Based on blind tastings for our columns over the past couple of years, here are some tips for making the wine shop smaller. Now, this point is critical: We are not saying here that the aisles we'd skip don't include some good wine; of course they do. But we want to focus on the aisles where we expect the greatest chance of success if we simply pick up a bottle. For whole categories that we suggest you avoid, we will continue to conduct broad tastings and we'll let you know when it's safe to go back into those waters. Other people would certainly decode a wine shop differently, but this is how we do it:
成功之诀窍

根据我们在过去几年里为做这档专栏而盲品葡萄酒的经验，这里有一些心得能让你在逛葡萄酒店时将范围缩小一点。不过有一点很重要：我们并不是说，我们建议跳过的那些酒柜上没有好酒可寻──当然是有的；但是，我们希望把重点放在随便拿起一瓶酒都不错的概率最大的那几排酒柜上。至于我们建议您避免的那些类别，我们将继续进行广泛的品尝，至于何时回到这些类别上来比较保险，我们会告诉你的。其他人肯定会有不同的方法来解构葡萄酒店，但下面是我们的方法：

Skip the boxed and jug wines. This usually eliminates large sections of many stores. More palatable wines are being packaged in boxes these days and there are some good jugs, but save these for pool parties in the summer.

跳过盒装和壶装葡萄酒。这通常就把许多店中很大的一部分的酒排除在外了。尽管如今市面上有越来越多的美味的盒装葡萄酒，也有一些不错的壶装酒，但这类酒还是留着到夏季开游泳池派对时再喝吧。

Pass by the Australian aisles. Just about every wine shop we walk into these days is choked with Australian wines. Heaven knows there are some good ones - especially among the less-popular varietals such as Riesling and famous, expensive wines like Grange - but our recent tastings have raised caution flags about lower-priced Australian wines.

请跳过澳大利亚酒。如今，几乎我们踏入的每家专卖店都充斥了澳大利亚产的葡萄酒。一些澳大利亚产的酒确实是好酒，特别是在一些不那么大众化的品种里，比如雷司令（Riesling）和知名的像格兰许（Grange）那样昂贵的酒，但是近来我们在品尝了低价的澳洲产葡萄酒后，亮起了警觉的红灯。

Ignore the most popular lower-priced American wines, including Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. We know we're covering a lot of territory here and making just about everybody mad, but our broad tastings over several years indicate that there are more losers than winners among these wines. Your chances of finding value here are low, though there are, of course, some good ones, which we've written about in the past and will certainly write about in the future. If you really must have a Merlot, plan to spend more than $20.

请各位忽视最大众化的便宜的美国酒，其中包括美乐（Merlot）、赤霞珠（Cabernet Sauvignon）和霞多丽（Chardonnay）。我们知道我们这样说涵盖的范围太广了，几乎得罪了每个人；但是，我们数年里广泛的品酒经验告诉我们，这些酒中，输家多于赢家。要在这些酒中找到物有所值的东西，其可能性是很小的。当然，其中也有些好酒，我们过去也写过，将来肯定还会再写。若你非买一瓶美乐不可，那你得准备花20美元以上。

Unless you are specifically looking for a special-occasion wine, keep walking past the rack of very expensive Bordeaux until you get to the midrange Bordeaux, the bottles that cost under $50. We've found that, for the price, these often offer the kind of class and structure that a fine meal, like a great steak, demands. It's also worth taking a chance on a low-priced Bordeaux because sometimes these can be among the best $10 deals in the stores. Just don't expect to recognize the labels or even, in many cases, the appellation; the reason these are inexpensive is that hardly anyone has ever heard of them. We'd usually skip the red Burgundy aisle, though we'll never give up on these because, at their best, they're the greatest, and sexiest, wines in the world, but they're finicky, risky.

除非你专门在寻找一个特殊场合饮用的酒，那你就继续前行并绕过摆满非常昂贵的波尔多酒的柜子吧，一直走到放着中等价位的波尔多酒（Bordeaux）的区域，那些酒的价格在50美元以下。我们发现，对于这样的价格而言，这些酒往往能达到为一顿上好的牛排那样的美餐佐餐所需的档次。低价波尔多也值得你试试运气，因为有时它们可能埋藏在最划算的10美元价位的酒里。只是别指望你能认识其标签，甚至很多情况下你连酒名都叫不出，这些酒之所以廉价，是因为几乎没有人听说过它们。通常我们会跳过红勃艮第（Burgundy）区，但我们永远不会放弃它们，因为，当它们处于最佳状态的时候，会是世上最佳最性感的的葡萄酒，但它们过于注重细节，选错的风险极高。

The South America, South Africa, New Zealand and Spain sections are always worth a good look. There are new wines coming from those areas all the time, often at great prices, as they try to gain a market in the U.S.

产自南美、南非、新西兰和西班牙的酒永远值得仔细看看。店里总是有产自这些地区的新酒，而价格也常常很划算，因为这些酒正试图开拓美国市场。

For reds, head to the Italian section and look for wines from the Piedmont region. You'll know it by the expensive Barolos, but even if you're not looking for a big, costly wine for dinner, this is also where you'll find a gold mine of value, such as Barbera d'Alba. We've had better luck with Piedmont than Tuscany, though it's still hard to beat upscale Chianti for vitality and food-friendliness.