Good advice, AC. That's exactly what I do now. I use http://myCellars.com.au to test whether I will like a wine or not. Even in the 95+ camp or the Langtons Classified camp I tend to buy in, there have been some wines that were not to my tastes or were not knocking my socks off, but glad I got to try them. (The lofty 98 point Seppelt Drumborg Riesling 15 being a recent example). I tend to make a 3 to 6 pack investment if they are a real hit with me.
I am preferring this now to taking a gamble on Fo purchases. I have returned the last three orders and have lost a little confidence in what they are peddling (it's great marketing spiel). I do feel embarrassed to make so many returns, so I have decided to only buy from the Fo if I am fairly sure it's going to be a hit with me. I don't want to waste all those resources and time for them and for me. And I don't want to be lumbered with a lot of wine that's really good but not amazing.
I liked the 'noise' reference above. It's hard to pick the winners amongst the average fare on the Fo. And there is a lot of good, but average fare. But luckily for all of us, we have some very knowledgeable and experienced wine consumers who are happy to shout loudly on this Forum when the good ones do pop up. We are very lucky.
So my only additional advice to the above - carefully watch the various Wine Lover threads. Spot the good ones, and double check with a bit of Googling it's a wine you will enjoy (not all will be). And jump quickly when the wine buying stars align. The good, well priced wines go very quickly.
Happy wine hunting fellow Wine Lovers ...
