A Beginner's Thoughts on Wine

I am working very hard at understanding wine.  How it gets the flavors it does, what flavors I enjoy, what makes a good wine, and if there one company that you can trust for good wines as a whole.  This is a very slow process and I imagine it will take years to discover everything.  But here's what I have learned so far from various sources.

The first thing to know about wines, at least for me, is the mystery of tannins.  Tannins are chemicals proteins erm... things that can be found in many plants.  I haven't quite figured out what they are yet, and I'm not very good at understanding plant biology/chemistry so I probably will never understand.  Regardless, their job is to make the grapes taste bitter until they are ripe and ready to release their seeds, this helps protect them from birds and such.  Tannins are present in the grape's stem, seeds and skins.  The tannic flavor of a wine is directly dependent on the length of time the stems, seeds and skins were involved in the fermentation process.  From what I can tell the darker red the wine is, the longer the skins were in the mixture.

Its because of that reason white wines may be more beginner friendly, that way you can introduce yourself slowly to the taste of the tannins.

Possible White Wines to try:
-Ice Wine
-Moscato

Possible Blush Wines to try:
-white zinfindel
-white merlot

Possible Red Wines to try:
-Merlot
-Chianti
-Shiraz

**disclaimer:  I have not tried all of these wines yet, this is just what I've gather from other websites**

Another option to try could be Port, which is wine that has been fortified with brandy.

Wine has different sweetness levels:
    Sweet to Dry

Wine also comes in different consistencies:
    Light (like water) to Heavy (like cream)

One thing that I didn't realize until this morning is that Wine can go bad!!  Once a bottle is open you should drink it within 3 days.  The longer its out it loses its flavors and takes on a vinegar taste.  I had wine open for like 2 month in my fridge, I drank it.  Didn't get sick or anything, but I also didn't really enjoy the taste that much.  So remember, drink within 3 days!

Some websites that have been helpful to me that you might want to check out are:
http://wineintro.com/
http://www.wine-4-beginners.com/
http://wine.about.com/od/winebasic1/Wine_Basics_A_Beginners_Guide_to_Wine.htm
http://www.discoveryellowtail.com/fun/flavor-map.php

Hope that helps you!  From now on I'll be posting my thoughts on my current bottle of choice and random tidbits when I discover them.  Enjoy!