However, there are lots of wine teachers who do not realise that they have this role. Any staff of a bottle shop / off license are teaching about wine in some way. Sure, the attendants of a drive-through bottle shop on Friday or Saturday evening may not have much demand for their educational services! However, staff of the average and better stocked liquor store can play a huge role. Sadly, many people do not realise this.

Whilst there are the obvious brand preferring buyers, there are lots of purchasers who will browse. They will appreciate information on wine - any information it seems. Unfortunately you often see information signs and hear a well meaning sales representative or shop assistant. In these cases, it is not that the information is wrong - it is just that a lot of the information is irrelevant to consumers.

What educational messages should wine teachers be giving? At the introductory level (where shop staff are probably effective), an important message is to be enthusiastic about the huge ever-changing range of products in the wine industry. This diversity is exactly what makes wine so exciting. Wine cannot be pinned down to a fixed mix of products in the way that spirits and beer can. Plenty of shop layout designers, shelf stackers and inventory managers will not come to terms with the ever changing nature of wine products. The exciting message is that there are lots of wines to explore.

The next message is to provide some guidance through the huge range of wine choices. Despite diversity, there are some simple principles which will enable anyone to predict reasonably the taste of a wine simply from its label. A wine should be matched to the occasion and the food. Light flavours are best for a reception or pre-meal drink. Light flavours best complement light food. Fuller flavours are best with fuller foods.

A knowledge of grape variety names enables a prediction of the wine taste. Dry light whites are usually found with Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chenin Blanc. Dry fuller flavoured whites result from Chardonnay, Verdelho and blended white grapes which have been aged in oak barrels for a while before bottling. Fruity whites are usually made from Gewurztraminer, Traminer and White Muscat. Medium/light red flavours are produced by Pinot Noir; and Shiraz from the Hunter Valley and Margaret River. Medium to full bodied red wines are made with most South Australian Shiraz, and, in fact, Shiraz generally. Full flavoured reds usually are made with Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Australian wine industry's use of "generic" wine labelling, in recognition of the wines derived from Europe, is confusing for many consumers. Supposedly Chablis means light white. White Burgundy is a fuller white. Moselle is fruity. Burgundy is soft and medium flavoured. Claret is fuller flavoured and tannic.

Marketing names such as Jamiesons Run, Blue Pyrenees, Koonunga Hill, and Jacob's Creek are well known within Australia and, anyway, have a back label with taste descriptions.

In a bottle shop, why not display the wines sorted by taste groups? Hang up posters which explain the tastes and food matching. In a vital way, shop staff will become wine teachers. Why bother? well, by doing so, shop staff are better at their job, get greater satisfaction and are much happier. Also, customers are happy and, surprise surprise, wine sales are broader based, higher and more profitable. Wine education is a big winner. Anyone who sells wine is a wine teacher.

Andrew Corrigan is a well known wine teacher in Queensland where he also writes several wine columns. He is on the National Council of the Australian Society of Wine Education. For more information about the ASWE, write to ASWE, PO Box 171, Park Holme, Adelaide 5043.