With thousands of varieties to choose from, picking a wine can be a daunting task. Fortunately, East Lansing has several wine experts to help you find what you're looking for. Curt Kosal, the wine and spirits manager at Goodrich's Shop-Rite, provides the following tips:

· Wines usually are grouped by the grapes' country or state (France, Italy, California, Michigan), then region (Burgundy, Napa Valley) and then type (chardonnay, merlot).

· Some of the more popular white wines include chardonnay, pinot gris (or pinot grigio), Riesling and sauvignon blanc; merlot, sauvignon, pinot noir and syrah are among the favorite red wines.

· Dry and semidry wines have little perceptible sweetness from sugars; sweet and semi-sweet wines are self-explanatory.

· Older doesn't always mean better. Most wines are made to be consumed within one to three years.

· "Old world" wines are generally from Europe; "new world" wines are from other places such as California, Australia and Chile.

Kurt Ludke