The crime: Choosing wine solely based on label aesthetics. The verdict: Guilty.

Although many might pretend to know what’s best when it comes to wine, the truth is it’s an often unexplored avenue of alcohol. Contrary to popular belief, Athens is a great place to venture into vino.

Perhaps the best place to start is at a restaurant with a long wine list. The National, located on Clayton Street, is only an eight-month old addition to Athens’ wine scene, but it already sticks out from the crowd. The restaurant offers a cruvinet wine-on-tap system, which bar manager Chris Luken said is the best way to preserve a bottle of wine.

“Cruvinet works like a beer tap, but instead of using carbon dioxide to move wine through the system, it uses nitrogen,” he said. “Oxygen interferes with the wine’s optimal taste.”

The National offers a “half-glass” order option to try more varietals, or different types of wines from different grapes at a cheaper price.

The National recently hosted a Spanish-themed wine dinner in which people could learn more about wine pairing with food. “We’re thinking about an Italian [wine] dinner next time,” Luken said. “Maybe as soon as this summer.”

Luken also said going to wine dinners, tastings and just trying different wines is one of two good ways to find your favorite kind of wine.

“Explore what you like,” Luken said. “But also, there is tons and tons of literature on wine. If you read about it, you’ll be able to tell small differences between French, California or even more exotic wines in a very short time.”

Emily Poole, managing partner for Shiraz, a wine store on Pulaski Street, said she found reading helpful when learning about wine, but tasting to be a much more effective method.

Shiraz, which opened in 2005 in the Leathers Building, was created based on the idea that tasting while talking to wine-educated people would help spread the consumption and education about what is considered “good wine.”

“Wine is something that is usually a little intimidating for people,” Poole said.

“Our thing is not so that we can know more than you, but we want to help you find something that you like, be it figuring out what you like best or a great bottle to go with dinner.”

Poole said the thing people become most uncomfortable about is “wine language.”

“Sometimes it’s helpful to figure out what people don’t like, that gives me more of something to go on,” she said. “Use your own words, don’t be afraid to experiment in any language you want.”

Although Shiraz is not a restaurant, it has several opportunities for tastings. “We do a tasting in the store every week, Saturday from [1 to 5 p.m.], and pour three wines free of charge,” Poole said. “It’s part of the service we provide, we’re not here to just sell wine.”

With 600 wines to choose from and over half of them imported, Shiraz offers a lot of promise for finding the perfect wine.

Wine tastings can also make great date ideas. Only 35 miles away, in Braselton, lies the Southeast’s only Chateau – Chateau Elan.

“We get a lot of students – groups of women who are having a ‘girls outing,’ couples and the occasional golf foursome of guys who finished playing the course and want to try some wine before dinner,” said Jane Fisher, wine market manager.

Fisher said the best time to make the trip is weekends because there are more guided tours from 1 to 5 p.m.

“The tours are usually given by our wine-maker, who goes into great detail about the wine-making process, our winery facility and how to tell the difference between white and red wines,” she said. Wine tastings also can be given individually during business hours for $1 per taste.

These are only a few of many local opportunities that are available to aspiring winos, but Luken offers a bit of advice to heed upon exploration: “Try not to get drunk .’cause after a while, you stop learning.”