Kim Karalovich's column two weeks ago about online wine shopping segues perfectly into my topic: How a wine specialist can help you select the right wine. Almost daily, customers come into the wine department at Neiman Marcus and ask, "What is good?"

I am thinking "Everything!" as I try to find out what the purpose for the wine they wish to purchase might be. Will it complement a romantic steak dinner for two? A barbecue? A simple evening sitting in front of the television with casual sipping? Or is it to be a hostess gift for someone who is preparing a great dinner party where you are not exactly certain of what will be on the menu? Perhaps you are having 20 or 30 people over and you have a limited wine budget, yet you want to impress.

My job is to find out what I can about your tastes and the circumstances for which the wine is intended. Then I will work with you to select the perfect bottle from all the "good" wines I have in stock. After I get to know you and your palate, I can call you when a wine you would enjoy comes in and you will get first crack at purchasing, too.

It is a dream job: I am always tasting so you won't have to. There are many trade shows and classes and blind-tasting groups to help people in my position learn as much as they can about what's available, and I always try to attend them all. Sometimes there are hundreds of wines to taste! With few exceptions, everything in the Neiman Marcus wine department has been tasted by yours truly. We look for wines that are well balanced and outstanding in one or more areas: a great value, a good wine to go with certain foods, or a wine great to sip all on its own. With nearly 10,000 varieties of grape out there, and thousands of wineries (with more opening every day), it is a full-time job to keep up with it all. That's why constant education on wines is vital.

But why should the wine professionals have all the fun? There is a great wine class open to the public (21 and older, please) which happens twice a year through the University of Hawai'i Outreach College. This class is taught by the wonderfully entertaining Alan Jahns. In this class, you can taste approximately eight wines side by side and learn a lot about the world of wine. At the end of every class, something funny happens: Alan asks everyone to vote for their two top wines of the night, and nearly every week, all of the wines tasted get at least one vote.

This variety of palates is where the relationship with the wine-shop employee comes into play. Some people like red, some prefer white. Some people enjoy concentrated wines with big alcohol, while others enjoy food-friendly lighter styles of wine. Everyone's taste in wine is different, so the more you can share about your personal tastes with someone in my profession, the more you can get out of your wine purchases.