THE WINE CUSTOMER
Spending all these years with wine, either in a Retail, Wholesale or Private environment, I have picked up so many different scenarios regarding people and wine!
I think at the beginning, I will have to talk about the retail environment. Here is when people come in looking at the inventory and when I asked if they need help. One of their responses is I Dont like wine! 
To me, in the retail business, that was a challenge. I have always believed that there is a wine for everyone, and that everyone can find a wine that they will like
When I work with customers like this, I start to conduct a simple informal interview. I asked them what beverages they like, what they normally drink, what do they have with meals, etc. They I asked them about their experiences with wine. What wines they have had and what was it about them that they didnt like. I would say that over 70% of the customers I have dealt with regarding this, the wine they had was always Red and very dry! To me, that can turn off anyone who really hasnt tasted wine. I talked to them about the different styles of wines. Do they like some fruity? a bit on the sweet side?, Red or white or rose? Questions like this. Then, I can narrow it down to a handful of wines that I think that they may like.
At times, I would open a bottle of wine that I think they may like for them to taste. With some customers, I would even buy a bottle for them, to bring home to try. None of these wines would be over $9.99. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. 
For those that liked sweet, I would start with some White Zinfandel. Personally, I think that is just sugar water, but for many its so delightful. For those that like whites, I would go with a Chenin Blanc or Riesling, because I know there is enough grapy sweetness and low acidity that many will find easy to drink. The reds are always the toughest. 15 years ago, I would have had a much tougher time selecting one. But in the past 10 or so years, many winemakers are making blends. These are almost always so easy to drink and are priced under $10.
So, now the customer has either tasted the wine in the store, or has tasted it at home. I wait until they come back again to find out their opinions. Again, based on their feedback, and they didnt like it, I would go searching for another wine, or if they did like it, I would find another one similar in style for them to taste. 
This was a lot of fun for me, working with all the customers, plus it gave me the opportunity to earn their respect and confidence. So, the next time, it would be much easier for me to recommend almost any wine..
Something that I have always found so interesting. Those folks that only loved sweet wines. They would drink it for years, you cold not get them to change the style. But after a while, they started to gravitated away from those really sweet wines, onto something not as sweet. Then after another period of time, could be a year or more, I found those same customers looking for drier wines! To me, it was almost inevitable, that the progression of wine drinking for those folks that said they dont like wine is from
Sweet -> Semi-Sweet -> Dry