[MrWookie47]

Here are a few thoughts:

1. I've usually found that the nicer the label, the more the winery is trying to sell you on the label, and not the wine.

2. Host an informal wine tasting with your friends. It doesn't need to be complicated, and no one needs to know anything at all about wine. Have everyone who attends bring one bottle of wine within some guidelines you set, and you can be as open or as restrictive as you want. For example:
-Everyone brings any bottle of wine at all, and we'll all see what we like.
-Everyone brings something they haven't tried before, and we'll see what we like.
-Bring a 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa or Sonoma counties.
-Brings a red wine that costs $10 or less.
-Everyone brings a wine that isn't from the US, France, or Australia.

Get the idea? I'm sure you can come up with plenty of good themes. At your party, hide the bottles in numbered bags (most liquor stores have wine bottle sized paper bags for wine purchases - ask for a dozen or so) so no one is swayed towards something they recognize. As for the actual tasting, there's no need to be pretentious. Just drink it, and see what you like. Have everyone take notes, and rank them at the end. Tally up the scores and see which bottle won. You're apt to be surprised. If you keep the group to around 10 people, you'll get to try a good number of wines in one night, but not so many that they all run together, or that not everyone gets enough.

The only real way to learn about wine is to try a lot of it. I could rattle off a half a dozen bottles I like or what professional tasters like, but that only has a little bearing on what you'll like. Have fun!