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Host a Wine Tasting
Forget your visions of a room filled with pompous oenophiles (wine lovers) talking in unintelligible winespeak. The serious objective of a wine tasting is to have fun. Start small: six or eight people. Have a couple of glasses for each person (one per person in the case of couples also works nicely, as the couples often will trade back and forth when they have different wines in their glasses.
Deciding on the wine
There are as many ways to approach a wine tasting, as there are wine lovers, so don't get hung up on procedure. Pick a setup that you think will be the most fun. Listed below are two general types of tasting that perhaps set an example on each end of the spectrum, from intimate and indoors to larger and even outdoors. PDF tasting pages can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
The Intimate Tasting
This type of gathering lends itself to a small group of people. Decide on the wines beforehand. A theme adds to the fun, such as "varietal comparison" (Comparing Merlot from California, Chile, Australia, and France, for example, or Sauvignon Blanc from several wineries in the same area). Tastings from a specific producer over different years (this is called at "Vertical" tasting) are a way to appreciate the differences brought about by vintages.
To add fun, we might serve a wine blind to get everyone thinking about what characteristics are on display in a French Merlot that are not found in the Chilean counterpart.
The Random wine tasting
Here, a group of people contributes to one great event. At our annual tasting event, we invite attendees to each bring a bottle they like, or even that they find "interesting" Weather permitting, we hold this tasting outside to accentuate the casual atmosphere. Two large tables are set up, for red and white wines. Each table is equipped with bread, a cuspidor (not that it gets used much), and pen and paper for people who want to take notes. Participants work their way through the table in any order they choose, although they are encouraged to attempt working from "lighter" to "heavier" wines. For fun at each table, one or more bottles are served "blind" (wrapped in brown paper), and guests are invited to guess the country, grape, year, and all kinds of esoteric information about what's inside. Rarely is anyone close, but everyone enjoys trying.
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You inspired a wonderful tasting event!
The handouts were very informative, the recommendations were wonderful, and the format really got everyone chatting.
Thank you!
-Gael & Bert Burns, Natick, MA
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General Notes on tasting
People have written books on tasting, so these are a few quick ideas to get started. If you want to read more, there are many resources at your local wine shop, bookstore, or library. One excellent, and massive, book is The Companion to Wine, edited by Frank Prial (Mirabel Books, 1992)
2- oz. tastes
This is ample to be able to get an introduction to a particular wine. Since there's only one bottle of most wines at a tasting, a taste for each person means that a lot of people will be able to sample a particular wine.
Hold by the stem
This keeps your hands from warming the wine too much.
Spit!
This part is up to you, but if you really want to remember the 7th wine you taste, you'll want to spit the first 6! Appropriate containers are at each tasting table.
Lighter to darker
Lighter white wines tend to be lighter and more delicate in flavor than rich reds. Your palate will work better if you start off with whites and work up.
Cleanse your Palate
Bread and Water should be available. Feel free to munch between tastes. Flavorful foods usually are not recommended; they risk "coloring" your impression of the wine.
Tasting
Feel free to use these notes as a guide. Generally the components (in order) of assessing a wine are:
Color
Hold the glass against a white background, and get a sense of the color. Two impressions may be useful today: between different grape varietals you will usually see a difference in color, and often between the wine from the same grapes grown in different areas, or in different vintages. Color is affected by the ripeness of the fruit, the age, and other factors.
Bouquet
Swirl the wine in the glass, and sniff. Do you have the impression of fruit? Spice? Mineral? Grass? Flowers? These are all hints as to what the taste will be.
Flavor
What is your first impression (sometimes ominously referred to as the "attack". Does the impression change as you swirl the wine in your mouth? Finally, is there a "finish" a lasting sensation or flavor? Sometimes the finish is quite different from the initial taste of a wine.
Impression
Do all of these factors hold together? Is the wine "harmonious" (sorry, wine term), or do the pieces clash with one another? |
Fun (?) Adjectives
Yes, all of these have really been used to describe wine, and most are actually "good" adjectives.
Whites:
Orchard fruits
Tropical Fruits
Citrus
grassy
lemon
lilac
honey
pineapple
coconut
green apple
melon
earth
pear
toast
"complex" smoky
floral
honeysuckle
fig.
Reds:
Blackberry
plum
apple
barnyard
leather
currant
bacon fat
baked earth
baked fruits
licorice
mint
pencil lead
cinnamon
chocolate
coffee
violet
cardamom
"rustic" tobacco
nutmeg
vanilla
cedar
anise
blueberry
almond
raisin
black cherry
"seamless"
"youthful"
"seductive" (film at 11).
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Please feel free to download these helpful wine-tasting notes:
Tasting Notes & Wine Identifier.
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