HOW TO ATTEND A WINE TASTING

One of the better ways to learn about wine is to taste it, especially by comparing one wine with another or, even better still, with several other wines. The best place and time to do that is at a wine tasting, an event held to showcase a number of wines. 

A wine tasting can be as uncomplicated as a local retail shop or grocery store opening a few bottles for sampling during weekend hours. Sometimes there’s a theme to the selection; sometimes it’s just a chance for the merchants or an importer to display their wares. The idea, of course, is for you to taste the wines and buy the ones you like. 

Seasonal fairs, wine schools and winery tasting rooms offer wine tastings. But perhaps the best chance to taste several wines is at for-fee tastings held by a fundraising or affinity group at a restaurant or other venue. (The best place to find out about such tastings worldwide is at localwineevents.com, the most comprehensive posting of such events.) 

For one charge, a person can have a go at upwards of dozens of wines, often paired with food at a sit-down meal or at buffets or side tables. Having something to eat at a tasting is a good idea for reasons beyond feeding; food in the tummy is a smart setup when drinking alcohol. 

An ancillary benefit of a large, well-attended wine tasting is the chance to learn from you fellow tasters or others in attendance such as the winemaker of a set of wines who’s there to pour them for you. If you are new to wine, this is especially beneficial because you can taste wine in the company of those more experienced than you. It’s a fun way for knowledge to rub off. 

I’d like to offer some suggestions on protocol and how to behave at wine tastings. I’ve been to a fair number of tastings where improper behavior spoils the experience for many. I’m not talking about wine snobs; I refer to wine boors. 

• How best to behave
  Never smoke inside any wine tasting, even if allowed by law. The aromas interfere. Even the odor of clothing after a smoker has had at it outside can bother when the smoker returns.

• For the same reason, eschew wearing strongly scented perfume, cologne, after shave lotion, hair spray or deodorant. Be aware that you can get used to your own scent and not “smell” it, while others can. Just don’t slap any on before you leave your dressing table.

• Hog neither the wines nor the table. Too many tasters plop themselves along the tables’ edges, where the wine bottles to be sampled are commonly arrayed, and stay there while they work their way down the line of wines on offer. Slowly. Either sample a couple of each table’s wines and move on (and return), or, if you do want to try all the wines that a winemaker or winery want to show you, try to stand to the side while doing so, leaving room for others to approach.

• Don’t expect to receive even a partially full glass of wine. The idea of a wine tasting is to try as many wines as you wish, six or seven, say, or a couple dozen. The choice is yours of course, but for reasons of marginal sobriety and in order to get as many samples to as many tasters, you’ll receive your fair share of a small ounce or less of wine.

• How to do it
  New tasters are always surprised to see seasoned tasters spitting out their samples of wine. I can see them asking themselves, “How can someone who’s put down cash money for a ticket or is ostensibly involved in a sophisticated activity spit out into a bucket the wine that they’ve paid for?”

• Spitting into a spit bucket or spittoon is totally acceptable, again for the purpose of remaining marginally compos mentis while you taste into a number of wines. It’s also safer, especially if you’re driving.

• Clear the palate with a sip (and spit, if you like) of water before going from one sample to the next.

• Often, a tasting sheet or booklet comes with the tasting in order to keep notes or observations.

• You do not need feel obliged to taste all the wines (in some instances that would be either impossible or foolhardy). Skip whichever wines you wish to gloss over, choosing six or seven for a start that you might be interested in. Ask questions, learn the wines, move on to another set.

• Some folk find it easier and wiser on the tongue to escalate the intensity of the wines by tasting white and sparkling wines first, then the reds, finally the sweeter wines.

• The best way to taste any wine is to apply four of your five senses: look at its color and depth of hue; sniff its aromas; taste its flavors; and finally feel its texture.

• Then spit it out.