How to Host a Wine Tasting
Wine tastings can be done in a multitude of different ways, and can rage from very basic to extremely intricate. I suggest having about 4 wines to taste, it gives you enough variety to taste differences but doesn't overwhelm your guests.
Having a theme is also an excellent idea. Some examples of themes:
- Have everyone bring a bottle of their favorite wine.
- Have everyone bring a wine with a certain item on the label, i.e. animals, buildings, etc.
- Taste wines from a particular region. This could be as broad as French wines, or as specific as Chablis wines (This is a great way to become more familiar with wines from around the world).
- Join a Monthly wine club and try something new and unexpected each month.
Some other fun ideas to add to your wine tasting:
- Buy some fun wine charms so that you can distinguish between everyone's glass.
- Use corks to hold place cards for your guests.
- Place the wines you're tasting into gift bags and have a "blind" tasting.
Steps to Tasting Wine
Knowing how to taste wine is essential to having a succesful wine tasting party! Everyone has their steps to wine tastig. For me there are 5 basic steps to tasting wine:I'll break down each of these steps for you.
See
The first thing you should notice about a wine is how it looks. Of course the first distinction is whether the wine is red, white or blush/rosé. For each of these types of wine there are a range of colors that you may see. To clearly see the color of the wine, hold the glass up to a white background. A white wall, or a white napkin works perfectly for this.There are several things that the color of the wine can tell you. For instance: the age of the wine, the variety of grape it's made from, and what type of container the wine was aged in.
Swirl
Swirling wine is a classic image for most people, but many people don't understand the importance of swirling wine. When wine is swirled, it becomes oxygenated and produces a greater aroma and bouquet. Bouquet is the total smell of the wine, whereas aroma is the smell of the grapes. "Nose" is another wine term you may hear that refers to both the bouquet and the aroma of the wine.Smell
The smell of the wine is the most descriptive part of a wine tasting, and sometimes even referred to as the most important part. While there are only four tastes that humans can perceive, there are thousands of smells. The problem with this step however is that it is mainly experience that allows you to pick up on the characteristics of the nose of a wine. The more wine you've tasted and smelled, the better you'll be able to tell the quality of a wine, and the differences between varieties.Here is a small list of possible descriptions:
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Sip
Now comes the part that everyone enjoys, regardless of their knowledge of wine....the tasting! There are four tastes that can be perceived by humans:- Salty- This one we can cross off of the list right away, because there is no salt in wine.
- Sweet- Sweetness occurs in wines that have sugar left in them after fermentation. "Sweet" flavor is tasted at the tip of the tongue, and thus is one of the first flavors you'll notice in a wine.
- Sour- Sour, or tart, flavors come from the level of acidity in the wine. Acidity is tasted at the sides of the tongue, the cheek area, and on the back of the throat.
- Bitter- Bitterness in wine comes from a high alcohol content, or the presence of tannin. Bitterness is tasted on the back of the tongue. The sensation of tannin, however, can begin in the middle of the tongue. Tannin however is not a taste, but more of a tactile sensation.
