AUGUST 2011 Edition

A true wine tasting can be anything from a cheese and wine affair to a simple and relaxed and enjoyable exploration amongst friends – of wine, of course. The objective of a tasting should be to provide those attending with new, useful knowledge which will add to their enjoyment of wine and help them to distinguish between wines, pinpoint characteristics and correctly criticize different wines. There are several elements which will influence a wine tasting event.

The guests: Few people will refuse an invitation to a wine tasting, so don’t ask people indiscriminately. Concentrate on inviting a variety of guests with varying degrees of knowledge about wine. Although they shouldn’t all be wine experts, it’s important that they at least enjoy drinking wine. The most rewarding functions involve between 10 and 30 guests.

It’s worth keeping in mind that the fewer people you have at a wine tasting, the further the available wine will go. At an average of 20 tastings per bottle of wine, one can work out how many bottles you would need to provide.

Location: Though informal tastings don’t exactly require much, it’s important to keep in mind that the environment should allow for people to speak their mind and share their thoughts on the wine. If there’s a bigger group, try to keep the noise levels down and have one large area without any partitioning. To judge a wine by its colour, one should have a well-lit surface against which to hold up the wine. This could either be a white wall with good clear lighting, a white table cloth or even sheets of white paper. Of course, a little background music is always great for creating an atmosphere as long as you get the right type of music and set the volume just right.

Glasses: It’s a startling experience to nose a wine in a conventional wine glass and then nose the same wine in a tasting glass. The concentration of nose in a tasting glass shows up the varying gradiations of colour in the wine.

Many people use a different glass for each wine, leaving the used glasses to compare the wines at the end of the tasting or come back to a favourite. It’s a good investment to buy as many tasting glasses as the wine circle can afford, however another idea is to collect tasting glasses from various wine shows and events and add them to the kitty as you go along.

The Wines: This is where the fun begins. You could choose to showcase different wines from one producer, compare a bunch of similar cultivars, such as a row of Chardonnays or Shiraz’s, see how wines from a particular vintage or region compare with others and many more.

A maximum of 6 different wines will provide you with the best selection as it won’t overwhelm tasters. It is also important to ensure that white wines are chilled in advance and red wines should ideally be decanted a few hours in advance to allow for them to breathe sufficiently. It’s also worth having a few extra bottles of wine available for post-tasting socializing.

Scoring: This really depends on how seriously you want to make the tasting. Some tasters won’t be interested in scoring the wines at all, while others could be more serious about it. Drawing up your very own 20-point scoring sheets is as simple as creating a table with 6 columns: Name of the wine; Appearance (3 points); Nose (7 points); Palate (10 points); Total Points and Remarks. Again, depending on how seriously your group takes the tasting, this might not be necessary at all.

Housekeeping: A number of jugs of water should be available for people to rinse out their glasses before tasting the next wine. Some plastic buckets can be used as spittoons for water or wine to be poured into.

It is absolutely necessary that people be reminded not to smoke during the tasting as cigarette smoke interferes badly with accurate tasting of the wine. This is not wine snobbery, but common sense. Also keep in mind that you should rather serve food or snacks after the tasting unless you’re doing a particular food pairing as certain foods can drastically affect the taste of the wine.

Now there’s absolutely no reason for you not to start your very own wine appreciation group. Try rotating venues amongst friends so everyone has an opportunity to put their selection of wines to the test. It’s a great way of meeting people and in today’s rushed life, to make a set arrangement to catch up with friends over a glass (or six) of wine.

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