Have you ever seen those stiff upper lipped types doing a spot of the old wine tasting malarkey You know the form sip swill spit. Yuck Well this information has been written to help you understand the form should you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to know what to do. And dont go thinking Ill never have to do any wine tasting because you just don t know that for sure and the last thing you want is to be caught unaware.
So on with the tasting...
Study The Wine
Pick up your glass as elegantly as possible. There are two ways this can be done.
a For chilled wines hold the glass by the stem and don t even touch the bowl.
b For wine served at room temperature pick up the glass by the bowl and hold it cupped in your palm the stem between your middle two fingers.
Now that you have the glass comfortably in your handhold it at a slight angle against something white. Look If your hostess is worth her salt shell have covered the table in white linen specifically for this purpose although it does nice too.
Be careful not to tip the glass too far unless you are willing to replace an expensive linen tablecloth that is. You may also need to adjust the distance from your eyes that the glass is held at. Most find that holding it at almost arms length is a good starting point although the very short sighted who are also absent minded enough to have left their eye glasses at home may find themselves having to hold the glass almost in front of their noses.
Once you ev found the correct position study the colour and clarity of the wine. Now you may well believe that wines either red pink or white but I am afraid if that is the case you are very much mistaken. Wines can be green yellow gold pink purple or even black. Evidently the colour of the wine will indicate the type of grape it was made from like me you and Jack on the street are likely to know that
Clarity indicates age. Young wines are more see through and cloudiness can mean there is something wrong. If that is the case I did suggest putting it back on the table and giving your hostess once of those down your nose type looks.
The reason why you are studying the colour and clarity looks has absolutely no bearing on how the wine will taste but a proper connoisseur enjoys the beauty of wine as well as its taste and ...
The Bouquet
No we are not talking about the bunch of flowers a bride carries with her down the aisle we are talking the smell of wine. Sometimes if the people at the wine tasting are really posh they might call it The Nose.
Still holding your glass in the correct manner lower your hand somewhat whilst bring your glass to a level position and rotate your wrist so that the wine swirls gently within the bowl. You might want to leave these instructions at this point to go to the kitchen and practise this step with a wineglass half filled with water. After all it is just as well to know for sure that you arent going to spill expensive red wine over your hostesss spanking new Axminster.
To swill wine properly very little wrist movement is actually needed. Just very slight circular movements combined with a right left movement should do the trick.
The idea behind all this swilling is to bring the wines aroma out of the wine itself and into the empty part of the bowl thus allowing it to be smelled and savoured. This is why wine glasses are bulbous. The wide bowl has ample room for swilling while the narrow edge captures the bouquet. Clever eh
Move your glass to your nose as elegantly as you are able and bring it in slightly beneath the tip. Inhale deeply. Savour for a few moments and then inhale again. Its a good idea to exhale between those two inhalations or you might find yourself going dizzy. Do it too often and you will faint.
You may now move your glass away from your nose.
At this point its appropriate to make some kind of comment. Dont imagine you will fool anybody into believing you are an expert but at least you can make it sound as if you ve actually drunk a glass of decent wine before. Why should the other guests need to know that most of your wine costs 3.99 at the Co-Op
Something like rich and fruit or lovely and ligh will probably do the trick. When talking about red wine rich is usually a good word to use if the wines white go for ligh.
The Actual Tasting
You ve probably been looking forward to this bit but whatever you do remember that wine tasting is about taking small sips and not guzzle it down like there's no tomorrow.
This bits actually trickier than youd expect so you might want to do some more practising.
Bring your glass to your lips open them slightly and take a small sip. Now close you mouth and roll the wine around on your tongue for a few seconds before allowing it to slide slowly down your throat AND AT THE SAME TIME EXHALE
The trouble with exhaling whilst swallowing is that some of the liquid might come shooting through your nostrils. Not a pretty sight and again think of the Axminster
If you fancy you can always take a second sip at this point but never a third. No matter how good that one particular wine is its time to move on to the next.
Other Stuff Worth Knowing
Apart from bottles and glasses the table will probably hold plates of cheese or occasionally sherbet. Theyre not there to snack on theyre used between wines to clean out the taste of the last wine you tasted. Just a little at a time is all thats needed. Do like a mouse and nibble
Wear something comfortable and preferably something that doesnt carry a designer label. After all if you spill red wine down the front of your best frock youre not going to be happy are you
Thats it. Youre now clued up enough to pop along to your very first wine tasting party without making a complete idiot of yourself.
Enjoy
