Dailyish Confessional: Wine tastings. Oh how I dig wine tastings. They are magical events with table after table of unctuous liquid just waiting patiently in multicolored bottles for me to say the magic words, ”I’d like to try that one, please!” Time stands still. And my empty glass waits anxiously for the pour. Glug, glug, glug (in the most melodious way!), and there it is just waiting for me to indulge. Slowly, I raise the glass to my nose and breathe deeply to take in every luscious aroma. Eyes closed, senses on high alert, I slowly raise the glass to my lips… Ok, drama comes to a screeching halt. Clock’s a tickin and there are dozens of wines to taste!
Human nature drives us to think we must try every single wine in the room. Guilt, empty plate club goals, uncertainty over etiquette or whatever behavioral patterns drives so many of us to drink every single drop of every single pour of every single wine. Holy cow let’s do the math! 60 wines, 1-2 oz pours, 120 oz of wine! That’s 60-120oz of wine or 2.4-4.8 bottles of wine! Don’t know about you, but I’d be under the table in more ways than one!
Tips and tricks for wine tastings
Survival tactics:
- Firstly, use DOMSOM’s 6 S’s when attending wine tastings to quickly walk your way through each wine you choose to taste – Sight / Swirl / Smell / Sip / Swish / Savor (if you want details, take the course!)
- Secondly, Take only 1-2 sips of each wine, if you follow the 6 S’s that’s all you’ll need to determine if you’re a fan or not!
- Thirdly, Dump! One you’ve had your 1-2 sips, there’s no shame in dumping the rest in the bucket provided on every table at the tasting!
- Spit. WHAT? You read it right!, the one and only place I know of where spitting is actually acceptable is in fact a wine tasting! It’s the hidden ”S” after Swish!
- Set a game plan – like white wine better than red wine for the most part? Start with whites and try as many as you can. Try new regions, varietals or winemakers/wineries rather than going to the ones you already know. Whatever you choose as your game plan, stick with it!
- Notes – take notes. Even if you just put a check mark by the ones you liked, or loved!, it will help you either at the event if you plan to purchase wines, or at a later date when you want to buy something you discovered.
- Watch my W.O.W. Wine of the Week episodes for tips on how to maximize the 6 S’s as you diveinto any wine!
There are tons of other ways to make the most of wine tastings and not suffer the pain of a massive hangover the next morning or forget which wines you’d love to add to your fridge, collection or table! Enough babble, let’s get tasting!
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