Thursday, August 24, 2006 8:06 AM
Wine Tasting
By Heather
I have been married just over seven years now, and my husband and I are always looking for new (and inexpensive) things to do together. Over the past couple of years we have become enamored with wine. We are lucky enough to live on Long Island where there are a ton of local vineyards on the North Fork, so we decided to take a trip out there and go wine tasting.
I had no idea what to expect, and really no clue what I was doing, so I thought I would share with you my first experience wine tasting so you can learn from some of my mistakes!
- Some vineyards offer free tastings. That's right, free. Other vineyards offer what are called "flights" where for about $8.00 a person you can taste a series of wines from the vineyard. Flights are often your best bet as the wines will be organized in the order you're supposed to drink them, which is great for a newbie.
- The order you taste wine in is important. Start with your sweeter white wines before you try any reds, and finish with dessert wines. Drinking wines out of order affects the flavor of them. I swear it's true!
- There's probably a bucket nearby. I had no clue what this bucket was for. There are wines that you just will not like -- you do not have to finish them. Silly me, I was trying to be polite and finish whatever I was given even if I hated it! The bucket is there for you to dump the wine in that you do not like.
- There's probably a pitcher of water too. This pitcher of water, contrary to what you might think, is not for drinking. The pitcher is there for you to pour water into your glass, swish it around, rinse it out and dump in the bucket. It is so you have a fresh glass for the next wine. It's very useful when you are switching from whites to reds, or if a red has a particularly distinct flavor and you don't want to taint it with the last wine you tried.
- It's all grapes! Even though the description of a wine may be "chocolate", "tobacco", or "blackberry", all of the flavors come from the grape. There is nothing else in the wine but grapes. I thought it was fascinating that all of these different flavors come out of the same grape depending on what you do with it.
- Ask questions! The people working at the vineyards will be more than happy to make suggestions and help you with what order you should taste things in. And don't forget to tip your server when you are finished with your tasting.
After a while, you will begin to learn the differences between wines and develop a more sophisticated palette for what you can taste in the wine, and what you like and what you don't. If your area does not have any local vineyards, many wine and liquor stores also have tastings, so give them a call and find out when their tastings are.
Better yet, host your own wine tasting party using these tips!