{"id":278,"date":"2016-05-30T18:13:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T18:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-06-25T19:38:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T19:38:12","slug":"tasting-tips-for-wine-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Tasting Tips for Wine Events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we mentioned <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=276\">in this issue<\/a>, we recently attended a wine tasting organized by Treasury Wine Estates, the Australian company that owns many top end wine producers.\u00a0 It was part of a tour around the country and similar tastings were held in Dallas, Miami and elsewhere.\u00a0 They were highlighting four of their California brands: Beringer, Stags\u2019 Leap, Chateau St. Jean and Etude.<\/p>\n<p>If you have the opportunity to participate in such a tasting, we urge you to do so.\u00a0 There are some dos and don\u2019ts to keep in mind if you do.\u00a0 Keep in mind that an event such as this is akin to a whole day\u2019s visit to Wine Country, compressed into two hours.\u00a0\u00a0 Thus you have the advantage of tasting without all the driving from place to place.\u00a0 On the other hand, a wine tasting like this packs a pretty solid alcoholic punch.\u00a0 So, much as in a day of wine tasting, you have to pace yourself and make the most of what\u2019s offered to you without overdoing things.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, tasting a lot of wines in such a short period of time challenges the taste buds.\u00a0 Can you really differentiate what you\u2019re drinking now from what you had five minutes ago, and five minutes before that as well?\u00a0 You must use not only your mouth and your nose but also your <em>brain<\/em>.\u00a0 What is there about each wine that distinguishes it?\u00a0 What foods would bring out the best in the wine and voice-versa? (Having a spread of different foods to pair with the wines certainly helps figure this one out.)\u00a0 If you\u2019re with others (we always go wine tasting together) what do they think?\u00a0 Their taste sensations may kick off thoughts in your own mind.<\/p>\n<p>So when you go to a wine tasting such as the one we describe, consider some of the following tips.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Eat before you drink.<\/strong> There are two reasons for this suggestion.\u00a0 The first is that if you\u2019re going to ingest a lot of alcohol \u2013 and you will at such an event \u2013 you had better have some food in your stomach.\u00a0 The other is that the best food goes fast.\u00a0 There was quite a spread at this tasting: steak, jumbo, crabmeat, oysters and much more.\u00a0 Many of the best items were gone within a half hour.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t try to taste everything.<\/strong> No matter how small the serving, sipping up to 20 wines in that short a period is going to have a physical effect.\u00a0 Moreover, you probably don\u2019t like everything.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not a fan of white wines, don\u2019t bother with them.\u00a0 If Cabernet Sauvignon overwhelms (or underwhelms) you, skip them.\u00a0 In other words, drink what you like, but not everything you like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stick to the best.<\/strong> Since you shouldn\u2019t try everything, you ought to go straight for the wines each estate is known for.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re not sure what that is, ask your server or the representative from the winery.\u00a0 This will enable you to make peer-to-peer comparisons, both between the same grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon at this tasting) and between different ones of the same vintage.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talk to people.<\/strong> After all, they\u2019re all wine-lovers like you so find out what brought them to the event.\u00a0 In some cases they\u2019ll be members of the same club as yourself.\u00a0 Or perhaps better, they\u2019re members of another winery\u2019s club and can give you some perspective on why they like those wines enough to have joined.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find a seat.<\/strong> Two hours on your feet is a long time.\u00a0 Two hours drinking makes it feel longer.\u00a0 At the particular event in New York, if here was any one criticism, it was that they didn\u2019t have enough chairs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go back for more of your favorites.<\/strong> The wine is there; you paid for the experience ($30 in that case) and the servers aren\u2019t going to take any bottles with them.\u00a0 There\u2019s no reason to be greedy but there\u2019s no reason to be shy, either.<\/li>\n<li><strong>At the end of the tasting, don\u2019t get behind a wheel.<\/strong> No matter what you think at the time, you\u2019ve had too much to be safe.\u00a0 By this point you\u2019ve found your favorites and have gone back a few times for more.\u00a0 It adds up.\u00a0 We took a taxi home; you should, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A tasting like this one makes for a great night out.\u00a0 Make the most of it if you get the chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we mentioned in this issue, we recently attended a wine tasting organized by Treasury Wine Estates, the Australian company that owns many top end wine producers.\u00a0 It was part of a tour around the country and similar tastings were held in Dallas, Miami and elsewhere.\u00a0 They were highlighting four of their California brands: Beringer, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=278\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tasting Tips for Wine Events<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}