The reason to go wine tasting is, of course, to taste wine.\u00a0 That rather unextraordinary statement obviously needs some refinement.<\/p>\n
The main reason we<\/em> go wine tasting is to educate our palates and increase our understanding by sampling the finest wines we can, in whatever region we are visiting.\u00a0 We realize that there are some people, usually those living nearby, who are simply enjoying a day in the country along with some nice beverages to enhance the pleasure.\u00a0 For them, lingering over a rare and expensive Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay just isn\u2019t a part of the game plan.\u00a0 If you are one of those people, the rest of what follows really isn\u2019t for you.<\/p>\n So now that it\u2019s just us serious tasters, we\u2019d like to ask a question: If you\u2019ve come all this way to France or California or Italy or Australia or\u2026why would you want to spend your time and tolerance for alcohol on anything other than the best wines?\u00a0 (There are actually a few good reasons and we\u2019ll get to those later.)\u00a0 But for now, please take our advice and when you enter a tasting room, scan the wines offered and select the best available.<\/p>\n How do you know which are the best?\u00a0 One way, of course, is that there\u2019s a special list with the best wines on it, often called the Reserve or the Library selection.\u00a0 If there isn\u2019t such a list, there will be some wines that are more expensive than the others.\u00a0 It is highly likely that those are the wines the proprietor considers the best.<\/p>\n Not only will you taste better wines this way but you will have a better experience.\u00a0 Sometimes, the glasses will often be larger and thinner.\u00a0 You will probably get a better explanation of what is being offered to you, especially if you are tasting on a weekday.\u00a0 You may very well be in a special, more elegant tasting room as is the case, for instance, at Beaulieu Vineyards and at Cakebread in Rutherford.<\/p>\n Naturally, these better wines cost more to sample.\u00a0 For example, at the two aforementioned wineries the cost of a regular tasting at Beaulieu Vineyards is $20 and $35 for the Reserve tasting.\u00a0 At Cakebread \u00a0it\u2019s as little as $15 for a selection of current releases and $40 for the Reserves.\u00a0 We always choose the Reserve lists.<\/p>\n Now, we understand that the higher price may be a deterrent for some people.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the good reasons mentioned above for choosing the lesser quality tasting list.\u00a0 Another might be that there are wines that are on the regular list that you\u2019d especially like to try.\u00a0 A particular winery might not have a reserve Merlot, for instance, and you\u2019d like to know what their Merlots are like.\u00a0 There\u2019s also the fact that you might want to taste wines that you are more likely to buy when you get back home.<\/p>\n Here are a few tips that might make tasting the good stuff more affordable.\u00a0 We two almost always share a tasting.\u00a0 Remember that the idea is to taste, not drink, so a shared glass gives both of us enough of an idea of what we want to know.\u00a0 Moreover, we have sometimes found that the server will pour a bit more into a shared glass than to a single taster\u2019s. \u00a0 If, in addition, you want to try something on the lower priced list, the server will almost always accommodate you if you purchase the more expensive tasting (although often not the other way around).\u00a0 In fact, it is often a very good idea to taste both the regular and the Reserve wines side by side.\u00a0 (Just ask for an additional glass.)\u00a0 You may well find that the regular wine is more to your liking than some of the pricier ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The reason to go wine tasting is, of course, to taste wine.\u00a0 That rather unextraordinary statement obviously needs some refinement. The main reason we go wine tasting is to educate our palates and increase our understanding by sampling the finest wines we can, in whatever region we are visiting.\u00a0 We realize that there are some … Continue reading The Good Stuff<\/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\/356"}],"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=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}