Category: Wine Tasting Tips

The tasting notes for one of our favorite Pinot Noirs describe what’s in the bottle as:

“Subtle and nuanced, this wine unfolds with layers of perfumed red berries and sweet baking spice. Delicate hints of cinnamon, clove, and cedar, dance from the glass, a nod to the well-integrated oak. The flavors unfurl with juicy red cherry and pomegranate, alongside hints of orange pekoe tea, hibiscus flower, and pink peppercorn.”

Photo courtesy of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

We’ve drunk that wine many times, and to be honest, never once gave a thought to baking spice, pomegranate or pink peppercorns.  In fact, we don’t believe we’ve ever thought of pink peppercorn after tasting any wine.

So we suggest that when you’re out winetasting and the server mentions road tar and alfalfa, take it with a bit of…well, salt would be bad idea, but don’t worry if you can’t recognize anything you were told.  Which is not to say that you shouldn’t consider the aromas and tastes that come from your glass.

• Remember, it’s your mouth. You can’t be wrong.  Actually, you can if you’re tasting some of the flavors only found in red wines when you’re sipping a white, or vice-versa.  So if you think you’re tasting, say, dark fruits or tobacco in a Sauvignon Blanc, you either have a cold or you’re really off base.  But if you close your eyes and let smell and taste memories take over, you’ll be correct, on your own terms.
• Listen to others. Of course, other people around you have their own memories.  If you’re tasting cherries and someone else says raspberries, they’re both red fruit, so maybe you’ll get a hint of raspberries, too.  But what if he says he can detect green peppers.  That’s often a sign of underripe grapes and you may not have picked up on that taste, but immediately recognize it when it’s pointed out to you.
• In addition, what you’re tasting is influenced by many factors besides the wine. You will taste different things when you’re pairing a wine with a meal than you do in a tasting room.  Your mood will affect your tasting abilities.  So will your health.  Fatigue, time of day, and the perfume some thoughtless visitor is wearing at the next table all have an effect.
• Not everyone can taste everything. It’s just a biological fact that some people have taste receptors for certain chemicals in specific wines and others don’t.  It is often written that Syrah has a definite taste of white pepper.  That may be so, but not for us.  It seems that a chemical called rotundone is found in white pepper and in low concentrations in Syrah grapes.  If you don’t have the capability to taste just a bit of rotundone, you won’t find it in your wine glass.
• Don’t fake it. If the “official” description says a wine tastes of honeysuckle and you can’t find that, but do taste pineapple, stick by your guns.  Maybe honeysuckle was dominant at the time the description was written but it has faded now, with pineapple coming out as the wine aged.  There’s no sense convincing yourself that you taste something you don’t, just to get along by going along.

With the Covid-19 pandemic fading away (but not gone) many of us are taking vacations again.  There are some trips for the explicit purpose of wine tasting, in which days are spent visiting wineries, getting to know the different varietals produced and enjoying being around the vineyards.  But sometimes vacationing is just to see friends and family and to take in the sights, in cities rather than in the country.

If your travel plans are leading you to Antarctica or the Sahara, there’s not much local wine to enjoy.  But almost anywhere else in the world, in North America or overseas, there is wine made nearby wherever you go.  You may not have the time to go to wineries, as we did not during our brief stay in Dubrovnik, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot about the wines they make wherever you are going.

Here are some tips to add a wine tasting adventure to any vacation.

• Do a little planning before you go. A simple Google search on “Best wine bars in…” will give you a head start.  So will a search on “Favorite wines in…”  In the latter case, you should refer to the region, not the specific destination to which you are headed.  “Favorite wines” in France, for example, won’t help.  But if you’re headed to Lyon, for example, a quick look at a map will tell you that Beaujolais and the Northern Rhône are close enough that you’ll know what to look for on wine lists.

A place to learn about Croatian wine.  The Latin at the bottom of the sign means “Not enough wine, not enough of anything”

• Visit an enoteca. Which is just a wine shop that offers a degustation, which is a fancy word for a tasting.  We found one in Dubrovnik, where the owner was pleased to introduce interested visitors to the history, geography and, of course, the taste of Croatian wines.  Over the years, we’ve done the same thing in Paris, Rome, Sydney, San Francisco and other places.  There’s bound to be a place to try wines anywhere you might go.
• Take a food tour. This is also something we’ve learned to love in our travels.  A guide – hopefully, a knowledgeable guide – takes you around to places where they serve local food specialties and often the wines that pair well with them.  We were once on such a tour and all that was offered was one small glass.  On a recent food tour in Rome, wine was served in carafes on the table, white and red, for everyone to help themselves.  When we ordered another, our guide said that only the first glass was included.  We assured her that we had bought ourselves some wine many times before and had no problem to do so again that day.
• Take advantage of where you are. We don’t suggest wine for breakfast, but a glass (maybe two) at lunch, aperitif, dinner and even for a nightcap isn’t a bad idea.  Hey, you’re on vacation, so you’ll probably want to indulge a bit anyway.  We’re just suggesting that focus on learning about the local wines.  Never order the same wine twice, so that you get as broad an exposure to local wines as possible in a short time.  If there are two of you, share tastes and double your learning.  Of course, be careful about how much you drink if you’re going to get behind the wheel of a car.

When we are on a wine tasting trip, we are pretty serious about it.  We chose in advance the wineries we want to visit, make appointments, pay attention to what we’re tasting and take notes.  But then there are times when we are travelling just for the sake of travel.  Sometimes we find ourselves in previously unknown parts, foreign or domestic, where we know that wine is produced.  We want to try the local wines but we don’t have time to go to vineyards, talk with the servers and generally educate ourselves.

So we do the best we can with the time we have.  Here are some tips on getting a rapid introduction to what the locals are drinking.  In our most recent travels we were in Italy, so we’ll use Italian examples.

• Take a chance. We have often been delightedly surprised in Italy to find very reasonably priced wine lists, much more so than back home, and even less expensive bottles in stores.  So if most of the wines available in restaurants are priced in the range of 20 euros or so, why not let Lady Luck be our sommelier?  A Falanghina may sound like the name of a luxury sports car, but it’s actually a white grape mostly found in the Campania.  We first found it by this go-ahead-and-try-it method; we loved it and have been looking for it ever since.
• Ask the waiter. If we are sitting down to a good meal, we’ll naturally ask for the wine list.  Sometimes we are told that the “list” is either red or white, so we know we are not about to learn anything.  In other cases, though, we are presented with a list of labels that provide a lot of data but no information.  We’re not familiar with the region, the grapes or the wineries.  So we ask the waiter, “What Pugliese white goes with the meal we are ordering”?  An honest waiter will think about it and recommend something that he, at least, thinks is representative of what the region has to offer.  (A dishonest waiter will just point you to the most expensive wine.  Ignore him.)
• Find a wine shop. Native English speakers have a great advantage in traveling around the world.  Especially where tourists are plentiful many people, including shopkeepers, speak English.  So when we enter a wine shop, we can generally communicate fairly well. We ask for whatever is made locally and often come up with a wine that is either quite good for the price or simply quite good, period.  Of course, we always travel with a cork screw for just such occasions.  We take the bottle to our hotel room and have our own tasting.

 

 

 

You’ve invited some people over for a meal.  Or maybe you and your significant other are having a romantic supper at home.  Or it’s just an average Tuesday dinner.  The same question arises: What wine are you going to serve?

But wait.  Power Tasting is about visiting wineries and trying their various wines.  What does that have to do with dinner plans?  We think the question of what to serve should be on your mind while you’re out wine tasting.  It’s unlikely that if you buy some of the wine you’re tasting that you’ll ever have the same experience as at a winery.  You’ll be at home and there will be no nice server pouring you a selection of wines and explaining what they’re all about.  You’ll choose a bottle, maybe two, and that’s what you’ll drink.

Photo courtesy of V is for Vino.

So we suggest that when you are in Wine Country that you consider the scenarios in the first paragraph and the decision you’ll have to make.

• Think about how the wine you’re tasting matches up with the kind of food you like to cook and eat. If you’re a meat and potatoes sort of person, you’ll probably gravitate towards big, powerful reds.  On the other hand, if you eat a lot of fish you’ll probably enjoy tasting white wines.  This isn’t so much about wine pairing as it is about choosing the flights at a winery that will introduce you to the kinds of wine that you might serve at home.
• You don’t have to impress. We have a tendency, when we are in Wine Country, to taste the finest wines in the area.  We have also wondered what the Mondavis and Rothschilds of the world drink with a burger and fries.  Maybe they don’t eat burgers; worse luck for them.  We do and we bet you do too.  And we don’t drink our best wines when we’re pouring on the ketchup.  So it’s fair to think of what you’d serve at a barbecue and choose wineries to visit that will fit those occasions as well as the steak dinner.
• Taste – and serve – what you like. If you’re a fan of, say, Beaujolais, and your guests include people who you believe are more wine-knowledgeable than you are, you don’t have to serve an expensive wine that you don’t know anything about.  It’s your dinner in your home, so you can serve what you  In all likelihood, the wine will match up pretty well with the food you will be serving.  Then, when you’re in France go visit Beaujolais and learn just how wide a taste palate you can find there.  And if you’re tasting elsewhere, ask which wines that they make are closest to Beaujolais.
• Restaurants are different.  When you dine out, you don’t serve a wine; you choose one.  There is a server and if you’re lucky there’s a sommelier who will explain the wine to you before you select it.  More importantly, there will be different meals consumed by each person, so the selection will almost certainly be some sort of

One definition of value is “whatever someone is willing to pay”.  By that token, the most valuable wines in Napa Valley are those that are unavailable for tasting by the average visitor to Napa Valley.  These would include Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Harlan Estate or Schrader.  By reputation, we’re sure that these are great wines, but we haven’t had the opportunity to taste them.

But another way to look at value is the ratio of quality to price.  While some would have you believe that the more something costs, the better it is, this is not necessarily true and certainly not when it comes to wine tasting.  In these days when a wine tasting trip to Napa Valley is bound to be costly, it is well to consider this definition of value as you choose which wineries to visit and what to try while you’re there.

Photo courtesy of What the Fab.

• Lesser known wineries can make very good wine. Sure, the big labels you read about in the wine columns of your newspaper make good wine (usually, but not always).  But we have discovered that smaller, less renowned wineries often have a few wines that offer excellent quality.  Our recent experience at Black Stallion falls into this category.  In many instances, these better wines are only available at the winery or to their club members.  If they are opening them at their tasting rooms, it is often to entice you to join their clubs.  But you can enjoy them without joining.
• Some wineries that make mass production wines can also have a few that excel. Even though you may have bought some of their easily available wines and not cared much for them, it’s worth giving these wineries a chance when you’re in Wine Country, especially in Napa Valley.  We have tried – and bought – some gems from Clos du Val and William Hill, for example, that really exceeded our expectations.
• With the prices for seated tastings running so high, it might make sense to include a few lower cost wineries when you’re in Napa Valley. Remember that the overall experience provides as much pleasure as the wines themselves.  If you know of a tasting room or patio that has something extra to offer, such as art or an attractive setting, you may choose to just relax with a few tastes of wines that don’t leave you in awe, but are enjoyable in themselves.  And you may find that there is one wine that is better than you anticipated.  Our experience at Cosentino, with a tasting fee of “only” $30, falls into this category.
• Visit wineries that you already know make less expensive wines you know you like. Many people have a few go-to wines you buy just for an informal meal or an easy afternoon outside.  Visit those wineries.  You know in advance that they make at least one wine that suits your tastes.  It may well be that they have others you haven’t had the occasion to try.  It’s certainly worth taking a chance with them.

Less than four years ago, Power Tasting’s January 2020 issue contained an article entitled, “How to Enjoy Wine Tasting in Napa Valley without Spending a Fortune”.  It makes rather odd reading today, since at least half the piece is no longer true.  Of course, when that was published, we didn’t know that a deadly pandemic, which closed down California wine tasting for many months, was just ahead.  On this side of those dreary times, as we have noted in a previous edition, wine tasting in America’s prime winemaking region has become so expensive that it prices out many potential visitors.

Photo courtesy of Napa Valley Tours and Transportation.

Today, there are no longer any free tastings; buying a bottle won’t result in waived fees; and the less expensive tasting flights offered are as costly as the pre-pandemic reserve tastings.  Sharing a tasting glass is far more difficult when almost all tastings are seated and served.  Nonetheless, there are some things wine lovers can do in Napa Valley to make the trip more affordable, if not cheap.

• Pass up the “big names”. It is not unusual to find tasting fees of $125 or more per person at the better known wineries.  Lesser known wineries, such as Cosentino (reviewed in this edition) or Hagafen offer tastings at far lower prices.  You should do some comparison shopping online before you leave home.
• Look for discoveries. The reason to visit the wineries you’re already familiar with is that you know what you will get.  There is an alternative approach.  If you are already experienced in going wine tasting, try to cast your mind back to when you first started coming to Napa Valley.  You have the chance to discover wonderful wines that you didn’t bother with in the past.  In many ways, we have found that we have gotten the most pleasure from enjoyable wines we had never heard of.
• Maybe splurge on one expensive tasting. Yes, the fees wineries charge are outrageous.  But that’s what’s happening to many other forms of entertainment.  Consider what you would pay for a Broadway show or a hockey match.  With the way tastings are presented today, it is not unusual to spend more than an hour sipping wine.  Add the time to walk around and look at the gift shop, and you can be at a winery for quite some time.  It doesn’t make the price of tasting easier to take, but it is easier to understand.
• Choose wineries with interests other than the wine. In addition to tasting, you might find it fun to take in some interesting architecture and beautiful grounds.  Chateau Montelena or Stags’ Leap might be good candidates.  If you’re a shopaholic, Robert Mondavi and Darioush might be just the ticket.  These won’t reduce your cost for sipping wine, but will expand tasting experience.
• And as we said, there are other great places for wine tasting. Napa is wonderful but it’s not to everyone’s taste.  If you prefer your tastings to be more rustic and laid back, you might find Sonoma County, Central Coast or Amador County more amenable.  Take your dollars elsewhere and maybe the owners of those Napa palaces will lower their prices.

Essentially, wine tasting is all about what’s in the glass, plus the amenities and architecture of the wineries themselves.  But it’s also about the factory that is often found right behind the tasting room.  And it’s about the farms (we call them vineyards, of course) that produce the grapes that ultimately wind up in that glass.

Wineries offer tours of their industrial facilities and occasionally take visitors into the vineyards, but they do not emphasize the farming aspect of wine.  In some part that’s because many wineries source their grapes so the farming is someone else’s job.  But more so, it’s because there really isn’t anything to see, except perhaps at harvest time, when the best a visitor can do is stay out of the way of the workers.

Photo courtesy of Wine Australia

But when someone is visiting a winery, especially one with vines right outside the window, it’s a good idea to learn a bit – maybe only a bit – about its farming practices.  Here are a few things to think about.

• What accommodations does the winery make for their specific micro-climate? We remember being at a renowned Bordeaux château and asking why their wines were so much more expensive (and better) than the one that adjoined their property.  The answer was, “Do you see that little hill between the vineyards?  We get the morning sun and they don’t.”  A few questions about the siting and orientation of the vines can provide a lot of insight as to why one particular wine tastes the way it does.
• What is the winery doing about climate change and sustainability. Of course, everyone is concerned about the environment.  Noticeably hotter summers and wetter winters are challenging winemakers to find year-to-year consistency in the wines they produce.  Even more, these conditions are making it increasingly difficult for vineyard managers to grow the same amount of grapes in the same varietals with the same quality every year.  As a visitor and wine lover, we think you’d like to know what they’re doing about it.
• Along the same lines, how do they use water? It seems that wine growing regions are experiencing either drought or floods.  The way in which they use water – or protect themselves against it – are important factors in the quality of the wines you taste.  Despite perennial panic about running out of water, California winemakers did pretty well during the drought years, but how long can this go on?  Dry farming works in some climates, but others are virtual deserts and need irrigation.  It’s worth asking how they do it.
• How do they deal with cool springs or excessively hot summers? You may know that the pruning and trellising practices of various vineyard managers differ.  It’s interesting to find out how each winery’s approach leads to what winds up in the glass.  An average server may not know, but if the winemaker or some farmhands are around, they can explain it.  Even if it all seems a bit geeky for the average taster, it’s worthwhile to know what’s going on in the fields.

If you’ve decided to go wine tasting in Napa Valley, you’d better make advance reservations and be prepared for an experience lasting at least an hour.  [This is largely true for Sonoma County as well, but let’s keep the focus on Napa Valley.]  You’ll sit at a table and be served one wine after the other, usually four or five, often with something a little special added in, especially if you express an interest in a particular grape or a style.  Just keep in mind that the server will bring you the next wine to taste whenever he is available and after serving other customers.

Photo courtesy of Spring Valley Vineyard.

The above is good advice but it’s not entirely true.

• Walk-ins are still available. It helps, we’ve found, if you appear a bit abashed, saying, “Gee, we don’t have a reservation, but do you think you can take us without one?”  If the tasting room (or more likely, in good weather, the tasting patio) isn’t busy, they’ll take you.  Groups of two will be taken, but larger than that and you’re less likely to be seated.
• The issue is labor shortages. We have been told that the reason for the “by appointment only” policies is that qualified tasting room staff are hard to find in the years after the end of the acute phase of the pandemic.  If the schedule for the day is known in advance, they can staff appropriately.  However, although most wineries won’t admit it, they often have staffed up for some walk-ins.
• It’s easier at the lesser-known wineries. The biggest labels, which have historically drawn the most visitors, are the most likely to enforce their reservation systems.  You can tell by checking their web sites.  If they state that they have a strict reservations-only policy, they probably mean it.  Many of the wineries that aren’t household names are eager to please and attract new customers.  And quite often we’ve found that there’s little or no sacrifice in the quality of the wines we have tasted by sticking with the smaller wineries.
• It’s also easier at the less busy times of day. You are more likely to find availability if you arrive just as the tasting rooms open their doors or an hour before they close them.  The morning is better.  The servers are more chipper and they’re not in such a rush to get home.
• And you have a better chance on weekdays. Naturally, wineries are busier on weekends, just as they were before the pandemic.  But the reservation-only regimes have eliminated the wild party mob scenes of yesteryear, and that’s not bad at all.
• You may not get prime seating. If it’s a beautiful day and you want to sit on the veranda, you may find that you can only be accommodated inside.  The wine tastes exactly the same and since you didn’t make an appointment, you have no right to complain.
• Maybe ask for all your wines to be poured at the same time. If you are a fan of the extended tasting experience that is the rule in Napa Valley today, by all means let them serve you one wine at a time and plan to sit there for more than an hour.  But if you need a lunch break or have an appointment at another winery, you can save some time and reduce the irrelevant patter by having all four or five wines poured at once.

Sparkling wine is made almost everywhere that grapes are grown.  We’ve had sparklers from France (Champagne, the Loire), Napa Valley, Sonoma County, South Africa, Australia, Long Island and Brazil (yes, Brazil).  But only the sparkling wines of the Champagne region in northern France can be called Champagne.  Real Champagne can only be made from three grapes, one of which is white (Chardonnay) and two reds (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier).  Any sparkling wine that has pretentions of real Champagne must be made by the méthode champenoise, with still white wine double fermented in the bottle.

So when you’re looking to buy a bottle of bubbles, which one should you choose?

• Why are you buying it? If it’s to drink by the pool on a hot summer afternoon, there’s no sense spending big money for a great wine.  There are many California sparkling wines that are affordable and quite good, Domaine Chandon and Domaine Carneros being the best known.  On the other hand, if the purchase is for a romantic dinner or a big celebration, go for the real stuff.  It will cost you more; it’s hard these days to find any Champagne for less than $40, but that’s what romance and celebrations cost.
• Where are you? If you’re in Italy, drink Prosecco.  In Spain, order the Cava.  In Germany, it’s Sekt.  In other words, do what the locals do.  Note that in California and Long Island, the people there do drink imported Champagne as well as the local sparkling wines.
• How much do you want to spend? As mentioned, real Champagne doesn’t come cheap.  But there are also many American sparklers that are fairly expensive.  For example, a bottle of Domaine Carneros Le Rêve can set you back up to $125.  And, without mentioning names, there are some wines with bubbles in them that are very cheap but aren’t even worth the ten bucks or less that you’ll pay for them.  So be reasonable, set your price point and then buy accordingly.
• Have you tried them? Just because a wine comes from Champagne doesn’t guarantee that you’ll like it.  We like most that we’ve had, but there are some that just don’t tickle our palates as much as, say, a Sparkling Pointe from Long Island.  Wine tasting rule #1 is know what you like: If there’s a sparkling wine you particularly like, by all means buy it.  If your intent is to impress your friends with your wine expertise (never a very good idea), you’d better try it first.  There are gems at relatively low prices and there are expensive Champagnes that, to our tastes, just aren’t worth the expense.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to experiment, just to find out which is which.
• Do you remember what it’s called? That’s wine tasting rule #2.  If, say, you were at a party and the host poured you a glass of something that knocked your socks off, ask what it is so you can buy it yourself.  If you’re not good at remembering names, write it down.  A name like Tribaut Schlosser doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue and there’s a good chance you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it to the store clerk from memory alone.  (By the way, it’s Tree-boe Shlahs-er.)

In the United States, we drink a lot of wine produced domestically, more from California than from the other states.  For the most part the wines we drink are made from grapes brought over from France.  The Bordeaux and Burgundy grapes are the most popular, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  But the borders of Wine Country are far more extensive, even within Europe.

The Georgians age their wines in amphorae, just as the ancient Greeks and Romans did.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

In recent years, Americans have been eager to try wines from new places.  Of course, Italy and Spain have always been a part of American wine drinking, but German Riesling and Austrian Grüner Veltliner have increasingly been appearing on wine lists and on store shelves.  But what about Saperavi from Georgia in the Caucasus?  Or Feteasca Neagra (or the “Dark Maiden”) from Romania?  Hungarian Kékfrankos, anyone?

We recently had the opportunity to taste a lot of wines from countries where we didn’t know that wine was made, from grapes we never heard of, including those just mentioned.  It forced us to think about how to deal with such unique tastings.

• Start with an open mind. Just because we hadn’t heard of these wines shouldn’t have made us presuppose anything about them.  The producers of many of them were eager to inform us that wine had been produced in their country for thousands of years, so if it was good enough for the Romans, why not us, too?  And indeed many had distinctive aromas and tastes that weren’t quite like anything we’d tasted before.
• Consider the history. Yes, there was wine in these parts of Wine Country a millennium ago, but what about recently?  In a number of cases we were told that after World War II, their entire export market was to Russia, where wine drinkers prefer sweetness in their glasses.  Accordingly, most native vines – not all – were pulled up and replaced with more familiar grapes that were left to over-ripen.  Post Cold War, the local grapes were replanted, so that what is now available on the market is made from relatively young vines.
• Judge the wines on their own merits. Not everything was great; a few were awful; and most were interesting but not on a par, to our tastes, with better Californian and Western European wines.  But so what?  Okay, we’d never tasted Saperavi, so these were the best we ever had.  And they were quite pleasant, something we’d like to try again with, say, stuffed peppers such as distant Romanian relatives once made for us.
• Quietly compare these grapes with what you know. We found a great deal of similarity of some of these wines with those from grapes we were more familiar with, especially Syrah.  Syrah is a very adaptable grape, producing very different tastes depending on the terroir, so maybe that connection was only in our minds.  Or was it some deep-seated ancestry?  We certainly don’t know, but this reference did enable us to think of the kinds of food that each strange grape would go well with, i.e., the same ones we would choose to go with Syrah.