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. It was part of a tour around the country and similar tastings were held in Dallas, Miami and elsewhere. They were highlighting four of their California brands: Beringer, Stags’ Leap, Chateau St. Jean and Etude.
If you have the opportunity to participate in such a tasting, we urge you to do so. There are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind if you do. Keep in mind that an event such as this is akin to a whole day’s visit to Wine Country, compressed into two hours. Thus you have the advantage of tasting without all the driving from place to place. On the other hand, a wine tasting like this packs a pretty solid alcoholic punch. So, much as in a day of wine tasting, you have to pace yourself and make the most of what’s offered to you without overdoing things.
Moreover, tasting a lot of wines in such a short period of time challenges the taste buds. Can you really differentiate what you’re drinking now from what you had five minutes ago, and five minutes before that as well? You must use not only your mouth and your nose but also your brain. What is there about each wine that distinguishes it? 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.) If you’re with others (we always go wine tasting together) what do they think? Their taste sensations may kick off thoughts in your own mind.
So when you go to a wine tasting such as the one we describe, consider some of the following tips.
- Eat before you drink. There are two reasons for this suggestion. The first is that if you’re going to ingest a lot of alcohol – and you will at such an event – you had better have some food in your stomach. The other is that the best food goes fast. There was quite a spread at this tasting: steak, jumbo, crabmeat, oysters and much more. Many of the best items were gone within a half hour.
- Don’t try to taste everything. No matter how small the serving, sipping up to 20 wines in that short a period is going to have a physical effect. Moreover, you probably don’t like everything. If you’re not a fan of white wines, don’t bother with them. If Cabernet Sauvignon overwhelms (or underwhelms) you, skip them. In other words, drink what you like, but not everything you like.
- Stick to the best. Since you shouldn’t try everything, you ought to go straight for the wines each estate is known for. And if you’re not sure what that is, ask your server or the representative from the winery. 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.
- Talk to people. After all, they’re all wine-lovers like you so find out what brought them to the event. In some cases they’ll be members of the same club as yourself. Or perhaps better, they’re members of another winery’s club and can give you some perspective on why they like those wines enough to have joined.
- Find a seat. Two hours on your feet is a long time. Two hours drinking makes it feel longer. At the particular event in New York, if here was any one criticism, it was that they didn’t have enough chairs.
- Go back for more of your favorites. The wine is there; you paid for the experience ($30 in that case) and the servers aren’t going to take any bottles with them. There’s no reason to be greedy but there’s no reason to be shy, either.
- At the end of the tasting, don’t get behind a wheel. No matter what you think at the time, you’ve had too much to be safe. By this point you’ve found your favorites and have gone back a few times for more. It adds up. We took a taxi home; you should, too.
A tasting like this one makes for a great night out. Make the most of it if you get the chance.