{"id":1867,"date":"2021-06-29T15:46:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2021-06-29T15:46:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:46:28","slug":"how-to-have-fun-while-wine-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1867","title":{"rendered":"How to Have Fun While Wine Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is, of course, an elemental problem with this article.\u00a0 That is, if you don\u2019t already know how to have fun, nothing we say is going to help.\u00a0 On the other hand, if you already think wine tasting is fun, then we are happy to provide some tips on how to add to your fun whenever you are in Wine Country.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Have a fun attitude<\/strong>.\u00a0 That advice may seem obvious, but there are a number of reasons to go wine tasting \u2013 having fun is only one of them.\u00a0 Your objective may be educational, which may be satisfying but isn\u2019t necessarily fun.\u00a0 Or you may be in a buying mood.\u00a0 If you are tasting wines for the purpose of buying a case or two, you ought to be paying attention, not being devil-may-care.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_2152.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1868 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_2152-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"651\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_2152-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_2152-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_2152-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 651px) 100vw, 651px\" \/><\/a><em>Good times at Domaine Chandon.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Haute Living.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Go where the fun is<\/strong>. Now this is a matter of taste.\u00a0 If you think it\u2019s fun to be in a crowd, drinking more than tasting (not our idea of a good time) then go to a popular winery on a holiday weekend.\u00a0 This mostly applies to the major California destinations.\u00a0 We\u2019ve never encountered a partying crowd in Europe, but we have in Australia and South Africa.\u00a0 In our experience, <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1347\">Domaine Chandon<\/a> and Miner, both in Napa Valley, fit this bill.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Book a sit-down tasting<\/strong>. This alternative is a bit more restrained, but you still get to meet some (usually) nice people while you taste.\u00a0 Best of all is a tasting where the winery also gives you some bites of food so you can truly experience what the wine might taste like at your dinner table.\u00a0 Jordan Vineyard &amp; Winery in Alexander Valley is our favorite in this regard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/reims2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1869 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/reims2-300x220.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/reims2-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/reims2.png 609w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><em>Reims Cathedral.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Viator.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Make time for a really nice lunch<\/strong>. In general, wherever fine wines are made there are excellent restaurants nearby. So instead of making the objective for the day to visit wineries, grabbing a quick meal in between, consider a day built around a lunch at a top restaurant, with a bottle of the local wine, of course.\u00a0 This describes wine tasting almost anywhere in Europe.\u00a0 We have particularly warm memories of meals on the square in Montalcino, in front of the cathedral in Reims and on Main Street in St. Helena.\u00a0 But, be careful how much alcohol you consume during the day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Do something else<\/strong>. Just because you\u2019re on a wine tasting trip doesn\u2019t mean you have to <em>only<\/em> taste wine.\u00a0 If you\u2019re near the shore, declare a beach day.\u00a0 This works in Santa Barbara, Tuscany and Languedoc.\u00a0 In some places in California, France and Switzerland, you can taste wine one day and go skiing the next.\u00a0 And almost everywhere has some interesting landmarks, sights and cities.\u00a0 Leave yourself some time to take them in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Visit wineries for reasons other than wine<\/strong>. Some wineries are landmarks in themselves.\u00a0 Two examples are <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1732\">The Hess Collection<\/a> in Napa Valley and the wine museum at Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux.\u00a0 Winemaking is an art, so why not mix in some art with your wine tasting?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is, of course, an elemental problem with this article.\u00a0 That is, if you don\u2019t already know how to have fun, nothing we say is going to help.\u00a0 On the other hand, if you already think wine tasting is fun, then we are happy to provide some tips on how to add to your fun &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1867\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Have Fun While Wine Tasting<\/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":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}