Home Wine Tasting: How to Get Started
Going to different wine tastings at vineyards or whatever venue can be a fun and delightful experience but sometimes home wine tasting can be more enjoyable. After all, when we are at a winery tasting the wines we are not always getting to choose what we want to try but usually have to settle for what that company is pushing at the time or maybe we find a wine that we would like to just sit down and sip for awhile, but then we have to worry about who is driving home. The solution to that is to host a home wine tasting for friends and family.
The Tupperware party of this decade is home wine tasting parties. What could be more relaxing and enjoyable than having friends or family to your home for an afternoon or evening of wine tasting? But before you start you need to know what is required to have a successful wine tasting. Of course wine is the most important thing you need but you also need knowledge of what wines to buy and how to buy them. You need to know when to go shopping for the wine and where to find the best deals.
Another factor in getting started is the subject of food. Yes, you need food, or sipping wine on an empty stomach could cause some problems for some of your guests. You must know about wine and food pairings because if you serve something with a wine and they interact most likely your guests will not like the result. There are many books and articles discussing wine and food pairings but one of the best is Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food
Of course you will need to research and know a little about wines and what you taste, and that can only be done through experience. You need to learn the language of wine and what certain words and terms mean. Terms such as body, which is the structure and complexity of the wine on the palette, or bouquet, which is the aroma of the wine. Once you learn how to explain such things to your friends who don’t know then you make the home wine tasting more enjoyable. It also helps to attend wine tasting events outside your home to get a look at how the pros do it and pick up some tips.
One last thing to get started is to keep a wine journal of the wines you tasted and provide journals for your guests so you can compare what each person thinks and notices about a particular wine. Later on, if you want to get more into wine tasting you can start holding wine theme tastings where you either taste wines from one specific country or vineyard or possibly one type of wine.
