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How to organise a wine tasting.
Here is an idea for a great night in!
Start with thinking about a theme. Your favourite grape
variety, favourite area, country, wine type, the options
are countless.
Invite your best wine-loving friends for an evening of
wine entertainment. A group of six is ideal. Everyone
brings one bottle of wine linked to the overall theme,
but with distinct differences in either price point or
whereabouts or style and most importantly, where they
were bought. Any background information will prove
fascinating once the wines are revealed after the blind
tasting, so keep hold of it.
To organise the tasting ensure you have plenty of
glasses, some mild cheese and biscuits and pen and
paper. (or a laptop if you must) Ensure you receive all
the wines a few days beforehand and make sure they are
at the correct temperature. It is preferable that the
wines are decanted into generic bottles so they can't be
recognised by the bottle shape. Just clean out your
empty wine bottles for this purpose. Once decanted, mark
the bottles with the wine they contain and then wrap
them entirely in tinfoil. Mix them up and ask someone
else to stick a number on each of the bottles. That way
no one will know which is which. If you want to make it
look really professional you can invest in some blind
tasting bottle bags. I recently found some on the
internet for around £10 per set of six numbered bags.
Kick off the tasting with a glass of something
completely at odds with the tasting. This will break the
ice nicely and ensure everyone is a bit more relaxed
before going into the more serious part. Unless your
tasting is Champagne, that is what you want to start
with. If your tasting is themed around Champagne you
might as well just get going.
Taste each wine and score it out of 5, with 5 being the
best. Take notes if you wish and after all wines are
scored, reveal the wines one by one. The tasting should
take no more than 45 minutes, but may be longer if you
wish. The object afterwards has to be to finish the
bottles, although by now you may have to fight over the
best.
Themes are endless. I quite like comparing six reds of
the Languedoc, three wines at £6 or below and three
between £10 and £18. You may be surprised at the price
of your favourite. Another theme could be 'Champagne and
Sparkling Wines', where you have three different
Champagnes competing with three other Sparkling Wines,
be it Prosecco, Californian Moet or even English
Sparkling Wine.
What is important is that you taste honestly, simply to
find your favourite wine.
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