| Wine
Tasting
Q & A |
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This section is dedicated
to trying to answer any questions that you might have regarding
wine. We're no way from experts but we will try our best to get
your questions answered.
Please feel free to drop us an
email with
any questions you might have . Remember, there is no such
thing as a dumb question. As with all of the other sections of
our site, this is a work in progress ... we will be relying
on you, our readers, to help by sharing your ideas and experiences
so that we can make this section as large and beneficial as
possible.
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| How do I prepare my palate for a tasting |
Art & Betsy ... Cleaning
your mouth from the leftover "tastes" of the day is essential
to fully enjoying the taste of wine. Needless to say, most of us
think of doing this by brushing our teeth and using mouthwash.
While this in fact does help to cleanse your mouth, it really can
destroy the taste of wine. Try taking a sip of wine right after
brushing your teeth and you'll see what we mean.
The best way that we have found is to rinse our mouth out with
mineral water and/or bottled water with just a touch of lemon.
Glen H. writes .. I like
to take a very small sip of wine, rinse and spit. Especially when
tasting several wines, this helps me transition from one wine to
the other.
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| What is a "vertical" tasting |
Art & Betsy ... this is
where you will be tasting wines from the same producer and vineyard
from several different vintages. Example: a vertical of Lerog Montrachet
would be wines produced by Lerog from her Montrachet vineyard in
several different vintages .. 1970,71,79,82 ... etc.
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| What is a "horizontal" tasting |
Art & Betsy ... this is
where you'll be tasting wines that are of the same variety, the
same vintage, but from different producers. Example: a horizontal
tasting of Melot would be wines made from this grape and made by
different wineries from the 1990 vintage year.
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| To spit or not to spit |
Art & Betsy ... this is
probably one area of wine tasting where most people really feel
uncomfortable. WARNING practicing spitting at home will save you
embarrassment and wine stains in public. Okay so do you or don't
you -- spit that is. To be quite honest, more often than not, we
just plain swallow. However, when we are in a situation where we
know that we will be tasting more than four to six wines, we start
looking for the spit bucket. The reason is quite simple, the buildup
of alcohol in your system will both dull your tasting senses, your
wine "memory" and could simply make the drive home dangerous.
If you're hosting the tasting, then we feel it is mandatory to
offer a spit/dump bucket for your guests.
Beth writes .. We also provide
plenty of small cocktail napkins for people that don't quite have
the spitting technique down.
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| What about glasses? |
Art & Betsy ... we feel
that during a tasting each guest should have a minimum of two glasses
each. Of course the ideal is one glass per wine per person. Now
before you start calculating how much this will cost you, remember
that the reason you are supplying water and dump buckets is so
that your guests can use the same class over and over. Personally,
we like to have as many classes available as possible. Needless
to say, not many of us can afford dozens of fine crystal glasses.
We've found that we can find perfectly acceptable stemware at discount
houses for $3-$4 per stem. We buy them by the box full so that
we have something to store them in afterwards.
We feel it is perfectly acceptable to ask guests to bring 2-4
of their own glasses to a tasting. If you do this, it is your responsibility
to help them keep track of their glasses. We do this by using small
stick on (the type that are meant to be easily removed) labels
that the guests can use to put their names on the base of their
glasses. You can also visit our section on glassware by clicking
here
Fred V. writes .. found some
neat "stickers" at our local wine store that allow people
to write down their names and they peel off very easily.
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| Do I really need a dump bucket |
Art & Betsy ... in one
word -- yes. We feel that this is a mandatory requirement for any
tasting. While many of your guests will simply drink the wine,
there will be some who wish simply to taste a particular wine,
dump it out and go on to the next wine. There will also be times
when a guest simply doesn't like a particular wine and thus can
dump their glass without feeling embarrassed. By the way we use
simple quart plastic buckets -- of course you can always use fancy
ones if you wish.
Beth writes .. One word of
caution .. put a towel under the buckets ... we made the mistake
of putting some out over a good tablecloth and it was ruined by
wine stains. Also, if we've tasting while seated, we supply two
buckets so that our guests don't have to pass one around.
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| Water is water -- right? |
Art & Betsy ... just as
we feel that a dump bucket is a requirement, so is "clean" water.
Both glasses and palettes require cleaning in between wine selections.
PLEASE purchase bottled water for this purpose. We've been to homes
around the country where the local water is so heavy with a taste
of chlorine or sulfur that it really interfered with the taste
of the wine.
Henry F writes .. I've tried
the lemon water and did not like the aftertaste .. I've used mineral
water ever since and find that it really works for me
Gerry R. writes .. Despite
using water for a rinse, I still like to rinse my class with just
a little bit of the wine that I will be tasting.
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