Taste Experts

Everybody thinks that they are a taste expert. Everyone thinks that they know the best food and wine pairings. But the host has the responsibility of making the choice. Make sure that the aroma and the taste match up and do not contradict each other. If you close your eyes and smell, the taste should complement the smell.

Flavors

There do exist four distinct flavors. They are sour, bitter, sweet, and salty. Interactions of these should be considered. The nose can detect 200 different aromas. The wine that you choose should compliment the food. It should make it taste even better. And by the same token the food should make the wine taste better.

Weight

Take into consideration whether the food is light or heavy. Generally speaking a heavier, heartier entree such as beef should be served with a heavier wine such as a red. And by the same token a lighter entree such as fish should be served with a lighter more delicate white wine.

Other Considerations

When doing food and wine pairings always make notes as to how it worked out for you. So for instance you have the perfect combination. You found the perfect recipe for a fish entree, and the wine that you had with it made it even more perfect. You may want to use that same combination again. Or maybe experiment with the vintage or winery of the wine that you selected.

People are like snowflakes. No two are alike. And this also means that they have different tastes. You will probably never please everyone. Aim for pleasing as many as you can.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Not sure I would do that at a party, unless that was the purpose of the party. But the idea is not to get locked into any hard and fast rules that may keep you from finding the perfect food and wine pairings. Remember, you will never know for sure until you try!

Believe it or not there are people out there who drink a certain type of wine only because they know how to pronounce it! This is not the best way to get all that wine has to offer. Let’s look at some tips that will have you selecting wines like a pro.

Educate yourself

Get yourself a good wine guide and do a little reading. You may be surprised at how much you don’t know. There are many things that you need to know about taste and varieties to get the full enjoyment. You may also be interested in all of the history of wine.

Free wine tastings

This is the best way to experience the different types of wine, and pick up a little free education. Check your local wine shops to see if they have wine tastings. Look for wine festivals that may happen in your area. And if you are going on vacation, check ahead to see if there are any wineries that you can visit. Sometimes they charge a small fee, but it is always worth it!

Ask questions from reliable sources

If you do end up in a winery or a real nice wine shop ask a lot of questions. Most knowledgeable people do not mind sharing. Especially vineyard owners. They are usually proud of their work and will gladly talk about it for hours on end.

Don’t be fooled by advertising

As with anything, the advertising geniuses can make anything sound good. Count on your education and recommendations to select wines. Don’t believe everything that you see in advertisements. Your best advice would come from someone who has nothing to gain by you selecting a certain wine.

Beware of the importer

Wine bottles which are imported are required by the law to have certain shipping information printed at the back of every bottle. If you shop at reputable stores, this should not be a problem.

Be an avid wine drinker

Drink some wine. It is good for you. Try different things. Go to some wine tasting parties.

And don’t ever listen to someone who tells you that you can only drink certain wines with certain foods. You drink what you like when you like and with what you like! Wine is for you to enjoy, not to impress someone else.

So, here are six theme ideas that you can start with for your wine tasting party.

The first theme is Horizontal Wine Tasting. Focus on one variety of wine from one year. But there can more wines from that variety that are from different vineyards. So for example if you choose 2006 Merlot, you could have it from any vineyard or region. You can decide if you want to have vineyards all from the same area or mix it up any way you like.

The second theme is Vertical Wine Tasting. This also involves just one variety of wine, but it will be from the same producer. For example, maybe you choose Merlot, from a vineyard near your home, and you get the 2004, 2005, and 2006. This may be a little more work to get the wine. But it will sharpen your tasting sense! This will show your guests how a wine can change from year to year.

Priceless Wine Tasting is the third. With this theme you will be putting your guests to the test! Most people think that the higher the price, the better the taste. This is not true, and you will prove it to them. Not do reveal the prices until everyone has tasted and given you their opinion of which wines cost the most. You may be surprised by the answers.

The fourth is Price Point Wine Tasting. In this theme you will select wines that are in the same price range. This is another great way to show that price does not always affect taste. And again, you will see some surprising reactions.

A fifth theme would be Big Eight Wine Tasting. You would select eight different varieties of wine. Then you would have your guests work their way through all of the different varieties. This would be better suited for guests that are not “into” wine, but may want to learn. This would give them a chance to taste many varieties to see which ones they like the best. The big eight wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and Pinot Noir for red wines, and Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Grigio for white wines.

And the last idea for a theme would be the Blind Wine Tasting. This would work with the above themes. You would just remove the label from the bottle, or put the bottle in a bag. The guests would not know anything about the wine until they tasted it. This theme would get harder and harder as the night goes on!

So there are six themes to get you started. Your wine tasting party will be a huge success if you put a little thought and creativity into it. Your guests will appreciate it and they may just learn a few things!

It is important to know that cheese and wine both affect the palate. They must blend together and not clash. So for an example if you were serving a value priced Cabernet Savignon, you would perhaps select a good blue cheese to bring out the best in the wine. Making the wrong selection could make a bargain go south in a hurry!

So after your guests have arrived and settled in, serve the wine first. Then pass out the cheese. After your guest have sampled the cheese they will taste the wine again. If you have picked the right combination your guests should remark about how good much better the wine tastes.

I will never be the one to say that there is a hard and fast list of what wines and cheeses go together, nor that you can only drink certain wines with certain foods. Tastes are as different as people. To each his own. If you like red wine with fish, enjoy!

With that being said, I will give you a “starter” list. These combinations will please a lot of palates, but just keep in mind, that you will never please everyone.

For Merlot, you might want to consider a brie, gruyere, parmesan, cheddar, or gorgonzola cheese. These cheeses will be able to complement the Merlot very effectively and each cheese will have a different influence on how the wine will taste.

If you will be serving Sauvignon Blanc, then you might want to consider pairing it with feta, goat cheese, cheddar, parmesan, brie, and asiago cheese.

For Chardonnay, consider pairing it with Gouda, parmesan, gruyere, provolone, and brie cheese. These cheeses work well with Chardonnay and will definitely make the wine taste a lot better.

If you want to serve Pinot Grigio, Edam, goat cheese, mozzarella, and Muenster cheese are the recommended cheese pairs.

This will give you a great place to start. You will want to do some experimenting. Ask around and see what other people like. Keep notes on what you liked and did not like. Eventually you will be the wine tasting host of your neighborhood!

Hosting a wine tasting or party is not about who can pick the most expensive wine. It is all about discoveries. Who can pick the best value and the best combination. Expensive does not always mean better in anything, but especially wine. If you show that you can pick the right combination and the best value, you will be remembered and talked about for a long time to come!

For most people, drinking a glass of wine is a great way to end the day before bed time. It is also a great drink for socializing. In fact, wine tasting parties are very popular.

If you plan on hosting a wine tasting party, then you will see that it will be a lot of fun. Also, it will also be able to get you and your friends learn more about wine and even improve your palate about wine. It is also a great chance for you to find out about new wines.

So, here are some tips on how to host a wine tasting party in order for you to ensure its success and let you and your guests have a lot of enjoyment.

The first step is of course to invite your guests. About 8 to 12 people are enough for a wine tasting party. These numbers are large enough for promoting spontaneous interaction, and it is also small enough for you to easily manage.

You can invite your guests through telephone or through email. You’ll be glad to know that there are quite a lot of e-card websites that will be able to provide you with great invitations through emails.

The second step is to choose the wine. For most people, this is the best step in organizing a wine tasting party. Here, you will choose what kind of wine you will offer your guests to taste. However, when you walk in to the wine store, you may get overwhelmed or mesmerized by the different types of wine you need to choose from. There are simply a lot of wines to choose from.

To make it easier for you to choose from the different wines available, you might want to consider organizing a themed wine tasting party. You can choose a variety of wines in terms of price, you can choose from one winery but with different vintages, and you can even choose different regions. There are quite a lot of possibilities so don’t be afraid to be creative.

Food is another thing you need to consider. You have to remember that a party is never really a party without any food. Before you serve dinner to your guests, you might want to consider waiting up until the wine tasting is over. You have to remember that food affects the way the wine tastes. If you must, you might want to offer your guests cheese or unsalted crackers as well as room temperature water on the process of tasting the wine.

Always remember that in wine tasting parties, you must limit pours to two ounces, which is about two inches in a normal sized wine glass.

Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will be able to organize a successful wine tasting party.

For more information on wine tasting and hosting wine tasting parties take a look at our Wine Tasting Guide.

The heavier wines, such as the reds, are heavier in tannins and take a longer period of exposure. Normally 15 to 20 minutes.

Do not be fooled into thinking that just taking the cork out of the bottle is all that is needed. There simply is not enough room for the exposure needed to take place. There are a couple of ways to insure that it gets the exposure needed.

The first is the wine glass method. You simply pour the wine into the glasses before you intend to drink it. Allow time for the wine to be exposed to the air. This is probably effective enough for most people. While pouring the wine aim for the center of the glass at a height of about 6 to 10 inches. This will give even more opportunity for the wine to breathe.

The second method would involve the use of a decanter. Of course this is the preferred method. The decanter has a shape that was designed to give the wine the maximum benefit from the breathing process.

Just make note that when wine tasting, you want to get the best that a bottle of wine has to offer. Do not be in a hurry. The wine has spent a lot of time in the bottle during the aging process. You would be wasting the wine if you do not enjoy it properly.

For more information on wine tasting take a look at our Wine Tasting Guide.

Wine tasting parties can be an inexpensive and easy to plan party theme. You can make it simple, such as just tasting wine with a little cheese and crackers, up to an entire wine dinner with different wines for each course. Or anything in between!

You may need to keep an eye on your guests, as some may taste a little too much. You may have to insure their safety by getting them a ride home or letting them stay at your house for a while. It would probably be a good idea to plan on having some coffee as well, just in case.

The other thing to consider is that if someone has too much wine, they may not be able to taste the wine properly. You will want to have a way for them to rinse their mouths and glasses. Also some crackers to get the taste of the wine out of their mouths. This will insure that your guests get the full benefit from each kind of wine.

Make sure that you have something white for your guests to use as a background to “see” the wine. This could be a white table cloth or white napkins. Some people will hold their glasses up to a light. And make sure that you have plenty of wine glasses.

And since you may not know all of your friends wine preferences, it would be OK to ask them to bring a bottle of their own. This would also be a good opportunity for your friends to introduce a wine that you may not have tasted.

If you are providing a red wine be sure to decant it before the party. This will give it a chance to breathe before the tasting. If you are serving wine that needs to be chilled, make sure that it is at the correct temperature before the party starts.

You may also want to have paper and pencils available. Some of your guests may want to take tasting notes, or even write down the names of some favorites for later purchases.

Normally, you will start with the lighter wines and progress to the heavier wines. If you started with the heavier wines, your guests would not get the full taste of the lighter wines. You should have a plan before the tasting party starts as to the order in which you will taste the wines.

Another thing that you may consider is a guessing game. Serve some wines without showing the bottles and see if the guests can name the types.

For more information on wine tasting parties check out our ebook: Wine Tasting. It also includes a great bonus book about food and drink ideas.

There are even vacation packages that center entirely around wine tasting! Just imagine spending the day in a luxouroius suite, enjoying the local scenery and tasting the wine. Could be as simple as tasting a few wines to having a full dinner with matched wines for each course.

The first destination most people think of is France. Of course they do have some of the finest wines in the world. The conditions are excellent for vineyards.

Another very popular destination is Spain. Spain is gaining popularity at a very fast rate.

And then there is Italy. And of course you will be enjoying some Italian food while you are there. You do not have to be Italian to enjoy their food or wine.

Africa is another. You may be surprised but actually Africa has produced some very fine wine. And you can go on a safari tour while you are there.

Australia is one of my favorites. They have a very wide variety of wines. For a small country Australia also has a variety of climates and terrain.

And let us not forget about the United States. Wineries are popping up everywhere as the popularity of wine continues. It has become quite a hobby to grow your own grapes and make your own wine! Sometimes theses small operations grow into very large wineries!

I think  that wines and wineries are like people. No two are alike. And everyone’s taste is different. So whether you plan your whole vacation around wine or just look ahead to see which wineries are at the area you will be visiting, there is always an adventure waiting!

Many of your senses are involved and excited in the tasting of wine. There are many different kinds that have different effects. As you become more familiar with the wines you will be able to distinguish the different types by their color, fragrance, and taste. Let’s take a look at how wines affect your senses and what you should be looking for when tasting.

Check for the Wine Clarity and Color

The first thing to look at when your wine is poured is the color and clarity. Tilt the glass away from yourself and look at the color. It is better if you have a white bacground. This could be something as simple as a paper napkin. Wines come in many different colors. Red wines can be ruby, maroon, brown, purple or red. White wines are thought to be colorless, although there are different colors. They may range from amber to light green or even a golden yellow.

Smell the Wine

This is one of the most important steps in wine tasting. Before the smelling you will want to swirl the wine in the glass. This will allow the aroma of the wine to escape. Put your nose slightly in the glass. You will want to take a deep breath and take it all in. Some people close their eyes as they enjoy the fragrance and get their taste buds ready for the experience. There are as many combinations of smells as there are types of wine. They are affected by many different things such as ingredients, weather during the growing of the grapes, amount of fermentation and aging, and the type of storage container. Through the aroma you can you can identify the wine’s uniqueness and quality.

Taste and Savor the Wine

This is the most enjoyable and most anticipated part. Take a good portion of wine in your mouth and let it lie on your tongue. Move it around a little as you want to hit all areas of your tongue. There are several things that you will be looking for. The levels of tannin, amount of alcohol, sugar levels, and the acidity. After the wine is swallowed you will enjoy the after taste. Make note of how long it stays with you.

Wine tasting is to be enjoyed whether you are at a tasting event, or just opening a fresh bottle with friends. Take your time and enjoy!

It is normal for the women of your group to get served first. You may see bottled water around to rise your mouth between tastings. There may also be crackers and other food items to get the taste of the wine out of your mouth, so that you will be ready for the next.

When holding your glass, you should always use the stem, to keep your hand from warming the glass. The glass should always be clear. This so you can see the color of the wine. You may notice people trying to get their glass in front of a white background to further distinguish the color.

You should swirl the wine around in your glass before trying it. This actually helps to bring out the flavor. The wine probably has been in the bottle for many years. This process will insure that you are getting the best flavor from the wine.

Smelling the wine is another important step. You will notice people putting their whole nose in the glass. Some will even close their eyes to take full advantage of the smell. Anticipation of the taste is greatly enhanced by the swirling and the smell. As you are smelling the wine, try to imagine what it will taste like.

And now it is time to actually taste the wine. Make sure that you get plenty in your mouth. Your tongue has taste buds in the front and the back, so you will want to swish the wine around in your mouth for a few moments to ensure that you get the full benefit of the taste. As the flavors dance on your palate, allow your taste buds to discover the wine as your mind thinks about the taste. There will be an after taste in your mouth after you swallow the wine. This is also part of the process, so enjoy it as well. There is no hurry in any step.

Before you go to a wine tasting or festival, you will want to read up a little on the different types of wine and their flavors, so you will know what to expect. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity to go to an event because you are afraid that you will not know how to taste the wine.

This wine tasting guide will get you off to a  good start. On your first outing just take your time and watch a few people. Then when you step up you will look like a pro.

Just remember that this is a general wine tasting guide. No one can predict what you will see when you get there! People are different and have their own styles. And this is only a guide. You may find that something works a little different for you. After you do it a few times you can experiment to see if there is anything that you can do to enhance your personal experience.