The Wine Etiquette Guide - Your Defense Against Wine Snobbery. Chuck Blethen
“Wine is bottled poetry.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Having a glass of wine at your local wine bar is one of life’s little pleasures if you are lucky enough to live near one. Typically you can slip into an empty chair and strike up a conversation with the bartender/owner/proprietor about what specials they have to offer that day. You may be interested in being placed on their mailing list to let you know when there are special tasting events being held. They may have a local expert in wine offering special classes on wine etiquette or wine history. There may be a wine company sales representative in town whose job it is to promote special brands of wines. It provides an ample opportunity for you to try a variety of different wines at a very special price. Recent wine bars that I have attended have offered 5 different Chilean wines in a tasting flight for $10. It is common to meet other wine buffs in the wine bars where you can strike up a good conversation about anything in the wine world. It is a great place to learn a lot about wine for a very inexpensive price. Your only challenge is to remember the proper way to hold a glass and the routine for wine evaluation.
For those who choose to be educated wine drinkers, learning about wine is a fascinating experience, full of new flavors, new places, and new friends.
Wine tastings are events designed to give enthusiasts the opportunity to sample a range of wines. The events can be very much like classes (seated, seminar-like events), or they can be more like parties (tasters milling around informally). Compared to a wine class, the participants at a wine tasting are more likely to have various levels of knowledge. Tastings don't come in beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels — one size fits all. Most local wine bars in wine shops offer weekly or monthly wine tastings at a modest price of $5 to $10 per tasting session that includes a free glass to take home. When attending these tastings keep in mind the object for the wine bar is to sell wine to you. Don’t let the proprietor dictate your taste – if you like it, buy it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
Wine tastings are popular because they override the limitations of sampling wine alone, at home. At wine tastings, you can learn from your fellow tasters, as well as make new friends who share your interest in wine. Most importantly, you can taste wine in the company of some individuals who are more experienced than you, which is a real boon in training your palate.
Your local wine shop might sponsor wine-tasting events occasionally (apart from the informal sampling opportunities in the store itself) and they should also be aware of wine schools or other organizations that conduct wine tastings in your area.
…Wine tasting parties
“What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine?”
- Cyril Connolly
If you've never been to a wine tasting party, be aware that there are a few matters of etiquette that apply. Familiarizing yourself with this etiquette will help you feel more comfortable. Otherwise, you're likely to be surprised or alarmed by what you see or hear.
Professional wine tasters long ago discovered that if they swallow every wine they taste, they're far less thoughtful tasters by the time they reach wine nine or ten. So spitting became acceptable. In wineries, professional tasters sometimes spit right onto the gravel floor or into the drains. In more elegant surroundings, they spit into a spittoon, usually a simple container like a large plastic cup (one per taster) or an ice bucket that two or three tasters share.
At first, naturally, some tasters are loath to spit out wine. Not only have they been brought up to believe that spitting is uncouth, but they've also paid good money for the opportunity to taste the wines. Why waste them?
You can drink all of your wine at a wine evaluation, if you wish — and some people do. But I don't advise that you do, for the following reasons:
•Evaluating the later wines will be difficult if you swallow the earlier ones. The alcohol you consume will cloud your judgment and dull your taste buds.
•Swallowing isn't really necessary in order to taste the wine fully. If you leave the wine in your mouth for eight to ten seconds, you'll be able to taste it thoroughly — without having to worry about the intoxicating effects of the alcohol.
•If you have driven to the tasting, you're taking an unnecessary risk driving home afterwards if you drink instead of spit. You are risking your life and health, others' lives, and your driver's license.
The simple solution: Spit out the wine. Nearly all experienced wine tasters do. Believe it or not, spitting will seem to be a very normal thing to do at wine tastings after you have practiced a few times. (And, in the meantime, it's one way to appear more experienced than you really are!)
If you know that you can't bring yourself to spit, be sure to have something substantial to eat before going to a wine tasting. You absorb alcohol more slowly on a full stomach — and the simple crackers and bread at most wine tastings are not sufficient to absorb the extra alcohol. Pour any unconsumed wine into the spittoon or bucket provided by the proprietors.
You may hear loud slurping or gurgling noises from "serious" wine tasters at tastings. Drawing air into your mouth does enhance your ability to taste the wine. With a little practice, you can gurgle without making loud, attention-getting noises.
Avoid wearing scent to a wine tasting affair. This includes perfumes, colognes, after-shaves, and scented hair spray or gel.
Because smell is such an important aspect of wine tasting, courteous tasters try not to interfere with other tasters' ability to smell. This means that you should not smoke at any wine tasting. Smoking at, or just before, a wine tasting will also affect the taste of your wines. The smoke and odor of cigarettes or cigars not only interferes with the enjoyment of the taste and smell of the wines, it can be irritating to other guests.
Bubble gum, chewing gum and breath mints will alter the taste of wine. Be sure to rinse your mouth well with water before beginning a tasting.
If you have negative comments about a wine, keep them to yourself, particularly when at a vineyard tasting room. Courteous wine tasters do not volunteer their opinions about a wine until other tasters have had a chance to taste the wine. Serious tasters like to form their opinions independently and are sure to throw dirty looks at anyone who interrupts their concentration.
…Informal blind wine tasting
“I only drink fortified wines during bad weather. Snowstorm, hurricane, tornado - I'm not particular, as long as it's bad. After all, any storm for a Port.”
- Paul S. Winalski
When you attend a blind wine tasting event, make sure you follow these guidelines to keep from spoiling the experience for others. All bottles must be completely and utterly occluded from any sensory evaluation by other guests that could possibly provide clues to a wine's origins other than those provided by the wine itself. Total occlusion entails -- no little brown bags wrapped tightly around the bottle (this gives away shape -- and consequently tons of information) concealing bottle tops, glass color, lead foils, and the size of the bottle. All must be hidden from view. If you must arrive with an uncloaked bottle, do not cross the threshold with the wine thrust towards your host. It is acceptable to arrive with an uncovered bottle if you carry it behind your back or stuffed inside clothing.
Many attendees seem to feel that just because they've brought their wine in a brown paper bag, that they can relax their guard at the opening. So, while well within everyone's view, they grasp the bottle firmly in one hand, the corkscrew ready in the other. They then firmly slide the neck of the bag past the head of the bottle, give a satisfied "Ahh", and prepare to insert the corkscrew. Of course, the entire top of the bottle is now completely nude and visible – so conceal it.
Having successfully reached this point, simply pull the cork. There is no evidence