Wine Tasting Parties

Wine tasting is a great theme for a party or get together with friends. It's a fun way of introducing new wines to your friends too and is lots of fun to plan and take part in!

Pick the type of wines you're going to drink. Bear in mind what people like drinking! If you've got a group of friends who love red then pick red wines to make sure the evening is entertaining, conversely if everyone or most people like white best, pick white wines.

Decide on a country or grape and go with that as the theme. If you pick a grape type then try to pick as many different types of grape as possible, and pick wines where it's clear what the grape used is. For countries pick regionally different wines to ensure there's a good difference. You could of course stick to three very similar wines to test your expert wine friends!

Make a chart for each person and ensure there's working pens and pencils available. Make sure there are plenty of wine glasses so that people can have a fresh glass when they change wines. You can hire extra glasses very cheaply, or buy them if you have cupboard space. They will come in useful at other parties you have.

Label the wines after you've covered up the labels properly. You can wrap them in brown paper or wrapping paper if you like. Open the wine and allow it to breathe or serve chilled according to what's best for the wine. Some tricky wine tasting organizers might serve the same wine but at different temperatures to show how wide a flavor difference can be achieved with the same wine.

Allow plenty of time for friends to taste the wine, and offer your guests palate cleansing nibbles that won't interfere with the wines. After everyone's had a go at filling in the chart you can all relax and drink some more and have some deliciously savory nibbles whilst you go through your tasting notes with each other. It's great fun listening to what people have written about a wine and to find out who can give you the most accurate information! With careful planning a wine tasting can be an enormously pleasurable way of spending an evening!

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Broadening the Wine Spectrum

Every so often, even us wine lovers tend to get tired of drinking the same thing time after time. Even if we like to experiment, sometimes we get stuck in a rut of buying the same type of wine from the same regions or even only buying a few bottles that we know we like.

It's easy to keep things the same and avoid change. When we get to thinking about it, we often wonder why we don't experiment more. Here are some tips to make it easier to get back into the swing of wine variety.

Go To a Wine Tasting

A great way to widen your repertoire of wines is by attending wine-tasting events. These events are often hosted in someone's home, in a wine store or at a wine bar. By trying a variety of wines and keeping a careful record of what you've tasted and what you've enjoyed, you'll be able to quickly and efficiently find new wines that you like and that fit your budget. An online search will provide you with a listing of local wine events.

Start with Something Simple

Choose to try something that is similar to a type of wine you already like. If you love dry reds, switching to a sweet white may not be the best bet. If you enjoy Merlot from the Napa Valley and the Pays d'Oc regions, you might do well by trying some Australian Merlots, one from Washington State or a Chilean Merlot.

If you like practically all Merlots, a Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, red Zinfandel or Beaujolais may be good choices for branching out. If you enjoy light sweet white wines like Riesling, you may want to try some blush wines or white Zinfandel. Many of the unusually named German wines may also be enjoyable for you.

Try Something New in a Restaurant

Next time you are enjoying a meal out, instead of getting a glass of something that you usually drink, order something different. You can get just a glass to see if you like it or not. To avoid getting stuck with a house wine that is barely drinkable or something that was opened days ago, ask for whatever was opened most recently.

Research Wine

Read up on the wines you like and wine in general. By knowing a little about the type of wine you like, you will be better equipped to find something with similar properties that you will probably also like. If you research wine online you can also find exactly what you are looking for. You can search within a price range, within types of wine, wine regions and more. You can work your way through a best-of list or buy only wines that come highly recommended.

No matter what your technique for widening the variety of wines that you enjoy, you will have some hits and some misses. Keep on trying and you'll find that you can easily build a wide selection of wines that you enjoy. Keep a wine journal, so when you are looking for a sure bet that you don't often drink, you'll have your own personal best-of on hand.

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The Flavors of Wine Varietals

While many people try to pigeonhole the taste of varietals in ways such as "Pinot Noir tastes flowery and are light", it is possible to produce several types of wine from one grape. Often, wines can be described by their flavors more than just the varietals or geographical location from which they came.

For instance, Chardonnay varietals can fit into three or four different flavor categories depending on how the grape is processed and made in to wine. Winemakers can make Chardonnay grapes into wines that are clean, crisp and light bodied or they can make Chardonnay grapes into wines that are smooth, round and medium bodied or they can make Chardonnay grapes into wines that are rich and full-bodied.

Different techniques of wine making, such as using oak for aging or not using oak for aging, allow winemakers to make Chardonnay grapes in to all of these different types of flavors. While the Chardonnay grape is probably the most versatile grape for making it into different flavors, most varietals are open to some leeway in flavor.

Pinot Blanc and Pinot Grigio both lend themselves to wines that taste clean, crisp and light bodied or that taste smooth, round and medium bodied. Pinot Blanc is also possible to make into a style that is rich and full-bodied while Pinot Grigio is also possible to make into a style that is off dry or aromatic dry.

While winemakers usually make Sauvignon Blanc to taste clean, crisp and light bodied or smooth, round and medium bodied, they sometimes stretch the boundaries and make it taste rich and full-bodied. However, when a wine maker makes a Sauvignon Blanc in a style that tastes rich and full-bodied, the winemaker usually calls it Fume Blanc rather than Sauvignon Blanc.

Winemakers also have plenty of leeway in what style they will make red grapes taste. Winemakers can make red wines taste fruity and light-bodied, smooth and medium-bodied or rich, hearty and full bodied. The most versatile of the red grapes is the Merlot.

It is common for winemakers to make Merlot grapes in styles that taste fruity and light, smooth and medium or rich and full. Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon usually taste rich, hearty and full-bodied or smooth and medium bodied. Pinot Noir is usually a fruity, light-bodied wine or a smooth, medium-bodied wine.

The difference in how wines are processed makes a difference in how they are going to taste. Any time wine makers leave crushed grapes in a vat with skin and seeds longer, the wine will have more acid or tannins in the flavor whether they are making wine from Pinot Noir grapes or Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Any time a wine spends aging in oak will make it taste a little bit richer and add flavors similar to toasty vanilla whether they are making wine from Chardonnay grapes or Sauvignon Blanc grapes.

Therefore, if you are looking to be able to decide if you like a wine just by what type of grape is in the wine, you might end up being disappointed. While one winemaker might insist on making Chardonnay wine only though oak aging, another winemaker might believe that the Chardonnay grape stands on its own and does not need oak aging to taste good.

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