So you've been invited to a wine tasting event! Here are my top 3 tips to get the most of the experience:
- Go hungry - I always find that my taste buds are at their best when I'm hungry. The aromas and flavours of the wines seem heightened, and you are practically salivating for each wine experience. If you are eating beforehand avoid foods that are spicy, soaked in brine, or high in acid. Avoid coffee, and obviously cigarettes and vapes too.
- Avoid perfume and cologne - Discreet deodorant is fine, but wafts of other pungent aromas are going to interfere with your palate. Even though you might not even smell your own perfume on yourself after a while, it will still affect you and it will definitely be a problem with others around you. The same goes for other aromatic liniments- I once went to a wine event where one of the participants started busting out the tiger-balm for her sore leg, and was immediately told to leave the room!
- Be prepared to spit - when tasting wine professionally we potentially taste a LOT of wines in one sitting. If you're happily sipping away before you know it you'll be half inebriated and will lose your ability to assess the wines. Swirl each wine around in your mouth, and spit 80% of it out into the spittoon provided... swallowing the small remainder so that you get the full experience, texture, and flavour of the wine.
