How To Hold A Wine Tasting
By Ian Love

You can organize a wine tasting either as a fund raiser for a social club or just to have fun and share you appreciation of wine with friends. It's a great way to entertain and socialize and is guaranteed to bring forth discussion.

First, select three to six bottles of different varieties of wine making sure you have a cross-section of types from red to white. Alternatively if your group are wine experts you could have bottles of the same variety from different regions - for example all cabernet sauvignons, or all reislings. It is always good to draw up a tasting sheet so people can make comments on each wine.

At least a half hour before the testing begins, chill those bottles that recommend being served chilled in ice buckets containing cold water and ice cubes. Depending on the size of the bucket and the size of the bottle, you should fill the bucket to between one-half and two-thirds full with the water-and-ice mixture mixed in roughly equal amounts. This allows room in the buckets for the displacement of the water and ice by the wine bottle. Placed the unopened wine bottles into their ice buckets, and they will be chilled in time for the event.

Make sure you have enough stemmed wine glasses for each of the guests. Since they will be rinsing their glasses out between tastes, one glass per person is ample, although you may want to have separate white and red wine glasses.

Provide tumblers and jugs full of fresh water for your guests to drink between wine samples. This will allow them to cleanse their palates. It is also best to have snacks such as cheese and crackers, fruit, or crusty bread so the tasters can determine which wines best enhance the flavours of food on their tongues.

To begin, open the first bottle of wine and let it breathe for a few minutes then pour each guest a sample from the bottle. Hand out your tasting sheets and pens/pencils. Now, tell each guest to swirl the wine around the inside edge of their glass and to smell the bouquet or aroma of the wine. The smell is an important part of the wine-tasting experience because it actually adds to the taste you experience when you take the wine into your mouth.

Next, have your guests sip the wine, but not swallow it. Professional wine tasters swirl the liquid in their mouths and then discreetly spit it out. Provide receptacles for your tasters to do so if they wish. Most likely, your guests will want to swallow their sample. Then, each guest should eat a bit of food from the snack tray and then taste the wine again. This may change the opinion they form from the first taste.

After everyone has sampled the first bottle of wine, rinse each of their glasses well with clear water and begin the procedure with the second bottle of wine. Continue these steps until all bottles have been sampled.

Discuss your findings after tasting. By this time, each should have good opinions (and should be happy to express them) on each of the wine samples. Have fun!

Ian Love is the owner of Perth Restaurant group West Valley and also owns Australian Wine retailer - Liquor Merchants. West Valley also specialize in catering for Functions in Perth, Western Australia

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Love
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Hold-A-Wine-Tasting&id=1111024