August 24, 2006

Wine News: Tips for the perfect wine tasting

"Structured wine tastings can be tremendous fun, especially when you organise your own. Not to mention a subsidised way to drink some decent wine.

Here's how to do it.

Suggest it to friends as an informal gathering so that the wine-shy don't feel intimidated. Wine is about enjoyment and sharing it with company: not about arcane knowledge and using the right terminology.

Decide on a variety (e.g.: chardonnay, shiraz-cabernet) to taste and give participants a rough price range to stick to, so you are comparing like against like.

You won't need one bottle per person. Only you know how much wine your mates can drink but if you have 10 people coming, 8 bottles should do. Assign nibblies to the others.

Make sure you have paper bags on hand to mask the bottles, or use the brown ones the bottles arrive through the door in."

Full article here.