School me on wine tasting

[Deleted]

They will school you AT the wine tasting. Just listen to the description, take a sip. Spit it out if it's awful. Chew a cracker in between.

[yourmom]

Like Miso said, just sip in moderation (don't drink it like you drink a diet coke) and make conversation. If you want the proper technique of holding the glass, hold the glass by the stem, not the bowl.

Another pointer - be careful with red wine and your teeth. Nothing is worse then getting red wine "stain" in your teeth at these events. I usually, every now and then, just run my napkin over my teeth discreetly.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2012 13:25:45 GMT -5 @jimbooo said:

So... I think the way this thing works is theres a million wineries that will be present. I walk around and give one of my ten tickets to them to try their wine. So should I just hit up any of them since I hate wine? Or maybe look for the longest lines and go with what others are doing? I just have ZERO interest in wine and don't care if the wine is good or not. They are all the same to me.

What kind of wine do you think you would dislike the least? Something fruity? Light? Just pick one at random and tell them you want to taste wine for people who don't like wine. Tell them anything. It's no big deal. Or give away your tickets and stand around and mingle.

[Susie]

Nah. I think most people who make a show of wine tasting just look like pompous asshats. And I took a wine tasting class (wine! for credit!) in college.

The textbook for the class was actually Wines for Dummies. If you want to know anything about grape varietals, what different terms on the bottle labels mean, etc., it's actually pretty helpful. But just casually sipping is fine if you don't care.

The most useful part of the class for me was that I feel pretty confident picking bottles of wine for social and business occasions. Other than that... wine's just meant to be enjoyed

[Deleted]

Swirl it around in your glass and pretend look at it. Smell it. Take a sip and spit it out. Eat a cracker.

Repeat with the next wine.

[ESF]

If you feel like you need to play the game, just ask questions. "what is the difference between this pinot and the last one your poured for me?" or "I've never heard of that grape, is it an unusual one?" or whatever. Most people don't know anything about wine. And people who do know a lot love to talk about it to people who don't.

[laptopvixen]

Don't ever sniff the cork, that's the amateur's dead giveaway.

At something like this, just sip and mingle. Hold the glass by the stem. If you're feeling fancy you can swirl the wine around in your glass and then place your nose just under the top rim for a whiff.

If someone says, "this wine has great legs!" just smile and nod.

Maybe being able to taste different wines will improve your opinion of the beverage.

[kellbell191]

If you really want to, read wine for dummies. Its pretty good and basic.

For people who don't drink wine much I'd say start with sparkling or white, especially something like riesling. If you want to do read, pinot noir and merlot are good places to start.

If its a networking business thing nobody will be paying much attention to whether you swirl, sniff, etc.

[casmgn]

I think wine is definitely an acquired taste.

As others have said, hold the wine by the stem. You can give the glass a few swirls before taking your first sip (this helps open up the wine). And just sip it. Since you will have 10 tickets, you are only going to get a small amount of each wine.

Edit: I would also stick to wines like reisling, pinot grigio, sparkling wines, pinot noir - basically lighter, sweeter wines. I would avoid "bigger" red wines.

[iheartbanjos]

Sept 17, 2012 14:45:17 GMT -5 @jimbooo said:

Sept 17, 2012 14:42:04 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

Don't ever sniff the cork, that's the amateur's dead giveaway.

At something like this, just sip and mingle. Hold the glass by the stem. If you're feeling fancy you can swirl the wine around in your glass and then place your nose just under the top rim for a whiff.

If someone says, "this wine has great legs!" just smile and nod.

Maybe being able to taste different wines will improve your opinion of the beverage.

ok, now I'm dying to know. what does it mean when they say it has great legs?

It has to do with the viscosity of the wine. If you swirl the glass, legs will appear as "tears" of wine dripping down the sides. The more legs a wine has, the higher the alcohol content. I too, took a wine class in college. ;D

[laptopvixen]

Sept 17, 2012 14:45:17 GMT -5 @jimbooo said:

Sept 17, 2012 14:42:04 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

Don't ever sniff the cork, that's the amateur's dead giveaway.

At something like this, just sip and mingle. Hold the glass by the stem. If you're feeling fancy you can swirl the wine around in your glass and then place your nose just under the top rim for a whiff.

If someone says, "this wine has great legs!" just smile and nod.

Maybe being able to taste different wines will improve your opinion of the beverage.

ok, now I'm dying to know. what does it mean when they say it has great legs?

I'm not sure of the science behind it, but it has to do with how long a wine will cling to the sides of the glass after swirling. It has a lot more to do with physics than wine quality and is another marker of someone that you should just smile and nod at, lol.

Viewing the cork is a way to tell if you're getting the correct bottle of wine and that someone hasn't filled your bottle with something else and then re-corked it. The cork should match the bottle. If it's real cork it should not be dried out.

[dexteroni]

If you hate wine, take one glass and walk around with it for as long as you can. Find other things to talk about than wine.

[Deleted]

Get one glass to hold for the duration.

Give 9 of your tickets to people that you want to like you. Bribing people with free alcohol is a wonderful networking tool.

[mccallister84]

It sounds like its pretty low key. If there are a ton of vendors there and you only have ten tickets I doubt anyone's going to be serious tasting. I've been to events like that socially and you taste to decide what bottles to buy - kind of like free samples at BJs.