Where can you taste wines? Where can you taste free wine? Who gets invited? Why should I pay to taste a wine? How can you remember what you drank? Any discounts? Who are the 'experts' and why?
Knowledge and Exams
What is my knowledge? I just read an article in the Daily Mail. I'm only a beginner, I just passed Level 1 of the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) exams, which is a one day fun course including learning to taste, (although most people have spent up to 20 hours reading the material.
Tasting at UK vineyards
I have been on four tours of vineyards and wine bottling plants in the UK. I had previously written a book on factory tours. I visited whisky distilleries in Scotland.
European Vineyards
In Europe the best organised tours were around the Champagne region.
When I visited the Champagne region in France I wrote a double page spread on Rheims for Take a Break magazine.
My favourite visit for learning something new was the Kir factory in France. A kir, named after Canon Kir, is the local dry Aligote white wine mixed with sweet cassis, or blackcurrant. Kir royal is mixed with bubbly - should be Champagne.
The vineyards in Germany had memorable names. But most visual was the big barrel tourist can climb on for a photo at Heildelberg.
The Great USA
Tourists would probably most enjoy the several in California driving north of San Francisco. Shops the size of supermarkets selling everything from label makers and label removers and books recording wine, books about wine, wine diaries, aprons, bottle openers. battle stoppers, walking tours, train tours.
In Rioja vineyards have shops and tours. For example, Muga.
Tasting Events in the UK
My family buy wine and do tasting several times a week having passed the WSET exams levels three and four, written a thesis on wines in China for the two year next level diploma. I have been to countless wine tastings run by Berry Brothers & Rudd, Antique Wine Company, the Wine Society in Stevenage (my family are members), the Vintners hall, linley hall at the royal Horticulutral, more at West London Wine school, I have helped organise wine dinners, done the blind wine tastings for my family in preparation for their exams (exams at level 3 ). I have also been to tastings on regions, such as ) I spent a week touring Rioja doing tours and tastings every day with the owners or managers of vineyards.
I have sampled lots of wines from Enoteca machines.
So what can I tell you, if you know nothing about it but want to know more?
Free tastings - freeloaders?
Sometimes a free tasting is given to the big spenders or regular customers as a thank you, with special offers. When you are feeling happy you are more likely to spend.
Are you under an obligation to buy. You might take the attitude that you will buy something, either a bottle, or a case, which might be more or less than the cost of the wine you have drunk, or even a book or tee-shirt. If it's a huge crowd, with a crush around the till to pay, half the items already sold out, probably the number of buyers makes up for a few who don't buy but add to the success of the occasion, 'the more the merrier'.
Drink or Sip and Spit?
To the novice it seems you would only spit out wine you didn't like. However, faced with 30 wines you have to spit if you want to try them all.
Who would want to try them all? If you just want something to buy and know that you don't like dry or don't like sweet, then you might well try only 5-10 wines. But if you are buying for a company, reporting to a magazine, feel under an obligation to sellers, studying for an exam, or want to learn, then you may wish to try all the wines in turn.
Generally, you start with one and work your way around the room to be sure you do not miss out any table or wine. If there's a crowd at the start you could go in reverse order.
An alternative is to pick your favourites in case you run out of time. Or select all the dry first and end on the sweet. Or the cheap first and end on the expensive, those you know first, ending with those you don't, or vice versa. Or light wines, then sparkling, then red, then fortified.
Those who drink a lot can often be recognised by their barrel shape, portly figures. A typical trade tasting has twenty or more wines to taste. You are given a page listing the wines and columns in which you can rate each wine by its colour, aroma, body or texture, initial flavour, and aftertaste.
A vertical tasting is the same wine from different years. If you have a garden you know that some years your roses and fruit trees receive the right amount or sun and rain, whilst other years are a disaster. The care of the gardener, and whether your plot or fence is facing the sun or not, also makes a big difference. You can't keep a dead rose except by drying it out. But you can keep good wines in bottles, gradually developing more flavour. The cost of storing wine is high, so you tend to keep only the better wines.
Who are the experts? Some people are experts in their own region. The grower or seller may be an expert in his vineyard and which years were best, or which wine would suit you.
How do you get to taste wines? Many vineyards charge for the tours. Free tastings are more common in wine shops. They tend to put out a smaller number of wines. Or they charge, and deduct the cost of the tasting if you buy wine.
Isn't it all subjective?
Yes, but you can guess what some people will like or they will tell you. For example, sweet wines have less alcohol, and will be more popular with women and novice drinkers. Fortified wines are more popular with heavy drinkers.
So pick somebody with similar tastes and experience and lifestyle to yourself for guidance, or a sommelier who will pick out what you are likely to prefer, rather than pushing wine of the week, or the more expensive wine which the shop or restaurant wants to sell.
A true test is a blind tasting, not influenced by the bottle colour and shape or wine label or name.
Consensus
Second, a good test is to have a panel of several tasters. At some club wine evenings and wine dinners everybody present (usually 6-40 people) will vote on the best value wine and the wine of the night (the one you would most like if price were no object).
If you simply want to try several wines and compare them at lower cost than buying a whole bottle, you can use the Enoteca machines. Those dispense a tiny measure of alcohol.
The Real Experts
The real experts are usually compilers of books. They do nothing but travel around wine regions. Jancis Robinson. They are often Masters of wine. This is a qualification requiring years of study - in fact its now harder to obtain than it was in the early days.
Berry Brothers & Rudd, 3 St James' Street, London (near Green Park tube station), wine shop, tutored tastings and gourmet dinners (mostly upmarket, expensive, suitable for birthday presents).
Fulham - see my recent post.
Photos and descriptions of events of most of the places below are in previous posts.
The Wine Society, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, co-op with annual membership about £40, tastings and dinners.
Enoteca machines and/or tastings and/or wine dinners at:
Fulham Wine Rooms, Fulham Road (Near Parsons Green tube station), London
Hedonism Upmarket wine shop with Enoteca and tutored tastings (half way between Bond Street station and Green Park), grand staircase to basement.
Nicolas (pronounced Nicola) - French wine shop in Marylebone High Street near Baker Street station.
Ristorante Gusto - I have yet to try this, just found it on the internet: http://www.ristorantegustoso.co.uk restaurant with Enoteca.
Vivat Bacchus: two branches, huge and expensive, rustic but gourmet and upmarket, very jolly for lunch or dinner, with cheese shop and events.
Around Wine (near Baker Street station, London. Wine shop selling bottles, decanters and Enoteca machines you can buy for homes and restaurants.
WSET website
Wine schools near Fulham and Hampstead by Jimmy Smith and elsewhere worldwide
WSET runs government approved courses for the public and trade. (Those taking the exams include wine shop staff, wine waiters, head sommeliers, chefs, restaurant owners, wholesalers, estate managers, vineyard owners and staff, tourist guides, wine buyers, drinkers, collectors, investors and enthusiasts).
http://www.westlondonwineschool.com/
