Blind Tasting Wines, With a British Fish & Chip Supper

I went to a blind wine tasting at a wine club.

At wine shows, only experienced drinkers try to guess in contests oor people who hope that randomly they might win a free bottle.

 How do you blind taste a wine and guess grape and the country of origin?

1 Colour

Usually darker means older

2 Aroma

3 County

You can check which grapes are grown in each region and allowed to be used in a local wine with a specific coutnry or region or vineyard and winery origin.

4 Bottle

Darker bottles protect wines from light. Especially white wines. But customers don't like brown bottles so bottles are made greek occasioally blue.

5 Bottle cap

Some countries favour corks. Others favour screw caps.  

We went to a blind wine tasting in St Albans.

y

Peter enjoying a guess the wine blind tasting evening at wine tasting club in St Albans. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Peter at a blind wine tasting, guess the wine, four whites and four red, with a small wine tasting measure for each person, and covered bottles. Best guess wins a bottle. Tie breaker is guess the price of each bottle. you hand in your sheet with your guesses and your name. After the winnders are announced you can take the covers off the bottles. 

We had a fish and ship supper, a pre-selected choice of three meals, two kinds of fish, hake or bream, or vegan, with chips or vegetable, served in  box, by a catering company.

Fish and chips. Photo from Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Many cities have a wine tasting club or group, or wine and dine group. Wine importers and shops can arrange wine dinners or attend an event where they bring wines for you to taste and compaare and buy a bottle or a case at a discount. 

This can be free, or subsidised, or paid for. 

Finding a Wine Tasting Group

IYou can find wine clubs and events for fund raising for groups. 

Starting A Wine Tasting Group

If you cannot find one, you could start your own. Over fifties and retired people, look for a group such as at U3A (Univeristy of the third age for the retired in the UK),. Alternatively, worlwide, you can find one or start one through Meetup.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Useful Websites

https://www.meetup.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans

Dinner Etiquette Mysteries Solved - A Summary Of My First Workshop On Dinner Etiquette

Where
When
Why

1 Introduction to Angela Lansbury


2 Cutlery Mysteries - soup spoons

3 Water and water glass
Flat bottom glass (Stable water glass)
Champagne glass - tall.
Red wine glass rounded
White wine glass - long stem

4 The Host Chooses Drink: Sparkling White or Rose, Aperitif, White or Red Wine

Wine Bottles Labels
Why you check the label (Good and bad years, expensive wine replaced by wine from a poor or cheaper year)
Tasting and poison (Old days)
Tasting and bad wine (Host checking not for preference but quality)
What could be wrong with the wine (Colour brown, smell bad, bits)
Order of serving wine (Guest to right of host, host last)

Questions From Workshop Leader, Angela Lansbury
Looking at the table - What kind of spoon is this?
What shape is a soup spoon?
What is this large fork for? (With a Spoon. For Serving Salad - or vegetables)


Cutlery
Knives (Fish knives first, meat knives)

Tea Time And After Dinner Coffee
What is this small spoon? (Tea spoon)
I have two small spoons. What is the smaller one for? (Not a tea spoon, a Coffee spoon, matching the size of the tiny saucer of an espresso cup)

Story
Queen Victoria, drinking from the saucer

Questions From Audience
How much wine is in a glass? (Legal requirement UK, drinking)
What do you call the device for holding the corn? (Corn pick)
Do you break bread with your hands? (French fresh bread crumbles, unsuitable for slicing)
Do you break bread and get crumbs on the table (Not in my house, but like peanut shells on the floor in Raffles Hotel, copy the local diners)
How do you spread the butter? (Butter knife, not all at once)
Why does the waiter give you the cork and what do you do with it?
Can I ask for the leftover food at a UK restaurant? (Yes. If they have a deli, they must have take away containers and wrappers or bags If not, produce your own container.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.