Wine-tasting party planner

Ottawa sommelier, Carol Anderson, gives us her top tricks and tips for throwing the wine tasting party to beat all.

Number of guests

Eight to 10 is ideal. And you can have neophytes at the same table as experienced tasters, as long as the latter promise not to dominate the conversation with musings of malolactic fermentation or whether Chile can hold out against an infestation of phylloxera.

Setting expectations

• Ask your guests to arrive on time so that everyone can taste together.
• On this occasion you want your guests to focus on the wine, so ask them to have a light meal beforehand.
• Request that guests make it a perfume-free evening.

What you’ll need

• A big, spacious table with a plain white table cover, to highlight the true colour of the wine.
• Bottle drip stops for guaranteed drip-free pouring (available at most wine supply stores). At about $1 each, your white table cover will thank you when the red wine appears.
• Tulip-shaped, stemmed, plain uncut glassware. Wine-tasting glasses can be rented from party rental outfits for about $6 a dozen. You’ll need three glasses per person, for tasting in comparative groups, or flights, of wine.
• A basket of crackers, or unbuttered baguette slices, to neutralize the palate between tastings.
• A personal spittoon for each guest! Plastic, opaque patio tumblers are perfect. Or you can ask guests to bring their own. 
• Water for sipping, and rinsing glasses between tastings. 
• One or two opaque containers on the table for discarding waste water and wine from personal spittoons. The mixture becomes an interesting colour, so opaque is preferable!
• Wine evaluation sheets for each guest. At the top of each sheet, write out the basic details from the labels — name of the wine, grape varieties (if given), vintage (year), producer, country and region of origin, and price. For evaluation headings, use: appearance, aromas, taste and possible food matches, and score out of 10. If time doesn’t permit, just give each guest paper and a pencil for note-taking.
• Some bars of milk and dark chocolate for tasting with the dessert wine.
• Wines!

What kind of wines

Our list includes a selection of wines, from light to heavy, within each category. You’ll need:

• 1 sparkling
• 3 whites
• 3 or 6 reds (depending on how many flights you want)
• 1 dessert wine

Order of engagement

• Within each flight, taste lighter wines first, using our list as a guide. In fact, take the list to the liquor store, where you can usually find a consultant to help with selections in any price range. Try some new grape varieties.
• Sparkling wines are light and palate cleansing — a great way to start.
• The best way to end your tasting is with a dessert wine, many of which work beautifully with chocolate.
• One bottle of each wine is ample, since each pour is about 1½ ounces (45 mL).

On the evening

• Refrigerate your sparkling, white and dessert wines the day before, and leave your reds in a cool location (the basement or a cooler).
• Set up your table with all the supplies.
• Shortly before your guests arrive, open all the wines, except the sparkling, to let them breathe a bit.
• Return the whites and dessert wine to the fridge.
• Hold the scented candles: They interfere with the aromas and bouquets of the wines.

Tasting time!

Once everyone is seated, take the whites out of the fridge to warm slightly and then open the bubbly. Do this by removing the foil and placing a napkin over the cork, holding on to it while you slowly turn the bottle until the cork gently pops. There should be no big ship-launching popping sounds or dangerous flying corks. Use the bubbly to practise the tasting technique of look, smell and taste, inviting your guests to make notes as they go.

• What does it look like?
• Does it have lots of bubbles or is it only slightly lively?
• Is it pale and almost colourless or light straw?

Wine offers up all kinds of wonderful aromas characteristic of the grapes, soil, growing conditions and the winemaker’s skill. Swirl the wine a little, and then stick your nose right over the glass and take a good sniff. With your sparkling wine you might detect citrus fruits such as lemon and grapefruit, tree fruits such as apples and pears, perhaps tropical fruits such as melon or pineapple. There could even be an aroma of freshly baked bread or graham crackers. Each exclamation over a new/perceived aroma will solicit agreement or vehement opposition.

Now it’s time to taste. Whereas the nose can detect thousands of aromas, the palate mainly detects sweet, bitter and sour in wines. Take a small mouthful and roll it around the palate before swallowing.

• Does the wine taste like it smells or can you detect new flavours?
• Is it dry or sweet, light or heavy, crisp or creamy?
• Does the taste linger or disappear?
• Is there a food that might go well with the wine or is it a pre-dinner sipper?
• Most importantly, do you like it?
• What score would you give it? Individual taste varies greatly, so one person’s 2 might be another’s 9.

Take another mouthful, taste it again and then spit it into your personal spittoon. The “eureka” moment comes with appreciating the taste of the wine without swallowing. Professional tasters are sometimes faced with 100 wines in a morning, so spitting is essential.

After rinsing, pour the first flight of three white wines. Check out the colour and intensity, compare bouquets and flavours, and marvel at their diversity. Aromas of fruits, flowers, herbs, minerals, perfumes, synthetic substances and vegetables might appear. Take your time evaluating the first flight, then move on to the next. You might detect new aromas with red wines — earth, meat, leather, chocolate, spices and different fruits (fresh, dried or jammy). Pay attention to colour and intensity.

Finally, serve your dessert wine. Evaluate the wine on its own first, then try it with chocolate. Your guests will be delighted and become dessert wine converts!

Looking for more ideas?

There are countless ways to experience wine: blind or regional tastings, vertical tastings of the same varietal (wines made primarily from a single named grape variety), or food matching. Take opportunities to visit wineries and attend wine fairs. And if you want to read about all things oenological, there are books and websites galore. Three to start with:

grapescot.com
jancisrobinson.com
nataliemaclean.com

This article originally appeared in the December 2008/January 2009 issue of More