Recently, I attended a large wine tasting where over 300 wines were served. Tasting that much wine is a challenge itself and I will share with you that I did not taste every wine.
Luckily, most of the wines were very familiar to me as were the styles of wines produced by the different wineries. So, even with so much wine available, I only tasted about 40 wines. I assure you, that quantity was enough for me, even practicing recommended techniques. Should you get the opportunity to attend one of these functions, here are a few things you should consider to make the most of the experience:
When attending large scale tastings, there is a tendency to want to taste everything. In "tasting", most uninitiated would be tempted to drink rather than taste. If you swallow even small amounts, at best, you are going to end up speaking in tongues. I have seen too many inexperienced wine lovers actually get sick after their first big tasting. That's why I would advise you to practice spitting. In that way, you roll the wine around in your mouth, then pick up the spit bucket and spit the wine out. You still get the flavor of the wine without consuming the volume.
Next week I will tackle a few more things for consideration.
Cheers,
Michael
