14 Jun How to Taste Wine Like A Sommelier: 4 Tips

Wine tours are a favorite group activity for a number of occasions: corporate events, bachelor parties, birthdays, etc. And while for many people, a wine tour is just an excuse to drink and be ferried along by the wine tour transportation services, many people appreciate understanding the wines.

For those of you who are serious about getting the most out of your wine tour experience, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help you taste wine like a sommelier.

Tip 1: Don’t Fill Up Before Hand:

This tip is important if, and only if, you plan on experiencing the wine like a professional. While it is still a good idea to have a light snack beforehand, avoid rich or flavorful items that might affect your palate or leave you too full to snack during the tour.

Tip 2: Snack After Each Stop:

If you’ve ever been to a professional wine tasting, you have no doubt seen gratuitous amounts of cheese set out for anyone to grab. The reason for that is because the acidity in cheese will help refresh your palate so that you can keep tasting wine.Most people working in a tasting room know enough to give you the lightest wine first, each wine becoming more rich and flavorful as you go on. That is because your taste buds, like any muscle, will grow tired over time, and the bigger a wine’s flavor, the more it deadens the palate.

If you are hoping between wineries, what will often happen is that you will finish with a rich cabernet and then go straight into a soft Pinot Gris or floral sauvignon blanc, and the flavors will be lost. That is why it is important to save your snacking for in between venues so that you can approach each new winery with a fresh palate.

Tip 3: Learn to Let Go of What You Like:

While this is obviously not important if you are there to enjoy the drinks and move on, any careful evaluation of wine requires that you let go of your own preferences.That doesn’t mean that you can’t taste the things you like! But you should approach new wines and, instead of comparing them to your favorite style, ask what wine made out of this particular varietal should taste like. (For example, it would be unfair to hold an Albarino to the same standards of a Chardonnay.)

Tip 4: Taste Like a professional:

Tasting wine is just as much about evaluation as it is enjoyment. While tasting at the level of a sommelier requires a much more in-depth knowledge, you can at least have the benefit of taking the right steps.First, you examine the consistency of the wine: spin it in the glass and see how it moves. If it moves like D milk, it is likely a much richer, more viscus wine than if it looks like water. Then, sniff the wine, remember that taste has just as much to do with fragrance as the actual flavor. Once that is done, taste it and really think about what you might be tasting.

>Wine tours are a popular way to celebrate: you can taste a wide range of cool wine and even rent a party bus (which is both an affordable and unique choice for group transportation rentals).

But if a wine tour is more than an excuse to drink and hire a wine tour transportation service, it can be helpful to know what you are looking for.

For more information about wine tour transportation services, contact Absolute Comfort Limo.