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by Carlos Rabassa
 If you think labels such as “This barrel-aged, Bordeaux style, dry red wine is a true full-bodied Cabernet, complex and distinctive with a green pepper and berry nose“ make no sense, then this article is for you. Those are very interesting words to impress your friends but are of very little help in enjoying wines. Our language is too simple and primitive to describe all the complex characteristics of a wine.
We will tackle here the subject of the kind of wine tastings common people like me and most wine fans, can find fun, educational and useful from a practical point of view.
We will not even attempt to describe with words the characteristics of wines.
First step in organizing a wine tasting is how to define the competitors, how many wines and how to select them. Here are some ideas:
 Tasting Home Made Wines
For home wine makers, wine tasting is a must. You have to know how good your product is. You should find out the weak points to correct in the future.
You should select wines of the same type, such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Merlot.
Tasting only your wines
You may compare two or more of yours, same type, different batches. You most probably will notice a difference between one aged just the minimum time and one about the maximum, let’s say for a regular white wine kit, one bottled a month ago and one bottled a year ago.
Tasting wines made by you together with wines made by your friends
You may invite friends who make similar wines to bring their sample bottles.
You may buy some commercial wines to compare to yours or to complement a group of wines made by your friends. You may like to invite friends who do not make their own wine to contribute a properly selected bottle of commercial wine.
By “properly selected” we mean: Same type of wine, such as Merlot. And we mean proper price range. For the wines we make with the kits from Homebrew Adventures, the rule is: Calculate your cost of kit and bottling supplies, multiply by two and buy at the store something around that price or a bit more.
Tasting only yours and commercial wines
An interesting tasting to do in the company of one to three other persons: One bottle of your wine compared to two commercials. You buy the least expensive you can find in the store of that particular type and another one a bit above twice the cost of yours.
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 Tasting commercial wines only
For a small group, such as your significant other and you
Or maybe up to four people. You cannot open many bottles, so our suggestion is to compare one type of wine in different qualities/ prices.
You might like to repeat one we did years ago and still remember:
All three wines were Chiantis from the Rufino winery.
One was just a Chianti.
The second one was a Chianti Classico, meaning all the grapes came from a small district within the Chianti region.
The third one was a 1967 Riserva Ducale. These are the Italian words for “Reserved for the Duke”. The year had a reputation as one of the best.
Tasting with a larger group of friends
For a larger group of people, you might like to try a popular type of wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon and try several bottles from wineries around the world. Go to the place where you buy your wines or to a web site offering good assortment and select a type of wine easily available so your friends have no problem coming up with a good assortment.
If you have enough people you might like to taste two types of wine, starting with a white wine, let’s say a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc and / or champagnes and following with a dark red.
In this comparisons we found that if you want to make some sense and arrive to useful conclusions, you should select the wines being compared, within a relatively narrow price range. You don’t need to go through all this to learn that wines selling for $30 a bottle are usually better than those selling for $10.
My recommendation for this choice of format is to select a price range, above table wine but without exaggerating. It should be a price range that most of those participating will feel comfortable going home and buying one bottle or two of the ones they liked most. At today’s prices maybe a good range would be $10 to $15 / bottle for this type of tasting. Or maybe $8 to $12 will also make a good tasting.
You might like to throw in one or two bottles of yours in the selection and, see what happens.
Flights
Someone asked us what is a “flight”. This is a word selected by wineries for preset selections they offer the visiting public. They usually include a cross section of all the wines they produce. They are organized starting with light colored wines and light taste to the dark reds with strong tastes and ending with sweet dessert wines.
The purpose here is not a comparison but, is a way of learning what is available to buy and take home. If you have a chance to visit a winery, it is a very interesting experience.
In our forthcoming articles about wine tastings:
What to look for when tasting? Aroma, color, taste/aftertaste. Keeping records and getting conclusions. Charts used to vote among participants.
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Here are some HBA Wine favorites: |
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| Who is Carlos Rabassa? |
e-mail: Carlos
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- Real Estate Broker in Queens County, New York City
- Home Wine Maker
- Wine Lover for 50+ years
- Electromechanical Engineer, ME
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