Introduction to wine tasting: setting up

Photo by Elle Hughes on Unsplash

Setting up for our tasting

Wine

• White wine: keep in the fridge for a few hours before drinking; remove from the fridge 15 minutes before opening

• Red wine: put in the fridge for 15 minutes before opening

Glasses

Don't worry too much about the shape or size of your glass.  The only major things to ensure are:

• They are made out of transparent, colourless glass

• They have a stem

• They are clean(!)

We suggest that you have a different glass for each wine. 

Senses

Wine tasting involves most of your senses, so it's a good idea to be ready for this!  Your senses of smell and taste will be doing a lot of work, so need to be able to be unencumbered from other smells and tastes before you start tasting. 

The best thing is not to eat or drink anything with really strong flavours like coffee, garlic, spices for a couple of hours before your start tasting.

Palate

Have a glass of still, room temperature water and a neutral-flavoured cracker or two for cleansing your palate between the wines.