EnoForum: DiWineTaste wine forum

Wine Culture and Information since 2002 - Volume 22

☰ Menu

Index

New User Registration

I forgot my password

Index:Wine Forum: Wine Evaluation - Best practices

New Post

Author

Message

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/16/2004 3:55:27 AM GMT

Hi Anton....good to be here again..

Just want your professional opinions and others as well. What are the best or recommended ways to assess wine properly at wine tasting events?

1) Do you do it casually (standing up) or more formal situation at a sit-down event.

2) Do you recommend biscuits, water, cheeses and of course green olives to refresh the palate?

3) The order you serve wines...light- full bodied, dry to sweet etc.

Anybody held any wine tastings at home before? Any ideas and recommendations? The type of people, gadgets used etc..

Well, I am leaving out serious wine dinners out for now. Food and wine pairing is too much for me at the moment.

Just want simple, no frills advice on serious wine tastings dos and don'ts.

Thank you all....Cheers!!!!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/16/2004 5:57:24 PM GMT

jc wrote:

Hi Anton....good to be here again..

Hello jc! We are glad to have you here again!

jc wrote:

Just want your professional opinions and others as well. What are the best or recommended ways to assess wine properly at wine tasting events?

It largely depends on the wine tasting event and on its goal. Every wine tasting event is different from any other and each of them has its rules and guidelines.
In formal wine tasting events, all depends on the scoring system all the judges have to use and this is also affects the way you assess a wine. For example, there are scoring systems which stresses more on the olfactory aspect of wine than on all the other aspects, whereas for others gustatory analysis is more important.
The overall approach to the wine can practically be defined the same all the times and every time you have to make use of your experience and capacity in order to asses a wine, even though these factors are however affected by the scoring system.
In wine tasting events held for educational or promotional purposes, things are completely different and they can be defined as a "tasting wine all together" event. In this case there is a person which leads the tasting while trying to educate or guide the attenders towards the proper recognition of aromas or tastes. In such events, of course, anyone can share his or her opinion aloud and therefore having all the people actively participating to the tasting, something which is absolutely forbidden in formal tasting.

jc wrote:

1) Do you do it casually (standing up) or more formal situation at a sit-down event.

The kind of wine tasting events I usually do or take part to are formal, wine contests where you have to judge and score a wine, as well as educational tasting in which I teach people how to taste wine and/or how to pair wine to food. All these tastings are held in a formal situation at a sit-down event. When I teach in wine tasting classes I never sit down so anyone can see me, whereas the attenders do.
Casual wine tasting are very different as well as their purpose and I usually have them in wineries when I have to quickly assess a wine in their cellar, either for job or for a visit.
All the tastings we do here at DiWineTaste in order to assess a wine are strictly held in a very formal way and no member of the committee can talk: silence and concentration are the requested and wanted condition, this is a must, and no one knows the name of wines and wineries they are going to judge in advance. Bottles are presented in bags in order to hide any possible clue including the shape of the bottle. The members will know about the wines they judged only when the tasting is over and all the wine samples have been judged and scored, just like in any other formal and serious wine tasting or contest.

jc wrote:

2) Do you recommend biscuits, water, cheeses and of course green olives to refresh the palate?

After the evaluation of every wine sample it is strongly recommended to cleanse your mouth in order to have it ready for the next wine. Drinking water just don't work: you will taste the wine again after you swallow the last sip of water. The same can be said for any other food because they do not have a neutral or bland taste and this would compromise the gustatory assessment of the next wine. The best food is bread and in particular Italian bread because it is just made of wheat, little of yeast and water. This is the typical bread you can find in central Italy (and I am lucky to live in this part of Italy!

) and it has a very neutral taste and can absorb all the aromas and flavors from your mouth. I understand it is very hard to find this kind of bread outside Italy, so when you are going to choose a bread remember it must have the most neutral taste possible: no malt, no or very little salt, no fats, no flavorings of any kind; it has to be just bread in its most simple form. Biscuits are therefore out of the question.

jc wrote:

3) The order you serve wines...light- full bodied, dry to sweet etc.

The order goes like this: sparkling, whites, rose, red, sweet, fortified. The exception could be sparkling wines because they are sometimes more robust than many whites. Light wines always come before full bodied wines and dry wines always before sweet wines. The same is true for alcohol as well: low alcoholic wines before alcoholic wines.

jc wrote:

Anybody held any wine tastings at home before? Any ideas and recommendations? The type of people, gadgets used etc..

I did this on a regular basis and whenever I can I still do that with my friends. It depends on the goal of the tasting. If you are going to have a "get together" event, well, people, gadgets and all the rest do not count that much and tasting like this are however useful and funny.
If you want to hold a more formal tasting, be sure to have numbered ISO tasting glasses for each participant and make sure no one knows the name of the wines in advance and they will be numbered according the glasses. You may also share your opinions during the tasting (which is very useful for educational purposes as well as for refining your senses) but make sure the name of wine is not known in order not to compromise the judgement of each participant. In other words, you should make sure the tasting is "blind".

jc wrote:

Well, I am leaving out serious wine dinners out for now. Food and wine pairing is too much for me at the moment.

That's sad to know. I would like to tell you to come to one of my educational dinners where people is taught about wine tasting and wine/food pairing. I do not think you should give up, after all you have to begin from somewhere to go somewhere!

jc wrote:

Just want simple, no frills advice on serious wine tastings dos and don'ts.

Thank you all....Cheers!!!!

Well I hope this was of help to you, anyway, you know EnoForum is open to anyone and if you feel this reply was incomplete, well, just post a new message!

Have a good day and a good wine!

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/17/2004 3:19:15 AM GMT

Hi Anton,

Thank you very much indeed for the detailed information. It shall be invaluable to me the next time I organise a wine tasting. As you probably guessed, it will be informal with interaction among the guests. While assessing quality and value are the main (serious) objectives, pleasure, fun and discussions will also be important.

Could you please elaborate on the numbering of ISO glasses part? If there are 20 guests and 10 wines, how do you get this done?

You mention about blind tastings, is it important to wrap the bottles in a bag (informal tastings) in order to assess the quality and price? My objective is to first see what the people think about the wines in relation to their prices. Sometimes, people don't think some prices are justified compared to their quality (of course this is a subjective issue and the person may not be the target market).

How do you rate a wine based on quality and value? This is hard as it all depends on a lot of factors. I know the reputation of the winery, grape variety, style, whether mass produced or handcrafted etc.. but is there a general guideline or is it going to be strictly personal?

About wine dinners - I would love to attend one of your classes to learn about wine pairing when I get the opportunity. Let's see what the future brings

. However, I didn't mean to say I don't like wine pairing. Just that it involves high costs and it is different to assessing the wine itself.

Finally, about Italian bread to cleanse the palate.... have you heard about olives doing the same trick? Any experience or views on this?

Thanks again, Anton.

joergwein

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 14
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 7:22:20 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/17/2004 5:46:14 PM GMT

I too usually organize wine tasting events with my friends and we mainly do that for fun and for improving our knowledge about wine. Although we do not follow the guidelines antonello wrote in his message, the tasting is however useful and fun.
We do not have blind tasting and we all know about the wine in advance, we know the price and we like discussing the wine aspects all together.
We usually have more than one wine (we usually have 3-4 wines each tasting) and we use biscuits to refresh the mouth.
Maybe what we have is not a truly formal tasting, however it is lot of fun and it helps us improving our skill.

Jörg - A passion for Italian wine!

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/18/2004 3:55:39 AM GMT

Thanks for your input, Jorg! What I want to achieve in my wine event is the same as yours - fun and to learn more about wines. However, from time to time, I would like to have something different to the usual. That's why I am thinking about blind tastings as well.

I know some people do wine tastings in a random fashion - the bottles are not covered but after pouring into the glasses, not many people know which wine belong to which bottle esp. when all are reds or whites. Although this is not real blind tastings, it also tests the skills of participants of the type of variety, style and winemaking techniques of specific producer.

I guess this is "partly" blind tastings for those who on their way to the more professional approach to formal blind tastings.
I also normally have 3 or 4 wines each time and use crisp bread or light crackers to clean the palate but I would like to try Anton's suggestion about Italian bread!

I am going to try to find this bread or a close substitute. Cheers!!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/20/2004 9:49:16 AM GMT

jc wrote:

Hi Anton,

Hello jc!

jc wrote:

Could you please elaborate on the numbering of ISO glasses part? If there are 20 guests and 10 wines, how do you get this done?

Ok. Let's suppose you have 20 guests and 10 wines, now you should make sure each guest has 10 glasses numbered from 1 to 10. You may also use letters or any other mark / symbol, although numbers are the most usual and practical case.
Now you have to put each bottle in a bag and number each bag from 1 to 10. You may see how these bags look like by visiting this report www.DiWineTaste.com/dwt/en2004013.php , the picture was taken during a wine tasting session at DiWineTaste before the bags were being numbered. This report may also be of help to you in organizing wine tasting.
Now, having the bottles concealed from the view of your guests, pour the wine in bag number 1 in each guest's glass number 1, the wine number 2 goes in the glass number 2 and so on. This is how a blind tasting works. After all wines have been tasted and evaluated and each guest has expressed his or her judgment and opinion, you can remove the bottles in front of your guests while telling the number of the bag and the wine it contained. This is done in order to let each guest to take note of the wine name in their forms.

jc wrote:

You mention about blind tastings, is it important to wrap the bottles in a bag (informal tastings) in order to assess the quality and price? My objective is to first see what the people think about the wines in relation to their prices. Sometimes, people don't think some prices are justified compared to their quality (of course this is a subjective issue and the person may not be the target market).

If you have to assess quality and price, blind tasting is mandatory. If you tell your guests about the wine name and its producers in advance, your guests may have some prejudices because they could know that wine already and they know its producer usually make bad or good wine. Blind tasting is mainly done in order to avoid any form of prejudice and this is essential when you have to asses the real quality of a wine.

jc wrote:

How do you rate a wine based on quality and value? This is hard as it all depends on a lot of factors. I know the reputation of the winery, grape variety, style, whether mass produced or handcrafted etc.. but is there a general guideline or is it going to be strictly personal?

If you know the name of the wine and of the producers, blind tasting is absolutely mandatory and makes its results more reliable. Quality and value in wines are, like you said, a matter of personal preferences, possibilities and culture. As you may have seen, here at DiWineTaste we mention in our Wines Guide good value wines (they are marked with the red sun symbol) and they are rated according to their quality first and then by evaluating its price. We award the red sun symbol according to the score (3, 4 or 5 diamonds wines only) and each score has its price. I am sure you agree a 5 diamonds wine - having a higher quality - is understandable to have a higher price than a 3 diamonds wine. The prices for each category are set according to the feedback of wine consumers as well as marketing researches and they periodically change.

jc wrote:

Finally, about Italian bread to cleanse the palate.... have you heard about olives doing the same trick? Any experience or views on this?

Green olives are great when you are going to taste dry fortified wines, such as Jerez Fino (Sherry) or Marsala Vergine. You should consider green olives usually contains salt and, as you know, it is a flavor enchancer. Moreover the flavors of olives is not that neutral and therefore they need a wine with a pretty strong taste and aromas.

jc wrote:

Thanks again, Anton.

You're welcome!

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/20/2004 9:49:44 AM GMT

jc wrote:

I also normally have 3 or 4 wines each time and use crisp bread or light crackers to clean the palate but I would like to try Anton's suggestion about Italian bread!

I am going to try to find this bread or a close substitute. Cheers!!

Well, the solution could be very simple. Italy has a very wide range and varieties of breads - each city practically has its own traditional bread - and the bread I am talking about is the one you usually find in Umbria (the region where I am from and live) which is made without adding any salt. The reason for this is very simply: our cooking is very tasty and savoury, therefore we need a very neutral bread.
If you want to try this style of bread you have two options:

buy a loaf in a shop or bakery (and this is impossible for you)
make this bread yourself by using a bread machine (like I do)

This is the recipe I use with my bread machine:

520 grams wheat flour
290 ml of water
1 tablespoon of sugar (it helps the leavening and the making of crust)
2 teaspoon of dry yeast

The program I use in my machine is "French bread", heavy browning. You should consider Umbrian bread has a very crunchy crust and pretty thick.
As you may see, no salt, no oil, just plain bread.

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

jimmy

User

Messages: 43
Wines: 9
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/03/2004 11:18:27 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/20/2004 6:05:43 PM GMT

I too have recently started organizing wine tastings with my frieds. We have a lor of fun and we sometimes do blind tasting, but most of the times we all know the name of the wine in advance. We usually have 3-4 wines each session and this seems to be the best number for us. We share a lot of opinions and this is the best part as we all can compare our opinions with the ones of others.
What antonello wrote seems to be a very formal and professional approach, probably far from our goals. I mean, I understand it is what it is needed to do for him, being a professional wine taster I think it is normal.
I am just on my way of learing wine tasting and I taste wine for the pleasure of it as well as for knowing more about wine. I am not a professional wine taster, although you never know what future brings!

However, I think I will try to use antonello's advices the next time I am going to have a wine tasting event with my friends.

wineguy

User

Messages: 40
Wines: 10
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/02/2004 8:57:04 PM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/21/2004 6:06:15 PM GMT

I do wine tastings with my friends sometimes and we have a lot of fun. However we never do like antonello says, I guess he is a professional taster and then he has to obey to different guidelines, but this not my case. I am just a wine lover.
We also like to make a dinner and try to pair each wine to every food. We also like to try all the wines with all the foods while discussing the differences and qualities of each match.
We usually buy a number of 3-5 wines, depending on the number of guests we are going to have, and then we discuss about the wines all together while sharing our opinions and comments. I think it is very useful and, besides that, we have a lot of fun as well as a good time together.
However I think we should follow some of the tips antonello wrote. I think this could make the tasting more interesting and could help in improving our skills.

Steve

cathy

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 11
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/04/2004 7:16:28 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/23/2004 6:24:17 PM GMT

I have never organized wine tastings with my friends and I have never went to a wine tasting. I guess no one organizes such events in my city. However I would love to do that sometimes with my friends and to share a glass of wine with them as well as shating opinions and comments about a wine. It would certainly be useful as well as fun.
You all talked about more or less formal wine tasting (and I understand antonello is a professional taster) however I would like to ask what a non professional wine lover should have to do in order to organize a wine tasting at home. I mean there is no need to use professional and formal procedures, I think we should consider our home wine tasting as a leisure with a bit of formality in order to make it profitable. Any ideas?

Cathy

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/27/2004 5:51:09 PM GMT

If your goal is to organize a wine tasting at home, of course there is no need for formal procedures. No matter of the fun you can have from home wine tasting with your friends, I think you should however follow certain guidelines in order to make the tasting profitable for all.
A good practice is to take notes of every wine tasted, every aspect and every thought concerning that wine. It is always useful to compare your thoughts and impressions about every wine with the ones of others.
In case you are going to have more than three wines it is always good to have a blind tasting by concealing the bottles inside bags. This is useful to eliminate any prejudice and if you can, do not tell your guests what wines they are going to have. This procedure has nothing to do with the fun part, you can certainly have fun even if you do not know the wines in advance.
In a less formal event, you could also discuss with your friends every aspect of a wine and this practice can be interesting as well. Make sure each guest has a sufficient number of glasses in order to compare wines samples. This is useful to understand differences among wines.
As wine tasting is a hard task as well as considering a good factor for any taster is experience and memory, taking notes is the most important thing. Of course you should also organize your notes for later reference and here a computer is of great help.

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

rickie

User

Messages: 37
Wines: 12
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/02/2004 9:23:57 PM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/28/2004 6:04:53 PM GMT

I too would like to organize wine tasting at home with my friends. I must admit I would like to try the formal way instead of the "friendly" one. I think we should certainly have fun but this does not mean formality cannot add a touch of fun to the event. After all we do that because we want to learn something, so I think we have to provide the best conditions possible.
This idea of organizing wine tasting at home is very tempting and I think I will try to organize one this very weekend. I will let you know!

Richard Johnson

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/30/2004 3:37:03 AM GMT

Hi all. Thanks to Anton for his professional input. Lately, I organised a blind tasting event and I learnt a few lessons.

Here are some pitfalls to avoid:

1. Make sure you remind the guests to turn up at the same time (or you cannot taste and reveal the wine)
2. It is best to use ISO glasses (even at informal tastings) as it is difficult and even unfair to pour wines into "unsuitable" glasses. I had the luxury of using Riedel glasses (we had it at a restaurant) but it could not be justified for all types of wines as we had many. Get ISO glasses by hook or by crook!! Try and you will know what I mean.
3. Prepare a simple form with boxes for eg. colour, nose and palate for guests so everyone can write notes for themselves.
4. Try not to have too many wines at each tastings (5 or 6 is ok) or I found people begin to lose focus as they are not accustomed to tasting 15 different wines. Unless everyone is a professional or knows what to look for, it will prove too much for them.
5. Have each guest seated at the table with the tasting mat and different glasses. It is cumbersome to do it standing up and they lose focus easily.

These are some things I picked up at the last event and I will surely do something different on the next one. Whether you do it professionally or friendly informal tastings, the main purpose is to have fun, enjoy and also to learn to appreciate wines and "train" your palate. You cannot learn the latter without wine tastings.

Hope your next wine event will be a successful and fun one.

Cheers!!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 09/30/2004 9:49:47 PM GMT

jc wrote:

Hi all. Thanks to Anton for his professional input. Lately, I organised a blind tasting event and I learnt a few lessons.

Hello jc!
I'm glad to see you are getting into blind wine tasting and I am sure it can teach you many things about wine! By the way: why don't you share with us your tasting in the "your tastings" forum?

jc wrote:

1. Make sure you remind the guests to turn up at the same time (or you cannot taste and reveal the wine)

This is mandatory! It makes things easier for everyone and in particular for the one who is organizing the event

jc wrote:

2. It is best to use ISO glasses (even at informal tastings) as it is difficult and even unfair to pour wines into "unsuitable" glasses. I had the luxury of using Riedel glasses (we had it at a restaurant) but it could not be justified for all types of wines as we had many. Get ISO glasses by hook or by crook!! Try and you will know what I mean.

The way you hold a glass is fundamental. I would like to remind you all reading the first reports we published in the "Wine Tasting" column. You can find many useful tips on how organizing wine tasting events as well as to hold a glass, how to use the ISO glass and so on.

jc wrote:

3. Prepare a simple form with boxes for eg. colour, nose and palate for guests so everyone can write notes for themselves.

Right. Taking notes is of extreme importance.

jc wrote:

4. Try not to have too many wines at each tastings (5 or 6 is ok) or I found people begin to lose focus as they are not accustomed to tasting 15 different wines. Unless everyone is a professional or knows what to look for, it will prove too much for them.

Tasting many wines at once can be very tiresome for some. If you have an informal wine tasting I agree on having five or six different wines.

jc wrote:

5. Have each guest seated at the table with the tasting mat and different glasses. It is cumbersome to do it standing up and they lose focus easily.

Once again, this is right. You should provide the best comfortable condition for tasters even in case it is just informal or for having fun.

jc wrote:

These are some things I picked up at the last event and I will surely do something different on the next one. Whether you do it professionally or friendly informal tastings, the main purpose is to have fun, enjoy and also to learn to appreciate wines and "train" your palate. You cannot learn the latter without wine tastings.

I agree on this. Wine tasting is sometimes very hard and the only way to succeed is tasting, tasting and then tasting. By the way: it also takes patience and concentration, you have to listen to the wine and, trust me, it always tells different stories, provided you want to listen to such stories. Wine is a complex beverage and you can get the most pleasure out only by paying attention and using moderation, always.

jc wrote:

Hope your next wine event will be a successful and fun one.

We too hope the very same to you! And please share your tastings with all of us!

jc wrote:

Cheers!!

Talk to you soon!

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

miclan

Enophile

Messages: 121
Wines: 13
Distillates: 4

Joined:
08/02/2004 9:31:29 PM GMT

Quote	Posted: 10/07/2004 6:05:06 PM GMT
I too like organizing dinners with my friends where we can taste wines paired with food. We also like the idea of improving our skills in the wine-food pairing. Even though it is not as serious as a formal event where you taste wine only, it is however fun and interesting. Michele Landolfi

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 10/11/2004 6:08:15 PM GMT

miclan wrote:

I too like organizing dinners with my friends where we can taste wines paired with food. We also like the idea of improving our skills in the wine-food pairing. Even though it is not as serious as a formal event where you taste wine only, it is however fun and interesting.

Organizing wine-food pairing dinners is also very fun and educational. Wine-food pairing can be considered a sort of alchemy, if not an art, and there are thousands ways to be amazed by the virtually endless combinations. If you like this kind of events, I suggest you to try everything, even the pairings you think at first to be outrageous. In wine-food pairing events be sure every guest has plenty of glasses in order to keep some wine to be tasted with every food. Sky is the limit!!

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

jimmy

User

Messages: 43
Wines: 9
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/03/2004 11:18:27 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 10/12/2004 5:50:45 PM GMT

antonello wrote:

Organizing wine-food pairing dinners is very fun and I sometimes do that with my friends. I particularly like dinners where you can have lots of cheese to be paired with wine and in particular with vin doux naturels such as Muscat wines from Languedoc-Roussillon or Sauternes and Barsac. Also Monbazillac is good for this purpose and I strongly you all to try these wines with Roquefort style cheese.
As these wines are usually pretty expensive, it is good to organize dinners with friends so you can share costs together and you can afford buying better wines.

wineguy

User

Messages: 40
Wines: 10
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/02/2004 8:57:04 PM GMT

Quote

Posted: 10/19/2004 5:53:26 PM GMT

I usually organize very informal wine-food dinners with my friends when we have barbecue. We usually have three or four wines and I like that very much. We usually try to find the best combination and we like to try each wine with every food. We usually have red wines but we also like experimenting with full bodied white wines. It is very fun and you can learn lots of things about wine-food matching.

Steve

joergwein

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 14
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 7:22:20 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 10/21/2004 6:09:25 PM GMT

The idea of organizing wine tasting events associated to a dinner where you can pair wines to foods is very interesting. I have never done that but I think I will do that as soon as I can. I am sure my friends will be enthusiastic for this. How many wines do you suggest for an event like that? How many different foods would you usually make? Any other suggestions on how to organize a wine-food pairing dinner?

Jörg - A passion for Italian wine!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 10/22/2004 5:54:09 PM GMT

Organizing wine dinners is very fun and useful. Wine-food pairing is a sort of art in which you can delight your guests and they will be happy for that. The number of wines you can have depends on how many foods you are going to have. The best thing is having a wine paired to each food. It is also fun to try the same wine with all the other foods in order to learn the do's and dont's or wine-food matching. You may also end up discovering you like a wine with a food you did not expected to be a good match with it. Of course personal taste counts as well, however it is interesting to investigate on taste and on the way wine interacts with food.
Last but not the least, don't forget to taste each food and each wine separately. Tasting food is as important as tasting wine. After you tasted the food and the wine, you can try the combination of the two by eating some food, cleansing the lips and taking a sip of wine. It is essential that you drink the wine before swallowing the food.

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote	Posted: 10/27/2004 11:16:31 AM GMT
Hi Anton, Sorry..been very busy. Will share some blind tastings with you all soon. Let me get my notes organised!! Cheers!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote	Posted: 10/28/2004 6:09:13 PM GMT
jc wrote: Hi Anton, Sorry..been very busy. Will share some blind tastings with you all soon. Let me get my notes organised!! Cheers! Hello jc! We will certainly look forward to read your notes about your blind tastings. We all hope the issues discussed in this thread have been useful to you. Antonello Biancalana DiWineTaste

cathy

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 11
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/04/2004 7:16:28 AM GMT

Quote	Posted: 11/04/2004 6:12:57 PM GMT
The idea about these wine-food dinners is very intriguing. I like the idea of spending some good time with friends while enjoying nice food and nice wine and learning something new. I think I will organize one of these pretty soon and then I will let you know. Cathy

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 11/10/2004 6:17:27 PM GMT

cathy wrote:

The idea about these wine-food dinners is very intriguing. I like the idea of spending some good time with friends while enjoying nice food and nice wine and learning something new. I think I will organize one of these pretty soon and then I will let you know.

Will you invite us for your wine-food dinner?

We may also bring glasses, in case you are short of them!

Just kidding of course! However we look forward to hear from you and to know about your dinner. Do you have something in mind? What wines and what foods are you going to have?

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

joergwein

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 14
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 7:22:20 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 11/15/2004 6:08:12 PM GMT

I did it! Last sunday I officially organized my very first wine-food dinner with my friends and it was excellent. I chosen some German Riesling to start with and from different areas. It was great to compare Rieslings from many area of Germany and it has been very interesting and useful for everyone. Besides that we all have had a good time so we decided to repeat the "experiment" next week or within november. I will keep you informed!

Jörg - A passion for Italian wine!

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 11/23/2004 6:02:27 PM GMT

joergwein wrote:

Congratulations for your first official wine-food dinner! You could have also invited us for such an event!!

It seems your dinner was successful as you all decided to repeat the experiment. Do you have something in mind already or you have to plan everything for your next meeting?
What kind of foods did you have with Riesling? Just curious.

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

cathy

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 11
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/04/2004 7:16:28 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 12/06/2004 6:01:17 PM GMT

I too organized a wine-dinner with a couple of my friends and they all loved it. We had three Californian wines (Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon) and we tried each wine with all the foods we had. It was great and we all had fun and learnt a lot of things about pairing. One of my guests was so amazed she said the next time we will have such an event at her home and she said she will cook foods provided we bring wines!
I think I am going to do this on an almost regular basis...

Cathy

antonello

Connoisseurs

Administrator

Messages: 238
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
07/06/2004 11:46:31 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 12/15/2004 6:03:47 PM GMT

Well, it seems you guys like organizing wine-food events and this certainly is very good. I am glad you are taking some time to relax, enjoy food and nice wine in a world where everything always seems to be in a hurry. After all the best part of such events is learning something new and - at least in my opinion - there is always somethign new to learn.
I certainly look forward to hear from you all and to tell about your wine-food dinners. Just keep on doing this and the next time you organize a food-wine event, do not forget to invite me!

Antonello Biancalana
DiWineTaste

cathy

User

Messages: 42
Wines: 11
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/04/2004 7:16:28 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 01/25/2005 5:10:09 PM GMT

I did it again!!

I organized a new wine-dinner with some friends and this time we focused on white wines only. We had a very nice Johannisberg Riesling from Ohio (I guess from the Lake Erie area) and we all enjoyed its acidity and balance. The other wines were a oaked Chardonnay and an average-oaked Sauvignon Blanc. We tried to match these wines with all the foods we had and we did not come to any conclusion as we liked all the combinations. Very interesting!!

Cathy

User

Messages: 50
Wines: 0
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/06/2004 5:14:48 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 01/27/2005 3:25:21 AM GMT

cathy wrote:

I did it again!!

Sounds like a great event! I haven't done many tastings (on a personal level) with food yet as I wanted to taste the "real" wine first. But I am sure I will eventually become more adventurous.

With more wines and more tastings/dinners, I am sure you will gain more experience with wine pairing and perhaps next time you could provide us with some wine-food tips!

Cheers!

p.s. Care to share some tasting notes in the other thread?

jimmy

User

Messages: 43
Wines: 9
Distillates: 0

Joined:
08/03/2004 11:18:27 AM GMT

Quote

Posted: 02/01/2005 6:27:41 PM GMT

I love organizing wine-food pairing dinners with my friends and I find this to be very useful and fun. I agree with jc as the more you organize the more you gain experience with wine pairing. The key of success, I think, is to be adventurous and try even what you think to be unmatchable.
Although my friends and I are not organizing such events on a regular basis, we however try to do this at least once a month and, besides many things, we have a lot of fun and share very good company.

Index:Wine Forum: Wine Evaluation - Best practices

New Post

Share this topic

04/19/2024 2:41:52 PM GMT

DiWineTaste Polls

☰ Menu

Index

Download your free DiWineTaste Card : Test your Blood Alcohol Content : Follow DiWineTaste

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this publication and of this WEB site may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from DiWineTaste.