How to: Festival-style wine tastings

Hey Doug! How do you do ‘festival-style’ tastings like the FOV BBQ?

First - with lots of wines, pre-arranging transportation home is essential.

I love ‘festival-style’ wine tastings. A lot of wines are available to taste, and you make the selection of what you want to try. It’s a bit daunting at first, but it gives me the opportunity to find the ones I like -- there will always be surprises. And why would anyone buy wines they have not tasted?

Organization helps me be efficient. When 30 wines are open, I won’t be able to taste every one -- I have tried in the past and it wasn’t pretty. But, with tasting small pours, I am hoping to taste at least half in the 1 ½ hours before food.

I study the list of wines available to identify the ones I definitely want to try. What do I need to replace in the cellar? What events are we hosting that we need wines for? What wines are we gifting? What are we drinking more of? What new styles, grapes and producers do I want to try?

I group the wines into ‘lighter’ and ‘heavier’ categories, and I like to taste the lighter ones first. We are drinking more lighter wines at home and with the summer patio season finally here, I need to stock up. So, sparkling, white and roses will generally be tasted first. Then, lighter reds (pinot noir, gamay. Tempranillo, etc.) and then ‘the big boy reds’ for cellaring and celebrations. Finally, fortified wine, liquors etc. I wear comfy shoes because I am moving from table to table a lot.

While tasting, I often rinse my glass with water and then drink the water -- lots of water is essential.

Samples of wine poured are typically one ounce or less. More than that and I only end up pouring the excess out after the taste. Sniff, sample, roll around in your mouth, introduce some air and swallow a bit to experience the after-taste. Do I love it?

Still, 30 wines X one ounce = reduction in abilities! Be careful!

The agent-experts pouring wine will have lots of educational information, but remember, there are folks standing behind you waiting for their turn -- be polite and move aside. There are no 2-minute discussions standing in front of agents at festival tastings. You can reach out your glass toward the wines to signal that you would like to sample.

Have fun! Don’t be alarmed if you do not taste all the ‘nuances’ that your friend does -- YOUR PALATE IS YOUR OWN!

Keep it simple! The important thing is to identify what you like and then remember what that

tastes and smells like.

The prices of we offer at FOV tastings can’t be beat. You have noticed how all wine prices are sneaking up. I love good wines but I’m always shopping for values. We go through a fair amount of wine in our house so this will be a big shopping event for us.

This approach works for me, and I have honed it with hundreds of festival-style tastings. But there are other approaches, and you will find the one that works for you. Just have fun!