Five Ways to Impress your Colleagues with Wine Tasting!

TGI Friday ! Time to impress your colleagues with your wine tasting skills !

It’s Friday and your boss has proposed to meet up at the new wine bar down the street with a bunch of colleagues to taste some wine. You don’t know much about wine and you’re not too sure on how to taste wine properly ? DO NOT PANIC ! Wine tasting is easy as long as you follow these five tips ! 

TIP #1 : 

Don’t fill up the glass ! Not because you are worried that your boss is going to think that you are alcoholic but because when you will swirl your wine in your glass in the next few minutes, you do not want to spray your beautiful white shirt with red wine. And also, always hold your glass by the stem. This way, you won’t heat up the wine and will not leave finger marks on the glass. Smart, clean and stylish ! 

TIP #2

Look at the wine. That is the first step of wine tasting. Do not drink right away. First you look ! Why ? Because the colour and the intensity of the wine have a lot to say. For example, age can be guessed by just looking at the wine : the more brick colour: the older the wine. Similarly, different grape varieties give different colour and intensity to the wine: just check pinot noir (light and ruby when young) and cabernet sauvignon (dark and purple when young)… How exciting to be able to guess the grape variety before you have even tasted the wine ! That’s definitely how I impress my family ! 

TIP #3

Smell the wine. Ready to taste ? Hold on ! Smell first ! First a quick sniff to make sure that the wine is not faulty (if it smells of cardboard, that’s not a good sign…) and then swirl to release the aromas and smell more deeply. No need to be stressed if you cannot smell any fruits : cherry, blueberry or raspberry, anyone ? The point is to start enjoying the wine even before you taste it. Does it smell fresh ? Does it smell like walking in the forrest ? Does it simply smell good ? Does it make you want to smell again ? One of my greatest pleasure is to smell a wine numerous times and each time to smell something different ! Red and black fruits, undergrowth, sometimes even dried herbs, leather and chocolate… The more aromas, the more exciting the experience ! 

TIP# 4

Now you can drink ! The best way to taste the wine is not to gulp it all at once but to savour the wine. No better way to achieve this by making the wine travel in your mouth. Not as if you were rinsing your mouth just after you brushed your teeth but more in a way where the wine touches all the parts of your mouth: tongue, cheeks, gums… They all have something to say. Indeed, the tongue will tell you about acidity and sweetness while the gums will tell you about tannins and the cheeks will tell you about the body of the wine (does it feel like water or does it feel like full milk ?) Basically, you are like Hercule Poirot looking for clues ! All of these elements tell you a lot about the wine: does it come form a cold or warm climate, what kind of grape variety is it, is it old or young… You might not be ready to guess that it is a Romanée Conti or a Chateau Latour but you have guessed it is a Bourgogne or a Bordeaux ? Well done ! Your boss and colleagues are super impressed ! 

TIP# 5

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy ! Wine tasting is not about being a snob or a know-it-all, it is about enjoying the moment you share this wine with your friends. There is nothing more exciting than sharing a good glass of wine with people who appreciate it as much as you do ! Add a bit of cheese to the equation and you are ready for the best night you ever had with your colleagues !