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No doubt tastings are a fun way to meet up with friends and socialize, but they also can be an invaluable tool to help you learn about wine.
A typical wine tasting is offered at a set fee and allows you to sample a selection of different types of wine that have been chosen according to a theme: price point, region or grape variety.
Upon arrival, you are armed with a wine glass and a roster of the available wines for tasting. The natural inclination may be to start at the beginning of the list and work your way down, but I'd suggest a different strategy to get the most out of your wine tasting experience.
First thing: Look at the tasting sheet and road-map your tasting order. Start off with sparkling wines, then move to white wines followed by red wines; dessert selections should be last. Sometimes the layout of the wines in the room may not follow this order so you may need to move around a bit.
When noting which wines you would like to try, I would strongly encourage you to give first priority to varietals and regions that you've never experienced before. A wine tasting, after all, is there for you to discover new selections, so make it point to be adventurous.
Another suggestion would be to see if there are different regional offerings of the same grape variety that can show you the effect a growing region can have on flavor. Consider grabbing a second wine glass so that you can compare selections side by side.
Once you have established your game plan, it's now time to taste. The person behind the table will pour you a 1- to 2-ounce taste. If you don't have any questions for him/her, step away from the table.
After swirling, smelling and tasting, jot down whatever impressions you have of the wine.
I don't always finish my full sample portion. I will often spit out what I taste. This allows me to sample more wines. It may seem abnormal and gross at first but after some practice, you get used to it.
Before moving on to the next selection you can rinse out your glass with water or sometimes the pourer will offer to rinse out your glass with a splash of wine. Once you have gone through your tasting order, take a look at your sheet and then re-visit any favorites.
Another helpful tip is to use your cell phone camera to take a photo of the wine label for your next wine shopping trip.
RedEye special contributor Alpana Singh is director of wine and spirits for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and the host of "Check, Please!" on WTTW.
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