5 tips for a better wine tasting experience

Things to know before you go

With the mass occurrence of new residents into the Pacific Northwest, many of them under 40, the idea of taking time off from work to go wine tasting is common. But just exactly what are we doing when we go wine tasting? Do we know what we're tasting for during a taste? Do we know how to look and smell the wine before it touches our lips? And do we know what to do if a good bargain shows itself at the tasting room? Here are a few tips to prime a newbie taster before going out and hitting the tasting rooms.

1. Educate yourself before you go - There are a lot of wine 101 type books on the market and a new taster owes it to his/herself to bone up on some of the basics before making a field trip into wine country. How to look at, smell and swirl will help you understand better what's about to hit your tongue. And when it does, you'll want to be able to better understand what's happening when it gets there. Cruise the online book stores, or head out to a local book shop and find a book or two that answers these basic processes. We'd also suggest you spend some time online learning about the region of the grapes you'll be tasting to understand the various soil types and how they came to be geologically.

2. Spit - If we're tasting just a few wines, we don't generally spit. But during a wine tasting excursion it's a good thing to do, so a) you don't get tanked along the way, b) can drive safely between tasting rooms and c) you're fresh at dinner, instead of nursing a wine hangover by 6 p.m.

3. Care for your palette - Doing several tastings in a single morning or afternoon means you'll be trouncing your pallet with all kinds of flavors, tannins, acid, sugar and otherwise. Your tongue is going to take a beating. From time to time, we just stop tasting because - we can't taste with any sort of cognitive sensory ability anymore. Most tasting rooms offer crackers or bread sticks. These are nice to use in between wines so you can cleanse your taste buds and freshen up their ability to taste at their fullest ability. Also, remember that many wines go better with food. How about if you pack a few slices of cheese or salami to do an A/B tasting on a wine without, and then with food?

4. Buy a case - So you found a 'to-die-for' wine. Sure, you should buy a bottle. But now you see a sign in the tasting room noting it's 30% off. Maybe you should buy a whole case?! Indeed, we often set out on a tasting adventure being sure to have some space in the trunk for a case or two, just in case…

5. Walk in the Vineyard - In the Puget Sound, it's easy enough to jump in the car and go tasting for a day in Woodinville or Seattle. But to really get a better understanding of wine, it pays to spend time where the wine is grown. In Yakima, Walla Walla, and even Lake Chelan, there are many estate wineries, meaning some of the grapes they grow are right outside the door of the tasting room. So why not request a short tour of the vineyard if someone on staff is available to do so. Better yet, call ahead and make such an appointment.

Tom Mehren/March 2016