A memorable home tasting needs curiosity more than expensive equipment, with blind pours, unfamiliar bottles and even seswaa opening up fresh discoveries.
PHENYO MOTHAGODI
There is something wonderfully sophisticated about a wine tasting. A few bottles on a table, some glasses, a group of friends and suddenly everyone is discussing acidity, tannins and whether that aroma is blackcurrant, blackberry or simply the bottle of hand wash sitting too close to the kitchen.
Wine tastings can look intimidating, but they really don’t have to be. Yes, you can bring in a professional wine consultant, and yes, we do not come cheap. A proper tasting involves more than turning up with six bottles and saying, “Okay, everybody, smell this.” There is programme development, wine selection, sourcing, service, storytelling and hosting. When the occasion calls for it, it is money well spent.
But not every tasting needs the full professional treatment. Perhaps you are having friends over, celebrating with family or hosting clients for your business. You can absolutely put together your own wine tasting, and with a little planning, it can be a very good one.
CHOOSE DISCOVERY
This seems obvious, but it is probably the mistake I see most often. Someone announces that they are hosting a wine tasting and then produces the same Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc everyone has been drinking for the last three years.
Congratulations. You have organised a familiar drinking session and put glasses on the table. The whole point of a tasting is discovery. If everyone already knows the wines, the grape varieties and the brands, there is very little to discover.
And here is the slightly uncomfortable part: the host should also be willing to explore. You cannot spend the entire afternoon Googling grapes you have never tasted and then pretending to be the resident expert at 7pm. Expand your own palate in the process.
PICK A THEME
A tasting becomes much easier to organise when there is a reason behind the wines. You could compare Cabernet Sauvignon from different regions, explore South African Chenin Blanc, taste wines made from lesser-known grape varieties or look at Old World versus New World styles. You could even make the theme as simple as three whites and three reds from producers nobody in the group normally buys.
The theme gives the tasting structure and people something to discuss beyond whether they like the bottle. Five or six wines are more than enough for a home tasting.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
At home, work with what you have.
Ideally, use clean glasses of a reasonably similar shape so that people are not tasting from a champagne flute, a tumbler and a water glass and wondering why the wines are behaving differently. But do not let the absence of specialist stemware stop you.
You also do not need expensive printed tasting sheets. Give everyone a piece of paper and ask them to score each wine out of 10 or 100, then jot down what they smell, taste and like or dislike. The important thing is to get people thinking about the wine rather than simply swallowing it.
TASTE BLIND
Pour the wines without revealing exactly what they are. Hiding the labels can remove some of the assumptions people bring to the table. A famous producer, expensive bottle or prestigious region can influence expectations before the wine even reaches the mouth.
Ask everyone to look at the wine, smell it and taste it before revealing the identity. Then let the arguments begin. Someone might confidently declare that they are drinking Pinot Noir and discover that it is actually something completely different. That is not failure. That is wine.
KEEP IT FUN
Your guests are not sitting for a wine diploma. The point is to make them curious. Which wine surprised you? Did the wine change after sitting in the glass for ten minutes?
There is no need to frighten people with a vocabulary lesson on tertiary aromas unless they actually want one.
If someone says, “It smells like my grandmother’s spice cupboard,” don’t immediately correct them because the official tasting note says clove and nutmeg. Ask them what they mean. Their reference point may be completely different from yours, and that is exactly what makes tasting interesting.
FEED YOUR GUESTS
Wine and food belong together, and a tasting is much more enjoyable when there is something to eat. This does not mean a twelve-course menu.
Simple is often better. Cheese, cured meats, crackers, fruit, nuts and a few savoury bites can keep everyone comfortable while giving you an opportunity to see how the wines behave with food.
For a more local experience, think beyond the usual cheese board. Seswaa, grilled meats, spicy chicken, roasted vegetables and other familiar flavours can produce fascinating pairings. You might discover that a wine you disliked on its own suddenly makes perfect sense with food. That is useful knowledge.
TELL THE STORY
The difference between a collection of bottles and a wine tasting is storytelling. Tell people why you chose the wines. Give them a little background on the grape, the region or the producer. Explain one or two things worth noticing, then let the wine do the rest. Put the bottles in an order that makes sense, generally moving from lighter styles to fuller ones.
Most importantly, remember that you are hosting people, not conducting a laboratory experiment. Laugh. Debate. Someone will inevitably announce that a wine tastes like “Kool-Aid,” and somewhere in the room a wine enthusiast will quietly have a crisis. Let them.
The best tastings are rarely the ones where everyone agrees. They are the ones where everyone leaves having discovered something.
START EXPLORING
Be a little adventurous. Choose a grape nobody can pronounce, a producer nobody has heard of or a region that sends everyone to Google.
You might choose badly. You might choose brilliantly. Either way, you will have done something much more valuable than simply opening another bottle. You will have discovered something. And that, ultimately, is what a good wine tasting is supposed to be about.