As well as basking in the beauty of a fabulous vineyard with your equally fabulous friends, a wine tour is a golden opportunity to ponder one of life's great questions; what IS this delicious drop and how did it get to be so glorious!?
In preparation for your day out in wine country, we've compiled some top tips that will ensure you make the most of your time and take in all that a wine tasting has to offer.
Cellar doors are the perfect place to learn about wine-making and how to taste wine, like, really taste it. It's not necessarily about identifying every top note or tannin (although you will hear plenty of this jargon throughout the day) but rather it's discovering which wines you like and WHY you like them.
You may not identify every flavour nor every technical characteristic of the wine, but you will know if you enjoy it or not, and if there's a wine you particularly enjoy, ask more about that wine, variety and process. There are literally THOUSANDS of grape varietals, most of which you'll never even have heard of, so ask the producer to recommend wines similar to those you've enjoyed the most. Next time you're browsing the shelves of Dan's or perusing a wine list, you can branch out, be an assertive orderer and go by real-life knowledge (rather than the prettiest label or most attractive $$$..!)
There's undoubtedly a correlation between drinking like a fish and having a memory like a fish, and what an awful shame it would be to leave your wine tour, having interrogated the cellar hand so vigourously, without remembering a single word of winery wisdom. In between snapping those shots for the gram, take notes on your phone or go old school and scribble them down in a notebook or on the back of a receipt. At the very least, write down the wines you loved and the wines you didn't love so much, so that you know what to hit and what to miss next time you're offered a drop.
Wines don't bite, so try them all! Don't limit yourself by sticking only to the colours/grapes/flavours that you already know - or thought you knew. This is the time to mix it up and allow the sommelier to take the lead with new twists on old classics and unfamiliar but exciting flavours as well as some amazing regional varieties that you didn't even know existed. And if you're not proven wrong, then you'll also go home feeling extra smug that you weren't outsmarted by the sommelier. Wine tastings are perfect because you're not committing to an entire glass. You should have enough of a sample to swill, sniff, sip, savour, sip again and then decide. Yay or nay, thank u, next.
We absolutely love car snacks but to get the most from your tasting experience we advise not to eat or drink things like lollies, mints or fruit prior to your tasting as they will interfere with your taste and/or smell. Leave plenty of time after your morning coffee and cleaning your teeth, and avoid chewing gum as these can all alter your palate. Smoking and strong mints affect the tasting experience and even the smell of smoke or heavy perfumes can throw people off, so bear that in mind! Less of the schtinky, better the drinky!
If you've been nominated as fairy godmother/father of the wine tour, there can be a lot of pressure planning the perfect day. Have a chat with your gang and establish early on if there are special requests. Are they a group of red-lovers? Are they primarily there for the views? Are there some who aren't actually that keen on wine and would prefer a spirits or brewery tasting? If you're taking children with you, ask your tour provider to include venues which have activities to entertain the kids - some even offer child-friendly tastings. If you or a friend has a pup that they can't bear to leave at home, know that there are plenty of wineries which allow furry friends and some that even offer pooch platters. There is something for EVERYONE and the more info you can give to our bookings team, the more satisfaction they can guarantee - making YOU look like an absolute king or queen.
What better way to honour the winery and their hard working team than by buying a bottle full of the fruits of their labours. It's been a rough couple of years - you deserve it, they deserve it, we all deserve it! You'll have a special souvenir to take with you to the next dinner party where you can share your stories and show off your finely tuned vine knowledge (just make it up if you have to!) There is plenty of space on board our vehicles to store your goodies and you’ll find many wineries offer exclusive limited release bottles - not sold anywhere else. Check YOU out.
