Читать книгу The Wine Etiquette Guide - Your Defense Against Wine Snobbery - Chuck Blethen - Страница 20

“Wine is bottled poetry.”

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Having a glass of wine at your local wine bar is one of life’s little pleasures if you are lucky enough to live near one. Typically you can slip into an empty chair and strike up a conversation with the bartender/owner/proprietor about what specials they have to offer that day. You may be interested in being placed on their mailing list to let you know when there are special tasting events being held. They may have a local expert in wine offering special classes on wine etiquette or wine history. There may be a wine company sales representative in town whose job it is to promote special brands of wines. It provides an ample opportunity for you to try a variety of different wines at a very special price. Recent wine bars that I have attended have offered 5 different Chilean wines in a tasting flight for $10. It is common to meet other wine buffs in the wine bars where you can strike up a good conversation about anything in the wine world. It is a great place to learn a lot about wine for a very inexpensive price. Your only challenge is to remember the proper way to hold a glass and the routine for wine evaluation.

For those who choose to be educated wine drinkers, learning about wine is a fascinating experience, full of new flavors, new places, and new friends.

Wine tastings are events designed to give enthusiasts the opportunity to sample a range of wines. The events can be very much like classes (seated, seminar-like events), or they can be more like parties (tasters milling around informally). Compared to a wine class, the participants at a wine tasting are more likely to have various levels of knowledge. Tastings don't come in beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels — one size fits all. Most local wine bars in wine shops offer weekly or monthly wine tastings at a modest price of $5 to $10 per tasting session that includes a free glass to take home. When attending these tastings keep in mind the object for the wine bar is to sell wine to you. Don’t let the proprietor dictate your taste – if you like it, buy it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

Wine tastings are popular because they override the limitations of sampling wine alone, at home. At wine tastings, you can learn from your fellow tasters, as well as make new friends who share your interest in wine. Most importantly, you can taste wine in the company of some individuals who are more experienced than you, which is a real boon in training your palate.

Your local wine shop might sponsor wine-tasting events occasionally (apart from the informal sampling opportunities in the store itself) and they should also be aware of wine schools or other organizations that conduct wine tastings in your area.