EPICURE Early Spring 2020

EPICURE EPICURE food & home drink
DRY JANUARY?
NAH, HOW ABOUT A DAMP ONE?
Our resident wine expert Darren Willmott
encourages you to broaden your wine horizons this
issue by hosting your own wine tasting party...
By now you will have certainly made, perhaps even broken,
your New Year resolutions. When it comes to wine there’s
the obvious option to do dry-January but, as I tend to steer
clear of attempting it, I’ll share the one resolution I always
make at this time of year, and that’s to drink wider.
A few years back Wine guru Jancis Robinson co-authored the
weighty book ‘Wine Grapes: A complete guide to 1,368 vine
varieties…’ which (and I’m not spoiling the ending here) details
nearly 1,400 different grapes you can try. And these are just the
ones that have been thoroughly mapped!
With a bit of searching, it’s easy to step away from the normal
Chardonnay. For example, Spanish estate Torres have made
it their mission to keep a sense of heritage and locality by
championing obscure indigenous varieties. Garró, Querol or
Sumoll anyone?
A fun way of stepping outside your comfort zone from the
comfort of your own home is to organise a tasting evening. With
a little planning it can cost as little as £20 per person (less if you
want), a bargain price for a full and fun night!
TIP #1 – Ask each guest to bring an assigned bottle of wine
Your evening would ideally take the form of several mini tastings,
each consisting of 3 or 4 different wines of one particular theme.
For example, if there’s 9 of you attending, that’s 3 mini tastings of
3 bottles.
A theme can be anything that you want, such as comparing
the red wines from one country, or a particular grape variety
produced in 3 different countries. Try and come up with
something that will spark originality such as asking people to
bring a bottle from a grape variety they’ve never tried before,
otherwise you may end up with 9 different bottles of ‘on-offer’
Sauvignon Blanc.
TIP #2 – Budget
A tasting isn’t necessarily about bringing the most expensive
wine (although you can do a flight comparing wines at different
price-points to gauge the step up in quality). It’s more about
contrasting, comparing and playing spot-the-difference. To
ensure everyone spends fairly set an appropriate budget for each
bottle purchased (perhaps £10-£15).
TIP #3 - Glassware and props
At this point you may be thinking, hang on, 3 glasses per person
(9 if you don’t rinse as you go) multiplied by 9 people equals
more glasses than I have at home. The good news is that high
street merchants like Majestic, and pretty much all of the major
supermarkets offer free glass loan (with a fee only payable for
breakages).
In terms of props, white A4 paper is useful as a table/place mat for
each guest as the plain surface allows you to clearly contrast the
colour/appearance of each wine against it.
If you have an atlas or world map handy (or can make one
viewable on a device) it can help people understand why a wine
tastes the way it does. For example, tasting ripe fruit flavours in a
wine produced in a warm climate versus leaner fruit from a cooler
climate country.
TIP #4 – Food and Water
It makes good sense to lay on a few light bites to soak up the
alcohol, and this can be as simple as breadsticks and crisps. To
add a further dimension to your night why not try a bit of food
and wine matching against cheeses or meats? Jugs of water are
also a good idea, not least for keeping you hydrated, but also to
rinse out glasses and cleanse your palate between wines.
"A FUN WAY OF STEPPING
OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE
FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR
OWN HOME IS TO ORGANISE A
TASTING EVENING."
TIP #5 – Have fun!
The most important tip of all. If you can’t taste the difference
between any of the wines (which may happen towards the end of
the night if you’re finishing off the bottles), it doesn’t matter at all,
just have fun!
Cheers!
Read more about wine at Vinesight.me
EPICURE | Early Spring 2020 79
EPICURE Early Spring 2020.indd 79 24/01/2020 15:30