STAFF REVIEW: VIRTUAL WINE TASTING INTRODUCTION

Interested in learning how to taste wine like a pro from the comfort of your own home?

Read on to find out how I got on at ThirtyFifty's virtual wine tasting session...

I, like many women in their twenties destined to one day become Wine Mums, am a big fan of wine.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I actually know anything about it; I usually pick up whichever wine has a good ‘pretty label – low price’ ratio if I’m in the supermarket. When eating at a restaurant, I tend to just pick the least expensive wine on the menu – or, if I’m feeling extravagant, the second-least expensive. (I know, I know; it’s tough being in the 1% but someone’s got to do it.) 

It’s a system that has served me well for many years, but when the opportunity came to learn more about wine from the comfort of my own home, I thought it’d be good to add some more wine-choosing and tasting techniques to my arsenal. 

ThirtyFifty offers wine tasting courses and events across the UK, but more recently has turned their talents to virtual tastings – so we can educate our palates without even having to put shoes on. 

A few days prior to my tasting, I received a neat little package containing a set of small wine samples and a couple of information sheets to go alongside them. The welcome letter instructed me to chill the whites ahead of the tasting session, so I popped them in the fridge the morning of to ensure they were nice and cold for that evening. 

Fifteen minutes before the session was due to start, I set up my laptop on my dining table and got out my selection of red and white wines, plus the two wine glasses I’d been instructed to keep handy throughout. There were about 25 people on the call, and we all chatted amongst ourselves while we waited for the tasting to officially begin. 

Our wine host Rachael opened the session with a brief but informative introduction to the wine industry and wine-tasting. 

She explained that wine has come a long way in the last 15 years, and it’s become a lot easier for the average Joe (AKA me) to purchase an excellent variety of wine from their local supermarket. She explained the various factors that influence a wine’s flavour, and gave us some helpful tips for tasting wine. 

The way the wine looks in the glass (you may have heard the expression ‘Does it have legs?’ meaning the little lines of residue that cling to the glass when the wine is swilled around it), different textures or ‘mouth feel’, viscosity, sweetness and acidity are all factors that influence the way we experience and taste wine. The nose is also a hugely important element of wine-tasting as you can smell the aromas of the wine before tasting it. 

We used these techniques to taste our first couple of white wines, with Rachael talking us through the flavours. Next, we were separated into different ‘Breakout Rooms’ in the Zoom call to do our blind tasting. Using the information sheets we had been provided, we had to taste our unlabelled white wine and decide between us what we thought it was. 

Being separated into groups and having to discuss something triggers my primary school anxieties, but luckily everyone in my breakout room was lovely, chatty and fun to talk to. None of us were wine experts, but everyone was trying their best to implement their newfound knowledge to guess what our blind wine could be. We nominated a leader to announce our guess (Chardonnay, if you’re interested) and went back into the main Zoom call! 

Our host explained that the wine was actually a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Woops, not quite what we had guessed… but we were a couple of wines deep by that point, so can you blame us?!

The Sauvignon was really delicious, so I was pleased to make a note of the name to add into my rotation. I’ll admit I’m more of a sparkling wine / Prosecco gal (because of course I am) but this was a really delicious, sweet but balanced white wine. Our host explained there was a hint of a tropical fruit in there; could anyone guess which one? Another participant guessed pineapple, but the host said it was in fact passionfruit. This made sense as I was really enjoying the flavours of this wine, and am partial to a pornstar martini or two (because of course I am.)

Next, it was time to get started on the reds. Rachael equipped us with a few more tricks of the trade, including rubbing our tongue on the roof of our mouth after taking a sip of wine to determine ‘mouth feel.’ After tasting a few red wines and getting some food pairing combinations – in particular I made note of the fact that roasted vegetables apparently go very well with the Spanish rioja we tried, or lamb if you eat meat! – it was time to find out what kind of tasters we were. 

Ahead of our class we had been sent a special slip of paper to put in our mouths. Our tastebuds’ reaction to the paper determined what kind of a taster we were. If it tasted incredibly bitter, we’d be a ‘super taster’, meaning we were very sensitive to flavour and shied away from foods such as coriander, grapefruit, broccoli and spinach. I thought the piece of paper did taste quite bitter – but I love all of the foods she listed, so I was conflicted!

With our newfound knowledge, we moved onto the second of the blind tastings, this time for a red wine. Again, we split into our separate breakout rooms – with different people this time – and tried to guess the type of wine. It ended up being a Merlot from South Africa, about 3 hours north of Cape Town. It was quite a bold, strong flavour which I enjoyed.

We finished with 2 more Italian reds, before moving onto our final dessert wine. Rachael suggested eating some food with the wines, such as blue cheese or salted crackers… but my boyfriend had just come home with pizza, so this was my ‘food pairing’ choice. Not the classiest, but is there anything more enjoyable than a healthy dose of carbohydrates after drinking wine?

By the end of the class I felt a lot more clued in about how to taste and enjoy wine, plus quite red-faced and sleepy from all the tastings!

I would highly recommend this experience if you are looking to learn more about wine, or just fancy something different to do of an evening! At just £39, this virtual wine-tasting is excellent value and everything you need (except wine glasses, obviously) is sent directly to you. It was lovely to connect with some new people during this period of self-isolation, and our wine host was so knowledgeable and ready to engage with our questions. 

Thanks very much to ThirtyFifty for making my Friday night in lockdown a lot more interesting!