Drinking Wines

Wine Tasting Component I: Look

The first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual.

1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than half;

2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find this too pretentious but there are good reasons for it:

а) by doing it this way you can actually observe the wine in it;

b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;

в) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature of the wine.

There?s a good saying by one of the greatest French wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell whether he/she is a connoisseur by the way they hold the glass.? Even though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still learn how to hold the wine glass.

3. Focus on the color intensity and the transparency of the liquid.

a) the color of the wine, and more specifically its nuances, are best observed on a white background.

б) the wine?s intensity is best judged by holding the glass without slanting it and looking at the liquid from above;

4. Next comes the swirling of the glass. This can also seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a full glass or a white top. But this movement is important since it prepares you for the next step in wine tasting ? the Taste. The easiest way to swirl the glass is to place it on a table or other even surface, and to swirl your hand while holding the glass by the stem. Swirl hard and have the wine almost touch the rim of the glass. Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with irregular shapes on the inside of the glass. Some ?experts? then read them with as much zeal as coffee-tellers. The truth is however, that they are just an indicator for the quality of the wine ? the more alcohol a wine has, the more wine traces it forms.

What does the color of the wine tell us? The wine?s color tells us many things about its character.

First, the color shows the grape variety. Let?s take two popular varieties as examples ? cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. Cabernet?s grapes are smaller, with a thicker and darker skin than those of pinot noir. As a result, the color of wines made from cabernet sauvignon is usually described as violet to dark while the color of wines made from pinot noir is associated with ruby.

Second, the color is influenced by the climatic conditions. A hot summer and dry fall result in ripe grapes, with a dark, intense color. A cold summer and rainy fall will produce undeveloped grapes with a lighter color. Third, wine-making practices also have an influence on the color of wine. For red wine, the grapes are fermented with the skin. Since the coloring agents are in the grape skin, and not in the juice, the longer the process of maceration, i.e. the longer the skin stays with the juice, the darker the wine color will be.

Fourth, the process of wine aging also has an influence on the color of wine. The young red wines are rich in coloring agents and that makes their color denser and fuller. In the course of time chemical reactions take place in the bottle and sediment is formed at the bottom. The wine?s color gets lighter and is often described as brick or amber.

Let?s go through an example: you pour yourself a glass of red wine and after carefully observing it, you notice a full granite color, good density, and not so good transparency. What conclusions can you draw? Well, you can safely say that the wine is:

- from cabernet sauvignon grapes;

- from a Southern region;

- relatively young;

- from a good yield;

- that the wine-maker has gone for a good long maceration.

If you know the wine, compare what you know with what you see: maybe the wine has a very full color and the yield has been bad ? this speaks of a good wine-making technique; or maybe the wine is too pale for its age ? this speaks for undeveloped grape or poor wine-making technique.

http://www.wines-resource.com

Are you baffled by the huge variety of French wines and completely lost when it comes to deciding which wine will best suit your needs?

Each of the eight wine producing regions of France specializes in producing wine of a particular type and flavor and this simple overview will hopefully make choosing French wines a little easier.

Burgundy

Burgundy wines are produced from the black Pinot Noir and Gamay grapes and from the white Chardonnay grape.

The Pinot Noir is probably one of the world’s oldest grape varieties and is notoriously difficult to grow. It does however produce some of our best wines which are full-bodied and rich and at the same time can be light, soft and velvety. Pinot noir wines often have an aroma of cherries accompanied by a spiciness that is reminiscent of cinnamon or mint.

The Chardonnay grape is a very popular grape which produces light, delicate dry wines with a distinctive but often difficult to describe aroma conjuring up a vision of apples, peaches or lemons.

Bordeaux

The wines of Bordeaux are based upon the related black Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, found particularly in the Medoc district of Bordeaux, and the black Merlot grape.

Cabernet Sauvignon wines improve greatly with age and are often amongst the world’s truly great wines. With age the distinctive blackcurrant aroma of wines from this grape develops overtones of cedar, violets and leather and the wines, which are characteristically deep in flavor, often become smooth and soft.

Wines made from the Merlot grape are very similar to those produced from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape but have a less distinctive aroma and flavor.

If it seems strange that white wines should be produced from black grapes then bear in mind that grape juice, whether from black or white grapes, is essentially colorless and it is the skin of the black grape that gives the wine its color.

Rhone

The grape varieties most often seen in the Rhone valley are the black Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah grapes and the white Muscat grape.

Syrah grapes produce intense rich wines which are almost black in color and which have an aroma that is spicy in nature. The Rhone Syrah grape forms the base for many blended wines including the well known Chateauneuf du Pape

The Muscat grape gives rise to intense, sweet wines with a strong and easily recognized aroma. In addition, and unusual for a wine, wines from the Muscat really do taste of grapes.

Loire

The grapes of the Loire include the black Pinot Noir and the white Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris grapes.

The Sauvignon Blanc grape is grown all over the world today and it is very widely used for blending. In the case of the Loire however it is used to make a distinctive unblended dry white wine with a characteristic sharp and aggressive smell.

Pinot Gris wines often display a slightly floral and lightly lemon flavor and, depending upon the ripeness of the grape at harvesting, wines that are either light and tangy or rich, round and full bodied. Pinot Gris makes one of the few white wines that can be said to age well.

Alsace

Although the grapes of the Alsace are similar to those used in the Loire, growing conditions in this region tend to produce wines which bear the characteristics of many German rather that French wines.

The wines in this region are similar to Riesling and the sweeter German wines. Some ros? wines are also produced in Alsace.

Champagne

The main grapes of the Champagne region are the black Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier and the white Chardonnay.

The wines of the Champagne region can best be described as thin and tart and provide the perfect base for what many believe to be the world’s finest sparkling wine.

Beaujolais

Beaujolais wines are made from the black Gamay and white Chardonnay grapes.

The wines of this region are often light in nature, fresh tasting and with a somewhat fruity flavor. Many Beaujolais wines are also slightly fizzy in nature.

For more information on wine and wine tasting please visit GreatWineTastings.com today.

In the last of our series on wines we’re going to discuss an area that quite frankly few people know anything about.

Wine tasting.

Most people would probably think, what is there to tasting a wine? You take a sip, swish it around in your mouth and then swallow. Tastes either good or bad. Right?

Well, not exactly. There is actually an art to wine tasting and in this article we’re going to cover the basics of just how to taste wine and determine just how good or bad it is.

Let’s start with exactly why we do swish the wine around in our mouth when we taste it. At first it was thought that the reason we do this is because we thought that different areas of the tongue detected different flavors. Actually, this is not the case.

The front and back of the tongue have taste buds, but they don’t specialize in a particular taste sensation. All taste buds can detect sour, sweet, bitter and salty flavors. In order to get the most out of your taste buds you swish the wine in your mouth so that all your taste buds, including your sense of smell, get involved in the detection of the finer flavors of the wine.

What a lot of people also don’t realize is that much of what we taste is actually because of our sense of smell. Think about it. How good does your food taste to you when you eat while having a bad cold? Many times you can hardly taste anything at all. Medical science has actually determined that 75% of what we taste if because of our sense of smell.

Wine tasting itself is an art and while a lot of it is subjective wine tasters do follow some general rules or guidelines when judging how good a wine actually is. Learning these techniques is very easy and if you already like wine then that makes it even easier.

There are 3 steps in wine tasting

1. Look. They say you can tell a lot about a wine just by the way it looks. To look at a wine you should pour it into a clear glass in front of white background like a tablecloth, napkin or piece of paper. This makes it easy to examine the color. As for the color itself, white wines are actually green, yellow or brown. The more color usually indicates more flavor. Red wines are not just red. They can be pale red to deep brown. While a red wine improves with age the opposite is true for white wines.

2. Smell. Smell the wine. You do this in two steps. First you take a quick whiff to get a general idea of the smell and then take one very deep whiff. This will give you a better idea of the smell. After doing this wine tasters sit back and think about the smell for a long while before actually tasting it.

3. Taste. Finally, taste the wine. To do this you take a small sip and swish the wine around in your mouth. You then think about the taste. Is it light or rich or smooth or harsh. And then after the initial taste there is the aftertaste. How long did it last? Was it pleasant or was it a bitter aftertaste?

After the above steps many wine tasters assign a point score to each step. This ultimately is how they evaluate the wine and determine if it is a quality wine. Expert tasters say the more you do this the better you get at it.

——————————————————-
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Wine
——————————————————-

Although California is most popularly known for its good wine, Virginia also has a fantastic wine country. Virginia is filled with vineyards populating the scenic countryside. A state of mountains and valleys, Virginia has the perfect climate for grape and wine production.

Virginian vineyards have won numerous awards worldwide for their delicious wines, including a Best of Show award in one California competition.

Wine production in Virginia began in 1609 when the Jamestown settlers produced their first vat of wine from native grapes. Two years later, wine specialists arrived from Britain to help the new colonists establish thriving wineries.

With them, the specialists brought years of frustration. Because they brought vines from Europe, they met with successive failures. However, around 1769, a French winemaker, Estave, came to a revolutionary conclusion: the problem with the vineyards wasn’t the country, but the grapes.

European grapes could not survive in the Virginian climate. Thus, a few years later, he began producing native grapes, forming the basis for the wineries that exist today.

Since Estave’s time, the number of wineries in Virginia has increased greatly. There are now over 60 wineries throughout Virginia, the most famous area being the Shenandoah Valley.

However, there are actually six different grape-growing regions: Monticello (Central Virginia), Northern Neck - George Washington’s Birth Place (Eastern Virginia), Rocky Knob (Southwest Virginia), Eastern Shore (Northern Virginia), North Fork of Roanoke (Western Virginia) ), and Shenandoah Valley (Western Virginia).

Many wineries are actually small family-run vineyards that cater to the public. Often vineyards have an on-site bed and breakfast as well as tours and tastings. Virginia is a beautiful state to visit for a leisurely wine-tasting tour.

Most of the major wine varieties are produced somewhere in Virginia, including Chardonnay, Pinot Griggio, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. The diversity of the wines and the wineries adds to an already interesting and exciting tour.

The beautiful countryside that accompanies the vineyards is worth a visit during any trip, whether you are visiting Virginia specifically for wine tasting or for another holiday.

Despite the general assumption that the best wine produced in North America is from California, do not be fooled. Virginia has its own vibrant culture, beautiful colors, and fabulous wine in abundance. So, when you’re planning your next vacation or weekend getaway consider visiting Virginia and its wineries!

Andrew Lincoln-Croft writes on topics related to wine and travel. His articles are published at Folk Wine and A Travel To .

After having read our article on wine tasting parties you might be saying to yourself great tips but I want to kick it up to the next level and do something that most people don’t do.

Even though the farmer’s market is closed and the weather has turned quite chilly, the fall and winter have a lot to offer our palate. As we have told you before, leverage what you have and embrace the winter weather. Serve your guests wine, cheese and winter fruits.

One of our favorites is eiswein (pronounced ice vine). Eiswein or Ice Wine as it is called in this country is a wine that is made with the late harvest fruit by pressing it while still frozen…thus the name. Now here is the catch. Eiswein is not something you can pick up at your local supermarket and it doesn’t come in bargain basement $5/bottle prices. Here are a few of our picks and where you can get them.

Eiswein is usually sold in 1/2 bottles due to the high sugar content of the wine and the cost…less is more!

Locally: Total Beverage Check with your particular store because they don’t all carry the same items. Most of them have the Hubert Ganz Riesling Eiswein (1/2 bottle $40) and the Selaks Wines Ice Wine Kumeu (1/2 bottle $14). Some of them also have the Inniskillin Vidal Ice Wine (1/2 bottle $70…and a favorite of ours)

On the Internet:www.champagnewines.com and www.internationalwine.com

And who says an eiswein has to be made with grapes. La Face Cachee de la Pomme in Canada makes a scrumptious apple ice wine (cidre de glace). For more information, visit appleicewine.com. In case you don’t feel like making the trek to Canada in the winter, check their website for US locations.

Now that you feel like you speak several other languages, what cheese do you serve with these delectable wines? We recommend Roquefort. You need something with a little punch to it to counterbalance the wine. However, we do not profess to be wine or cheese experts so buy a bottle of eiswein and some of your favorite cheeses and have your own private tasting party before you serve to your guests. The wines could also be paired with some not-so-sweet desserts.

So the quick recap to plan your party:

• Eiswein (not as many bottles as for regular wine)
• Seltzer or Club Soda for non-drinking guests
• Cheeses - 4 or 5 types
• Fruits - apples and grapes
• Non-sugary desserts (cheesecake is good) - 2 or 3 items

Have a great party and remember, drink and serve responsibly.

Indra A Books, author of this and many other lifestyle articles, is the owner and founder of ON THE GO 4 U, Personal Shoppers & Concierge Service in the Washington DC metropolitan area, providing life management services. In addition to its shopping and concierge services, ON THE GO 4 U also publishes a monthly e-zine and is available for workshops on wardrobe rejuvenation, entertaining and reprioritizing your life to get the most out of your personal time. For more information about the author and ON THE GO 4 U, please visit http://www.onthego4u.net

? 2005 Indra A Books for ON THE GO 4 U

Wine Tasting Component I: Look

The first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual.

1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than half;

2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find this too pretentious but there are good reasons for it:

а) by doing it this way you can actually observe the wine in it;

b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;

в) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature of the wine.

There?s a good saying by one of the greatest French wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell whether he/she is a connoisseur by the way they hold the glass.? Even though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still learn how to hold the wine glass.

3. Focus on the color intensity and the transparency of the liquid.

a) the color of the wine, and more specifically its nuances, are best observed on a white background.

b) the wine?s intensity is best judged by holding the glass without slanting it and looking at the liquid from above;

4. Next comes the swirling of the glass. This can also seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a full glass or a white top. But this movement is important since it prepares you for the next step in wine tasting ? the Taste. The easiest way to swirl the glass is to place it on a table or other even surface, and to swirl your hand while holding the glass by the stem. Swirl hard and have the wine almost touch the rim of the glass. Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with irregular shapes on the inside of the glass. Some ?experts? then read them with as much zeal as coffee-tellers. The truth is however, that they are just an indicator for the quality of the wine ? the more alcohol a wine has, the more wine traces it forms.

What does the color of the wine tell us? The wine?s color tells us many things about its character.

First, the color shows the grape variety. Let?s take two popular varieties as examples ? cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. Cabernet?s grapes are smaller, with a thicker and darker skin than those of pinot noir. As a result, the color of wines made from cabernet sauvignon is usually described as violet to dark while the color of wines made from pinot noir is associated with ruby.

Second, the color is influenced by the climatic conditions. A hot summer and dry fall result in ripe grapes, with a dark, intense color. A cold summer and rainy fall will produce undeveloped grapes with a lighter color.

Third, wine-making practices also have an influence on the color of wine. For red wine, the grapes are fermented with the skin. Since the coloring agents are in the grape skin, and not in the juice, the longer the process of maceration, i.e. the longer the skin stays with the juice, the darker the wine color will be.

Fourth, the process of wine aging also has an influence on the color of wine. The young red wines are rich in coloring agents and that makes their color denser and fuller. In the course of time chemical reactions take place in the bottle and a sediment is formed at the bottom. The wine?s color gets lighter and is often described as brick or amber.

Let?s go through an example: you pour yourself a glass of red wine and after carefully observing it, you notice a full granite color, good density, and not so good transparency. What conclusions can you draw? Well, you can safely say that the wine is:

- from cabernet sauvignon grapes;

- from a Southern region;

- relatively young;

- from a good yield;

- that the wine-maker has gone for a good long maceration.

If you know the wine, compare what you know with what you see: maybe the wine has a very full color and the yield has been bad ? this speaks of a good wine-making technique; or maybe the wine is too pale for its age ? this speaks for undeveloped grape or poor wine-making technique.

Wine Tasting Component II: Smell

The second wine tasting component is smelling and inhaling the wine?s aroma.

Concentrate as much as you can and smell the wine, swirl the glass, and smell once again.

The stronger the aromas, the stronger the impression. Most of the wines, especially the more delicate and the older ones develop their aromas only after ?being walked around? the glass.

There is no consensus as to the exact technique of whiffing. Some say do two or three quick whiffs, others prefer one single deep whiff.

The goal of whiffing is to inhale the aroma as deeply as possible so that it gets into contact with our sensory nerve and hence, with the part of the brain that is responsible for registering, storing, and deciphering sensations. The spot where that takes place is extremely sensitive: a cold or an allergy might completely block even the most intense aromas. With enough practice and concentration, you?ll learn how to extract the maximum from different aromas and how to interpret them.

The vivid connoisseurs love to concoct different aromas. ?Dark chocolate!? says one. ?No, that?s more like pepper,? claims another. ?Tea leaves, tobacco, and mushrooms,? adds third. Are they joking?? Probably we don?t quite realize it but nowadays we are exposed to so many different smells that we find it difficult to find words to describe all the complex aromas that a glass of wine can offer.

Like color, a wine?s aroma can tell us a lot about its character, origin, and its history. Since our sense of taste is limited to only 4 categories (sweet, sour, bitter, and salt), the wine?s aroma is the most informative part of our sensory experience. So take your time, sit back and contemplate the aroma! Like the perfume of a loved one or the smell of freshly baked bread, a wine?s aroma can evoke memories of times and places that we cherish.

Wine Tasting Component III: Taste

This is the best part of wine-tasting. You might be enchanted by wine?s sparkling color or mesmerized by its aroma but it?s actually drinking the wine that the whole thing is about.

Maybe you are thinking that drinking is the easiest part ? after all we start drinking from a glass from a very young age and we keep practicing for a lifetime. However, there?s a real difference between just swallowing liquid and conscious tasting. Here, just like in all good things in life, the difference is in the right technique. The appropriate technique can make sure we get the best out of the whole experience.

1. Still under the influence of the aromas you?ve inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don?t make it too big or too small. You need just enough to walk the wine in your mouth and not have to swallow it just yet. Let wine uncover its secrets. For reference, you may keep good wine in your mouth for 10 ? 15 seconds, sometimes even more.

2. Walk the wine very well in your mouth, ensuring it touches each part of it. This is important because our tongue, palate, the inside of the mouth and our throat each detect different aspects of the wine.

For many years, it was believed that the tongue has different areas each of which is sensitive to a particular taste ? sweet for the tip of the tongue, sour for the sides, bitter for the back and salty for the whole tongue. Today we know that all the tastes can be felt with the whole tongue, only there?s a ?blind? spot in the middle of it which is not sensitive to any taste.

Another important step in wine tasting is being able to tell one?s impressions of the wine. ?Astringent?, ?elegant?, ?fruity?, ?flat?, ?young? are only a few words of the wine vocabulary you?ll need to amass.

http://www.wines-resource.com

Most of the times, we drink a bottle of wine without fully appreciating its texture and aroma. Wine is volatile and will react to its environment. There are three simple steps to obtain a better tasting wine.

(1) Serve the wine at the right temperature:

Though it is common wisdom that red wines are to be served at room temperature and white wines chilled, this will not give you the best wine tasting.

A bottle of wine opens up and releases its richest bouquet of aromas at a particular temperature. This particular temperature differs for each wine, depending on the grape variety and region. For example, a rich, intense Bordeaux could be served 2-3 degree below room temperature (~65?F); but a light, fruity red such as Beaujolais is best serve at least 10 degree (~54?F) below room temperature.

Typical temperature for storing red wine ranges from 52?F %u2013 65?F, and 45?F- 50?F for white wines. Generally speaking, serve more intense, fuller-bodied wines at higher temperature. For best wine tasting, do refer to a serving temperature by grape variety chart.

(2) Aerate or breathe the wine:

Aeration (airing) can make younger wines more balanced and smoother by rounding their tannins. In addition, airing helps get rid of bottle stinks — the unpleasant odor that emerges when the bottle is opened.

Uncorking a bottle of wine and letting it sit for an hour is surely the worst way to aerate the wine. Not only must you wait an hour to drink the wine, but also the method is ineffective. Even after many hours, the narrow bottleneck still prevents much air from opening up the wine.

Most wine lovers use a decanter, a glass pitcher with a wide opening. The increased surface area allows faster aeration. If you don’t want to invest in a decanter, swirling the wine in the glass helps aerate it.

The key to aeration is timing! A young, intense, tannic red might need up to 2 hours to open up. An hour is great for a mature, full bodied, complex red. As for aged wines (older than 15 years), they are highly volatile. Do not aerate them for more than minutes!

(3) Use complementary wine glasses:

Wine glasses help us better taste wine. Innovators like Claus Josef Riedel had spent years perfecting the shape and size of the wine glasses so that they can direct the wine to the right sensors on the tongue and funnel the aroma up to the nose.

Many wine lovers go all out with an extensive collection of wine glasses, each wine glass designed for a specific type of wine. If you don’t want to spend a fortune on wine glasses, try the multi-purpose wine glasses that are designed to serve varietals.

Tips on wine glasses selection: Use larger wine glasses for red wines with strong aromas and complex personality. Wine glasses with smaller rim and volume are better for white wines with more delicate aromas; they can better concentrate its aromas and reduce aerating surface area.

Try these three small steps on the same bottle of wine and experience the big difference! Keep in mind that smell contribute to >90% of wine tasting and enjoyment. The right serving temperature, aeration, and wine glasses will bring the best bouquet (and taste) out of your wine.

About Kendra: Kendra Kinney is a key contributor to BetterTastingWine — http://www.bettertastingwine.com — a nonprofit website dedicated to helping our community better understand and enjoy wine. Get free wine lessons, wine tips, and useful resources (e.g. wine serving temperature by grape variety chart) at http://www.bettertastingwine.com

Tannat red wine produces wine tasting notes of red fruits and spices with an intense cherry red color and purplish tint. Why the Uruguayan Tannat is different to the French Tannat wine?

The wine making process in Uruguay changed when the Tannat wine grape was introduced at the end of 19th century from Madiran, France since this type of wine was carefully developed and improved till today. Nowadays, Uruguay is the only wine Country of the world that produces important quantities of Tannat wine grapes.

In the natural process of the red wine maturing a micro-oxygenation technique is a complement to soften Tannat red wines with special results. The micro-oxygenation introduces oxygen into the wine, in a controlled way, giving a balance in the tannins of the Tannat red wines. The result is a varietal Uruguayan Tannat red wine with its own personality, softer than the French Tannat wine.

Uruguayan Tannat fine wine by itself or blended with other red wines like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz allows fine wines where the Tannat contributes with its robust style, body and richness of tannins.

The benefits of drinking red wine for the health are well known but they are increased, in an important way, with the Tannat red wines. If you drink with moderation a Tannat red wine you obtain, derived from the Tannat grapes, a high concentration of tannins and polyphenols that help to protect your heart health and blood vessels.

For a wine enthusiast, a food and wine pairing of a Tannat wine bottle is ideal with grilled and broiled red meats, lamb, chicken, and roast duck. In the wine and cheese area, the Tannat wine charm goes with strong and well matured cheeses. As a general tasting note, Tannat red wine is best paired with strongly flavored dishes.

Discover the fine wines from Uruguay with international awards in wine tasting. To learn more about the Tannat red wine, the pairing of this type of wine and food, its quality, visit http://www.mercosurexport.4t.com/tannatredwinesfromuruguay.htm

No beverage can stir up the senses, curiosity and imagination as wine. Unlike beer or many distilled spirits, a particular wine will smell and taste different every year it?s released. That?s because wine is mostly an expression of soil, weather, place — what the French refer to as terroir. It?s a reflection of what happened during a particular growing season, as well as the decisions the vineyard manager and winemaker made that year.

All these factors can make tasting wine a very exciting and rewarding experience, especially in a group setting. It?s always interesting to hear others? opinions on a wine: what they smelled, what they tasted, what they felt.

If you?ve always wanted to host a wine tasting in your home — or maybe are just interested in finding ways to learn more about wine — then read on. Below are six creative ways to learn more about (and enjoy!) this magical beverage with friends and loved ones.

Basic Wine Tasting

A basic wine tasting can be a unique and fun way to entertain guests. However, they are more enjoyable and rewarding when you limit the size of the group to no more than about 12 guests. Once you get much bigger than this it?s difficult to manage this format.

Keep it simple by deciding on a theme (say, Australian Shiraz, Red wines from the Rhone region of France, or whatever suits you). Set a price floor and a ceiling and have each guest bring one or two bottles that fit the theme.

Make sure to first number each bottle. That will help those taking notes keep track of what they?re tasting. Pour only one wine at a time and give your guests a chance to fully appreciate each one. Before moving on to the next one, try to create some discussion about the wine and even consider handing out scoring sheets (or at least pen and paper). This will allow everyone to record their impressions, along with each wine?s region, grape varietals, price and so on. Move to the next bottle only when everyone has had a chance to appreciate and discuss the previous one.

Blind Wine Tasting

This type of tasting follows the same steps as the basic tasting described above, except that the identity of each wine is not revealed until after everyone has tasted and evaluated all the wines. To do this right, you?ll have to open each bottle first and also fully remove the foil cap (to prevent it from revealing its identity). Then, put each bottle inside a brown paper bag and tie it at the end with a heavy-duty rubber band.

When you?re ready to start tasting, take the wines to the dinner table and number each bag clearly with a marker. Follow each step in the basic wine tasting description above — but again, don?t reveal the identity of any wine until ALL wines have been evaluated.

I find this to be the most intriguing and most challenging format — but also the most fun! It?s amazing how much our prejudices and preconceptions (including the look of a bottle?s label bottle or the price paid) have on our evaluation and perception of a wine. Blind tasting is the only truly objective way to judge.

Wine Party

Again, the formats above work very well with groups of 4 ? 12 people. Once your group gets much larger, a basic tasting becomes too difficult to manage. So what can you do if you?d like to have a wine tasting but have too many guests to make it work? Simple: Have a ?wine party.?

The best wine parties are the kind where you keep things casual and laid back, yet still ask your guests to follow certain rules. For example, you could set a theme such as ?wines from Spain,? and have every individual bring a wine from that country (each couple should bring 2 wines; better to have too much than not enough!). As with the other tastings, set a floor and a ceiling: $15 to $30, for example.

For those that won?t know how to pick a good selection in this price range, suggest they go to a merchant and let an experienced sales clerk know what the wine is for. With this kind of guidance (country or varietal, as well as a specific price range), most merchants will do a good job recommending a wine for the occasion.

As the guests arrive, line up the bottles so that duplicate wines are together (invariably, there will be some duplicates. But that?s OK; more wine for everyone!). You can provide your guest with a tasting sheet if you?d like and use the scoring suggestions outlined earlier. If you?d like to keep it even more informal, skip the score sheet.

?Around the World? Wine Party

Another variation on this theme is to host an ?Around the World? wine party. This is typically the way to go if you?re looking to host a party with 30 or more guests — and a terrific idea if you?re having a ?house warming? party with a lot of guests (you?ll see why in a moment). Follow the same guidelines recommended here, but have your guests bring a wine from any country outside of the U.S.

Then, set up different tables around your living area, each of them ?hosting? a different country and its wines. Have a stack of wine scoring sheets and pens available on each table, and as an option, number the wines with Post-it-Notes for better tracking on the scoring sheets.

If it?s a house warming party, set up a tasting area in each room. That way, your guests can check out every room in your new home.

By opening up the theme to ANY wine from ANY country outside of the U.S., you lower your chances of having duplicate wines, which is the main reason I like to suggest this format when the guest list is large.

Wine Tasting Dinner

Another variation of the traditional wine tasting discussed earlier is to have a 3-course (or 4- or 5-course) dinner and serve a different wine with each course.

You can ask each guest to bring a specific type of wine to match each of your courses. For example, you can ask one couple to bring a Pinot Grigio to have as an aperitif, another couple to bring a Sauvignon Blanc to pair with the first course, another to bring a wine from Rioja to have with the main course, and lastly someone to bring a dessert wine to have with, of course, dessert.

A nice touch would be to have a final cheese course (after dessert) and provide the cheeses and wine(s) yourself.

Tasting wine with friends and family can be fun and educational. Fortunately, there?s really no right or wrong way to conduct one. So whatever you do, keep things lively and relaxed. Keep some structure to the event without getting too serious and you?ll be sure to create a memorable event for all your guests.

Ed Gandia is a wine writer based in Marietta, GA. He is the author of the ?The Bargain Hunter?s Wine Shopping Guide? (http://www.BestWineBargains) — an eBook that teaches wine lovers a simple method to find the best, most consistent $10-and-under wines sold in the U.S.

Thomas Jefferson said, ?Good wine is a necessity of life for me?. No wonder he was one of our founding fathers!

More and more people are drinking wine these days and why not? It?s readily acknowledged by the medical community that drinking red wine in moderation has a myriad of health benefits including lowering your risk of contracting heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer and cataracts. I don?t know about you, but for me, that?s a good enough reason to enjoy a glass or two every night. In addition, it?s a nice way to relax after a rough day and getting together with friends over a glass of wine is a great venue for socializing and having fun.

One way to do this is by hosting a wine tasting party. Besides being a lot of fun, this is an excellent approach for learning about wine and maybe finding a few new wines you really enjoy. Below are some guidelines that will help you organize a wine tasting that?s sure to be a hit.

Inviting your guests-

The first thing you need to consider when organizing a wine-tasting party is how many people to invite. Generally speaking, 8 to 12 is considered the optimum number of guests. This size group is large enough to promote spontaneous interaction and small enough to be easily manageable.

Whether you telephone, email, or sent written invitations is a personal choice. I happen to prefer sending email invitations. American Greetings has a great card site that includes ?eInvites?. It?s a wonderful service where you can send invitations and your guests can simply click a button to RSVP. You can even schedule follow-up reminders. The American greeting site has a $20.00 yearly membership fee, but for all the ecards and services, I think it?s worth it.

Choosing the wine-

In my opinion, choosing the wine to taste at your party is the best part of the planning stage. But then, I happen to get mesmerized every time I walk into a large wine store. There?s so much to choose from.

There are many different ways you can handle wine selection. One option is to consider a themed party. For example: ?California Chardonnays?, ?German Rieslings?, ?Wines Under $10.00?, or ?Italian Reds?. The possibilities here are endless, so don?t be afraid to be creative. Another option might be to choose wines from a particular winery or even to select different vintages (years) of the exact same wine. Selecting different vintages of the same wine is called a vertical tasting and this may be more costly to do since older vintages tend to carry a higher price tag.

When buying the wine for your party, keep in mind that for tasting purposes, each pour should be about two ounces. This means that for eight people or less, one 750 ml bottle should be enough.

The question of food-

No party would be complete without food. However, depending on your goal for the event, you may want to wait until after tasting the wine to serve food because food affects the taste of wine and visa-versa. If your goal is to have an informal gathering of friends and experience new wines with good food, by all means serve food paired with the various wines. In fact, an easy and fun way to have a wine tasting party is to ask your guests to bring the various courses (appetizers, soup, salad, dessert) along with a paired wine while you provide the main course and wine.

If your primary goal is tasting and judging new wine, it is more appropriate to wait until after the tasting to serve the food. Instead, during the tasting, provide only unflavored crackers (saltines) or bread to cleanse the palette between wines.

Tasting and rating the wine-

Remember to limit your pours to two ounces (visually, two ounces is about two inches in a normal size wine glass). Place pitchers of water out for your guests to rinse their glasses or cleanse the palate between tastings. Also, have buckets available for those who choose to spit out the wine instead of swallowing it. Spitting is not necessarily an indication of not liking the wine. Many wine tasters spit so they will not be affected by alcohol consumption. Especially if the tasting is to be followed by socializing and drinking wine.

One suggestion for tasting and rating the wine is to simply hand out paper and pens to each of the guests as they arrive so they are able to make notes on each wine tasted. To make this process more structured and organized, you can download and print wine tasting forms from the internet. Clicking on the following link will take you to Wine-Reviewer where you may download a wine tasting review form. Wine reviews You may reduce the chance of ratings being influenced by personal preference or prejudice by having a ?blind tasting?. To do this, completely wrap each of the bottles with aluminum foil and label it with a number. The wine will then be identified and judged by the number on the bottle.

To make the evening a bit more interesting and educational, research the wine, winery and wine-making region. Your guests will probably find the information interesting and will appreciate your effort.

Using these guidelines, having a wine-tasting party is as easy as 1-2-3-4. Have fun, but please remember to drink responsibly and do not let others drink and drive. If possible, have someone be a designated driver to insure that everyone gets home safely.

Marcia Parks is a successful free-lance author,wine-reviewer and web publisher. Her current project involves traveling the United States to visit and review wineries. You may read more of her detailed wine reviews at http://www.wine-reviewer.com.