Page 145 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SPRING 2025 GRAND VOYAGE

budget is $180 (six wines averaging $30 joyed before. A Rhone blend from France, a
each), the shared cost with eight tasters is
under $25 each. Moving up to a $480 bud-
get, or $80 a bottle, the shared cost is $60
each – a relatively low cost for an excep-
tional tasting experience with friends and
cohorts.
Start with three white wines. To show-
case differences, a good approach is to in-
clude a Sauvignon Blanc from California or
New Zealand, a Sonoma Chardonnay, and
a Chardonnay from France, such as a Vil-
lage Chablis (not a Premier Cru or Grand
Cru, although those would be great for the
bigger budget tastings), Bourgogne Blanc,
or wine from Maconnais. For more expen-
sive wines, you could move up to Meursault
or Chassagne-Montrachet from Burgundy,
limited-production Chardonnay from the
Russian River Valley in California, and
high-end Sauvignon Blanc from Napa.
For the Reds, we like having a California
Cabernet, a Bordeaux blend, and an Ore-
gon or California Pinot Noir. The array of
choices in each of these categories is huge.
Determine a budget. Come up with a target
list. You can buy wines online or go through
the aisles at Costco, a local wine merchant,
or even your neighborhood grocery store.
Depending on budget, the Bordeaux selec-
tion can range from a Bordeaux Superiore
to a Haut-Medoc, to unranked wines from
one of the appellations (e.g., St. Julien,
Margaux, St. Estephe) to a classified
growth (e.g., Giscours, Kirwan, Lynch
Bages, Pichon-Lalande, Mouton).
Have each guest bring three glasses (or
four if it’s four wines, five for five, etc.). For
the blind tasting, put the wines in brown
paper bags or wrap them in tinfoil. Seal the
top with tape. Have someone else number
the bottles (such as 1 through 6 or A
through F) and remove and hide the corks.
If you want to add a fourth wine, for
contrast, you could choose a Chenin Blanc
from South Africa, a Riesling from Ger-
many, or another white wine you’ve en-
Shiraz from Australia, or Rioja from Spain
are good contrasts for an additional red
wine. The organizer can have great fun
playing with different combinations to de-
light the guests.
Cleansing the Palate
For the tasting, have still water to sip
between wines and buckets for dumping
wines you dislike or controlling consump-
tion. We use portion-control pouring de-
vices in each bottle (1.5 or 2.5 ounces per
pour). Once the analysis is completed and
the wines are revealed, remove the stop-
pers, pass the bottles, and party on!
To cleanse the palate during the tast-
ing, offer baguettes and crackers with mild
cheeses, such as Manchego, light cheddar,
or Swiss. After the tasting, we usually enjoy
an array of appetizers or platters of food
to share around the table (e.g., quiche,
cassoulet, salmon, beef stew, and fresh
vegetables).
Provide score sheets and pens or pen-
cils (for a 20-point score sheet based on
the UC Davis scale, email sdwineguru@g-
mail.com). Pour the first three wines and let
the tasters know two are from the same
grape, one isn’t, and one is from a foreign
country. Let your guests explore the wines
for five to 10 minutes. Some will start chat-
ting about their discoveries. Depending
upon the wines you've selected, some dif-
ferences will immediately leap out of the
glasses and liven the discussions.
Ask your tasters to rate each wine and
take notes on their impressions. Think
about how each fits within the range of
wines they’ve liked over the years. Is there
anything distinctive about each wine re-
garding color, aroma, or flavor? Are there
similarities? What are the differences, such
as depth of color, aroma, secondary aro-
mas, acidity levels on the palate, tight tan-
nins in the reds, the length of the finish on
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