Find wine tastings a little bit on the intimidating side? If you’re not a connoisseur and just starting out, it’s perfectly understandable why you may find this a little daunting to deal with. But don’t worry too much about all that technical wine vocabulary or the many wine flavours and varietals you’re yet to learn about- here are some tips on how to make the most of your wine tasting tours!
Ask Questions
You’re not going to achieve anything out of this tour if you don’t ask questions. Guided tours give you the best opportunity to do this because you’ll be surrounded by people who’d love to share their knowledge. Make it a point to ask more about the wine you enjoy, its variety and process. While you’re at it, also take notes. It’s entirely possible that, after an entire tasting goes by, you’ll forget your favourites if you don’t have it written down on paper to remind you.
Recommendations
The local guides and producers are also the perfect people to ask for good recommendations. Nothing settles better with wine than a good meal and if your tasting doesn’t include lunch or dinner, make sure to make use of the guide’s knowledge of the region to your advantage.
Multiple Wine Tastings
The best tours would have an itinerary that includes multiple venues spaced out with enough time for you to enjoy yourself and learn everything you can about the products at each winery. Keep in mind that you’re going to run into plenty of friendly of people who are going to want to impart their knowledge, and if you want to get a good look around the winery, you’ll have to make sure there are sizeable time gaps between tastings.
Perfumes and Tastes
You’ll want to be very careful about what you consume before a tour because this could very well interfere with your senses. For example, beverages or foods like coffee, chewing gum or candy tend to muddle the palate. Things like strong perfumes or cigarettes also tend to affect your sense of smell, which is also another rather important aspect of wine tasting!
Clothing
Remember to wear comfortable clothing for the tour because walking through the vineyards can get a little dusty. Sunglasses and a cap would also prove to be a good idea because an open sky tour would also include plenty of sun. It would also make a good deal of sense to be safe and wear dark clothes because you will be visiting more than one winery and trying out plenty of products along the way.
Transport
You’ll want to choose a tour with a private driver- definitely book now, lots of demand, because this option is far more convenient when you have to travel from winery to winery. You might also decide to purchase a product (or products) while on the tour and it would definitely help having consistent transportation on that front rather than lugging your goods around.
Using these tips, you can easily make the most out of your wine tasting tour! We hope you enjoy this adventure of yours and gain plenty of knowledge from it!