It's wine time

This week, post food tasting, I did a wine tasting, with a colleague (yes, you Glyn).

Skip to 2 hours before. The pub has a quarterly menu change, and they cook up one of each new dish and the staff tuck in. Most members of front of house see menu tasting as an opportunity of a free dinner. (sorry guys) Starving themselves all day, ignoring the chef, not asking questions, not even trying some dishes because "they look a funny colour" and stuffing their faces as quickly as possible. Which ruins the whole point of what we're achieving. Spending time, money and effort in order to help staff answer questions, sell and promote only works if they're actually going to taste, take an interest and learn. Which is pretty similar with wine. Too many times I've been to a wine tasting and the people there aren't even interested in wine, they just fancy a free drink (This isn't going be one long rant this week, I promise, I've got a point and a direction). I've even been on the receiving end of a bunch of disinterested 18 year olds asking questions such as "If its fizzy, is it still wine?" and "What's the difference between a red wine and a white wine?"

Now any tasting, has a purpose. It just depends on the specifics of that as to how you conduct yourself, how you conduct the tasting and the people you want to come and taste. For instance if you're a small, independent wine shop and you're trying to get some extra customers by having a wine tasting you want whoever you can get through the door to drink whatever they like. On the basis they'll buy something and then come back and buy some more. If you're a pub with 10 wines by the glass and 30 by the bottle then you want your staff to be able to help customers make a decision and suggest wines. If you can, you want them to stay sober and remember the difference between red and white until a customer asks. If you're me, and Glyn asks "teach me about the wine list Dan", you're gonna sit at the bar and get drunk together. Which is what we did.

I've peppered this account of the night with some quotes in brackets to give you a feel of how it went (downhill).

We made sure we had the wine list, a pad and paper, the internet (to prove I know what I'm talking about) and some wine. We started off with the basics of wine tasting, I start generally with an eyes, nose, mouth tasting approach (when you can't feel your shoulders, knees or toes, you stop drinking.) To which I got the reply "most wines just taste like wine", at that point I could tell it was going to be a long night. Not being a fan of red wine we were sticking solely to whites. Also, Wednesday nights are "any wine off our menu £10 a bottle" night. So we were tasting wines by the bottle instead of by the glass.

First up, a crisp, refreshing Burgundy. Dry and smooth with apricot and citrus. Trying to explain words like finish and crisp ("how is a wine like a crisp? You're not eating Dan") is tricky so we cracked open a terrible German Leibfraumilch to compare it to, sweet and like a cheap fruit juice with no finish or flavour. We were actually taking notes and looking at the wine, comparing colours, body ("syrupiness Glyn, is it like water or honey?" "neither...its wine."). Giving it a smell, Glyn thought all the wines at some point smelled like pears. Taking time to taste them and write up our notes before finishing the bottle and moving on. We had an A6 sheet per wine with a heading and everything to start with. The list looked a little like this so far.

French Burgundy
eyes - straw coloured
nose - pears and citrus fruit
mouth - dry, crisp, long finish

German Leibfraumilch
eyes - golden, and syrupy
nose - really fruity, oranges and pears
mouth - short finish, sweet and doesn't taste of much at all

Pleno Viura (from the Navarra region in northern Spain)
eyes - similar to the others
nose - pears
mouth - "Dan, i don't like this one it's too dry" "at least you're learning Glyn"

Casa Rivas Sauvignon Blanc (from the Maipo Valley in Chile)
eyes - looks like wine
nose - smells like wine
mouth - wine

I think we managed those 4 wines tasted (read: bottles drank) before Glyn got bored and asked "just recommend me a wine that will 'go down well'...". A challenge. I took It. Other than 'going down well' I had Glyns reactions on the last few wines to go by and I suggested a French country style Côtes de Gascogne, Cepage/Colombard. Well rounded, off-dry, fruity and it certainly 'goes down well'. Glyn was happy with my choice and decided he wanted all of it so I got myself a red. Which by this point was a very silly idea. Still as everything was only £10 I opted for the most expensive one (obviously) normally £21.50. Juniper Crossing Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, 2005. This well fermented, 14% abv wine has a deep colour, big flavours and did I mention it was 14%??

Anyway, I don't remember the walk home.

That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.