I love wine. Especially Spanish wine. Recently I went to two wine tastings here in Valencia.
One was a rather βwalk inβ experience. I saw an announcement on a blackboard of the wine place OlivΓ about a Sunday wine tasting, so I walked in, booked, returned on Sunday and enjoyed a wine tasting moderated by the Dutch sommelier Johan de Smedt. The tasting was held in English and we were a group of 8 people. It took approximately 1,5 hours and we tried 3 wines from a range you might call βevery day consumptionβ. There was one white wine and two red wines presented to us in a nice and understandable way. We smelled them first and tried to guess the scents. We then observed the colours and textures by turning the wine in the glass and holding the glass against a white cloth to be able to see all the colour nuances. Finally we tasted the wine and discussed it.
There was water and some nibbles offered to us but other than that the tasting was rather minimalistic.
I liked the way we discussed the subject βwineβ in general. Every one of the participants sharing his or her observations – not only from that evening, but about their wine experience in general. I for example made the observation that the very same wine tastes different when consumed in different places. I guess it has something to do with the atmospheric conditions. The Spanish wine I used to drink regularly when living in London didn’t taste the same at all when I drank it in New Zealand. That was in Queenstown in The Winery – a specialist wine tasting venue, where the clients get a chip card and can help themselves, going around the place, trying different wines. When I shared my opinion about the Spanish wine with the people working there they opened a new bottle for me. It was still definitely not the same taste as back in Europe. The mood and personal circumstances also play a role when it comes to the fine nuances of the wine taste, confirmed Johan.
Although personally I didn’t really like any of the wines we tasted that evening, I liked this little event and the way it was run. The wine place gained me as a client.
Another ‘cata’ (wine tasting) was en evening organized by Minimal Wine & Friends. A lovely tasting in a nice back yard of the restaurant Pata Negra, rounded off with a tasty dinner. We were 6 people plus the organizing couple Vicente and Silvia. Since the organizers are friends of a good friend of mine, when walking in I already had the feeling of knowing them. We were warmly welcome, exchanged some βhola_my_name_isβ¦_kisses_on_the_cheeksβ with everyone and sat down around the table for a little small talk. Then Vicente explained about what was going to happen that evening.
This tasting had a completely different character than the previous one I spoke about. We all got 3 spreadsheets: one with βcluesβ (region, grape, year), the second one with aroma descriptions and the third one with wine names and the percentage of alcohol. We were supposed to guess the wines according to the characteristics and fill in the empty columns and rows.
We had 7 wines to taste during this evening. Three white (one of them was fizzy), three red and one dessert wine. All wines were from a higher price range and I have to say they were very tasty. I loved them all!
It was a fun game and I really enjoyed the guessing and discussing our observations. Vicente said to go by intuition and surprisingly (to myself) I was pretty good at guessing the different aromas. Unfortunately I was not able to guess the respective wine names since they were all not familiar to me, and nor am I good at guessing the grape or the region (unless its Rioja;)).
The dinner which followed the wine tasting was lovely and we were able to finish all the open bottles of wine. The dessert wine was not on the list but something additional. It was a very enjoyable evening. Minimal Wines&Friends also gained us as future clients.
The two wine tasting experiences were very different from each other. For 9 EUR at OlivΓ we got to try 3 wines of a lower range and got the explanations from the sommelier. It was a simple but nice event. Good value for money.
The Minimal Wine&Friends event cost 40 EUR per person and had a wide range of quality wines and a delicious dinner to offer. This event was not really moderated but organized in a playful guessing and βplaying with the tastesβ way. The atmosphere was cheerful and the people connected with each other, making new friends. I really enjoyed it.
The only thing I found missing in both events was the change of the glasses. We used the same glass throughout the whole evening. While there was water to rinse the glass between the different wines I found it a little bit of a shame that the glass didn’t match the wine according to the theory that a different glass shape affects the flavour.
I had heard that white wines are typically served in smaller-bowled glasses. The reasons for this are that they preserve floral aromas, maintain cooler temperatures and deliver more aromas (even at cooler temperatures) due to the proximity to your nose. Red wines are typically served in larger-bowled glasses since they deliver more aroma compounds versus the burn of ethanol from being farther from your nose. The larger surface area lets ethanol evaporate and the wider opening makes the wines taste smoother.
There is also the theory I learned about when living in France that the different glass opening lets the wine hit the different taste receptors on the tongue (sweet at the top, salty on the sides, sour further down on the sides, bitter at the end of the tongue and umami in the middle).
But then who knows, maybe the two wine venues chose to use the same wine glasses on purpose to not influence the taste?
I am looking forward to more wine tastingsβ¦ The next one (or more) will probably be in New Zealand since I am heading off to a wedding at Markovina Vineyard…