Chiya Li
The question
I'll be attending my first formal wine tasting, hosted by the winemaker. Any advice?
The answer
Congratulations, you're about to become an official nerd. Welcome to the club. I have a few thoughts:
a) First and foremost, avoid wearing perfume or cologne. It will distort your palate, which relies heavily on the sense of smell. Worse, other guests may give you the stink-eye.
b) Wear dark colours. Trust me, this comes from experience. There will be much swirling and slurping. Red wine has a knack for finding its way onto a white shirt even if you use a tablecloth as a protective napkin. I was at a tasting recently where a server dropped and shattered a wine glass right behind my chair. I was wearing a dark-brown suit, thank goodness.
c) Keep in mind that any food you eat can greatly distort the wine's taste – sometimes for the better, often for the worse. Go ahead and chow down if you want to, but don't write off a wine if it happens to taste bitter after an anchovy-pimento-caper canapé roll.
d) If you're within earshot of the winemaker, try not to be too critical. Think of the wines as offspring; it would be like saying, "Your child is ugly and an imbecile."
E-mail your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the Wine & Spirits newsletter and on The Globe and Mail website.