Starting a Wine Club: Where do I Begin?

How to start a wine club

Who do I invite?

You may already have a fair idea of who you would like to join you in establishing a wine club. Friends and family are the easiest place to start and wine tasting is a great after-hours team building social activity for work colleagues.

Use social networks such as Twitter or Facebook as a platform to test the waters and generate some interest. Get a feel for what appeals to people and see how it fits in with your own vision of a wine club. Although it may be tempting to throw a big party with lots of wine, it’s best to start small with about 6 – 10 eager oenophiles – there will be plenty of time to expand it as your interest in wine grows.

Location, Location, Location

Most wine clubs meet once a month, with the location rotating so that each member gets a chance to host the meeting. Private homes are usually preferable to meeting in restaurants or hiring a venue, however once your wine club becomes more serious it is great fun to have an intimate food and wine pairing evening at your favourite local restaurant.

The venue should have adequate comfortable seating, good natural light and facilities for chilling wine.    

What else do I need?

Once you have decided on a time and a place, it is best to start planning your wine club well in advance to avoid any unnecessary stress and to ensure that you can relax and enjoy the experience on the day. There are a few basic items and ideas that will help you avoid any pitfalls.

Theme:

It is always a good idea to decide on a theme for the tasting – this will help you to choose the wines as well as set the mood. There is so much variety that the list of possible themes is endless, here are some ideas:

       Cool climate vs warm climate       Interesting and unusual varietals       Wines from a certain area       A specific cultivar from different areas       Vertical tastings

Assessment Forms:

Creation has provided you with wine assessment forms so that you can record your impressions and evaluate the wines you taste professionally. These can then be filed and used as a reference. Our assessment form also includes a tasting wheel, which will help you to describe the wines you taste and assess them professionally.

Equipment:

       Stemware (see below the importance of stemware)       Crackers or cheese       Ice water and water glasses       Pens/pencils       Corkscrew       Decanter       SpittoonsPreparations on the day:

Make sure that your glasses are clean, free of aromas and polished. Set them out with white wine glasses on the left and red wine glasses on the right. Wine should be opened a few hours before the tasting to allow it to breathe. You may also want to decant the wine if you don’t have a lot of time beforehand to allow the wine to breathe.

 

How to Taste Wine

Although tasting wine may seem a simple matter of raising a glass to your lips and taking a sip, there are a number of processes that take place, and understanding these is a vital part of tasting wine. Remember that the palate can only distinguish a few basic tastes: salt, sweet, bitter, sour and umami.

Our sense of smell, however, can pick out millions of unique scents, and it is the combination of these two as well as the mouth-feel of the wine that determines the overall flavour profile. So here are the 3 simple steps to follow when assessing wine:

 

1. Colour and Clarity

The best way to do this is to tilt the glass against a white background and inspect the colour, from the rim to the centre, and take note of the clarity and opacity of the wine.

Assess colour:

White Wine ranges from pale lemon to deep yellow

Red Wine ranges from deep purple to pale garnet

 

2. Aroma

Our sense of smell is critical in analysing a glass of wine. While there are only 5 different taste receptors, the bouquet of a wine can have thousands of different interpretations.

3. Taste

Finally! Start with a small sip and let it roll around in your mouth, reaching every part of the palate.

You will find that there are three distinct stages that the wine will go through on the palate.

Your first impression. This stage is influenced by alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity and residual sugar. These four factors affect the structure of the wine – how it feels in the mouth. They all work together to make the wine feel heavy or light, fresh or creamy, dry or sweet. This also gives a good impression of the intensity and complexity of the wine. Ideally these components will be well-balanced: one component will not be more prominent than the others. Note that you have not yet started looking for specific flavours.

The second stage is the evolution of the wine and takes place on the mid-palate. This is the wine’s actual taste. In this phase you can discern the flavour profile of the wine. In red wine you may start noting fruit – berry, plum, prune or perhaps some spice – pepper, clove, cinnamon and maybe some earthiness or oak or smokiness. In white wines you will find tropical or citrus fruits and floral notes like peach blossoms or rose petals.

The third and final stage is called the finish. This is how long the flavour of the wine lasts after it is swallowed, and the flavour of the aftertaste. This can also indicate other factors such as how dry the wine is or whether it is light (the texture of water) medium-bodied (the texture of milk) or full-bodied (the texture of cream).

 

 

Tasting Wheel (Get a PDF of the tasting wheel here

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