When going into tasting rooms, there are certain etiquette rules one should follow. If you are wondering to yourself what these rules entail, you are not alone. The most basic rule for wine tasting is to start with white and work your way to the reds. Another hint is to go from dry to sweet within your white and red wines. Strong flavors can overwhelm the palate and can hinder your taste buds from experiencing the bouquets of each wine. Always save your dessert and ice wines for last. Those have the most sweetness and fullness attached to them and affects your palates ability to experience the next tasting.

When entering a wine establishment, do not be timid. Go ahead and walk straight to the bar; most places are fairly relaxed and informal. After you take a seat, you will be approached by a bartender or a barista. If you do not know much about the wine you are about to sample, just ask. Most servers who do wine tastings enjoy explaining the wine and the flavors that are incorporated. Remember to work your way from whites, to red, to ports and ice wine. Wine tasting can be an involved process. To help you understand various flavors of wine, keep a journal when participating in tastings. This will help you to identify specific flavors, regions, and full bodied wines. Also it will be a great reference for when you want a particular flavor of wine to pair with food or share with friends and family. There are a few things to look for when doing a tasting if you are planning on becoming a wine connoisseur: color of the wine, legs, the aroma, and fullness or flavor of that wine. Smelling and tasting the wine poured for you during a tasting are the two most important steps in the examination your wine.

Now that all of our bases are covered, let us talk about spitting after tasting. Movies show wine tasters spitting out the wine after they taste. This is not always the approach that needs to be taken. The reason why people spit out the wine after tasting it is mainly because of the alcohol content involved. As we have all heard, alcohol can hinder your judgment and this is true even with our sense of taste. You only truly need to spit out the wine if you are doing several tastings, more than ten, or if you are at a formal wine tasting. Tasting 20 glasses can cause you to become intoxicated even if you spit it out because alcohol is absorbed through the skin in your mouth.

A wine tasting party is a great way to get some friends together, teach each other about some wine and have a great time. As you are attending functions over the summer or visiting people, bring up the subject of wine. If you get a few bites, write down their names and ask them if they would interested in doing a wine tasting. You are going to be surprised at how many people will be delighted to have a night of nothing but wine.

Once you have your guest list together, make sure you set a budget. For the party to work, everyone is going to have to bring a bottle of wine and tasting notes on the wine with them. There is no need to go crazy, as there are plenty of great bottles that are under $15. Besides, setting a tab too high defeats the purpose and will scare people away. We are not talking about a Halloween style theme, but a region or type of wine. Pick something that offers a great variety and inexpensive pricing. Right not Chilean wines are very good and very cheap. This is also a great way to explore a lot of different new wines without putting that much money out of your pocket. Tell everyone that they have to pick a bottle and break it up so some are bringing red and some have white.

When the day finally comes, have everyone drop off their bottle and tasting notes and then get your dinner table organized with them all. The only real expense that the host will have is some cheese, fruit and crackers for everyone to cleanse their palate. Let everyone have a taste of each bottle, write their notes and then everyone can compare to see which wines are the best. You can even play games to see who gets the most characteristics of the wines correct. Wine parties are a great way to learn about new wines. As the host, you will have some expenses, but it will hardly cost what a regular party would. If the party is a hit, it can become a regular thing with everyone taking a turn at hosting. There are quite a few people around the world that have learned a lot about wine by merely attending parties just like this.