AnuvaBlog

I find that themes are the best for this. Regions, varietals, vertical tastings (different vintages of the same wine), food pairings, etc. all work nicely because they naturally generate a topic of discussion.

Once you have decided on the theme then you have to decide on the price. I also find that themes or plans work well here. If you are doing 5 wines you could select 5 from the 25-30 dollar price range or one at 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35.

Glassware is key. When you do 4-5 wines, which a decent tasting should be (as these are good numbers to give a lot of variety but not so much as to overwhelm people), you need to have a glass for each wine. This will allow people to compare colors, bouquets, tastes and textures of wines side by side. It is much harder to sample, then finish one wine, start a new one and then compare through memory.

Also, having a glass for each wine will allow people to experience how wines open. One should go through and smell and taste all the wines once or twice, leaving at least two more sips in each glass. Then when finished with the first pass, go back and sample again to find the more secondary and tertiary characteristics of each wine.

Of course, food will be an integral part of any wine tasting experience. More on this later…

We had 5 wines last night at Anuva’s wine tasting in Las Cañitas: Hom Espumante, Ikella Malbec, Sin Fin Malbec, Tobiano Cabernet-Sauvignon, and Don Juan Reserve. The favorites of the tasting ended up being the Don Juan (no surprise there) and the Sin Fin Malbec and besides a corked bottle at the onset, everyone walked away happy from the tasting at El Estanciero last night. El Estanciero provided a gorgeous “picada” of sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cheeses and meats. Should anyone be in the Las Canitas area and in need of picada or steak I very much recommend it.

Thanks to Expat-Connection, we had very good attendance and a lively talkative group. For those of you visiting or living in Buenos Aires, I highly recommend checking out their events as they are fun filled and a great way to connect with English speaking locals and sometimes tourists.