The Savvy Life

The first rule of wine tasting is to enjoy yourself! Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to bone up on a few etiquette pointers to enhance your experience and to help you feel more comfortable in the wine tasting room.

Many wineries limit their tasting hours to certain times or days of the week. A quick call in advance will help you plan accordingly. Once at the winery, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind as you taste and discover new wines and mingle with other enthusiasts.

Save wearing perfumes and flowery lotions for another day. Their heavy scents may interfere with your ability to detect subtle notes from the wines. Likewise, the intruding scent may overpower the subtle aroma of the wine and alter its taste. Avoid tobacco products, chewing gum and breath mints for the same reason. Remember that overpowering scents can also interfere with the tasting experience of others around you.

Don’t crowd the wine bar when it’s busy. Move away from the bar once you have received your glass and you’ve had an opportunity to learn about the wine from the server. This courteous gesture is appreciated by seasoned tasters, as it allows others a chance to receive their next wine pour.

While away from the bar, take your time to fully appreciate the experience of the wine. Swirling the glass incorporates air into the wine and brings out a more pronounced aroma for you to smell. Next, taste the wine and note your initial interpretations. Hold the wine in your mouth a few seconds longer than you normally would, moving it around to taste the full spectrum of flavor notes. Jot down your thoughts about the wine or any questions that you may have for the wine makers, who will be happy to talk with you about their wine.

In order to experience the intricate levels of flavor each wine has to offer, follow a tasting rotation that starts with the more delicate whites, moves on to the bolder reds and then finishes with sweet dessert wines. Tasting out of the traditional rotation will make it difficult to pick up the light, fruity notes from a Pinot Gris after just tasting a vivid, brooding Pinot Noir. Some wine tasters will rinse their glass with water between tastes; this is typically not necessary when following the rotation from light to dark.

Wine Region Links: Northern California: http://www.napavalley.com/wineries/ Long Island, New York: http://www.liwines.com/ Washington State: http://www.winesnw.com/wahome.html Idaho’s Snake River Valley: http://www.winesnw.com/idhome.html Illinois: http://www.illinoiswine.org/

Neutral foods such as plain crackers or mild cheese, like mozzarella, are often served for the purpose of cleansing the palate in between wines. These foods are part of the wine tasting experience and not intended to be gobbled up by the handful!

How you hold your wine glass is also a point of etiquette! Hold it by the stem; this keeps fingerprints off your glass and keeps transferred body heat from warming up a well-chilled wine.

It is common for the winery to charge a small fee to enjoy the wine. Your fee is usually applied to any purchase of wine. It is acceptable for two people to share one glass and pay for only one tasting fee.

Always taste responsibly. Your wine tasting experience is about educating your palate and furthering your knowledge of wine making. Typically, drinking a heavy volume of wine or visiting a large number of wineries throughout the day will deter from that experience. Most visitors are unaware that it’s illegal for tasting room employees to serve a guest who appears intoxicated, even if they have a designated driver. Never feel obligated to finish all of the wine in your glass or to taste all of the wines offered. Spittoons, or dump buckets, usually located at the bar are there for you to pour out excess wine.

“People go from winery to winery and they’re not really tasting wine. I’d rather see them visit fewer wineries and really enjoy it,” says Herb Schatteles, General Manager at Vino Volo Wine Room in Sacramento, California. He suggests a limit of four wineries per day; two before lunch, and two after.


Natalie Bettencourt is a food industry professional and freelance writer living in Northern California. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .