Description
This brilliant Wine Tasting Game is the ideal way to spend an evening with friends. Perhaps you want a second opinion on wines you’re thinking of buying? Maybe you just want to have fun testing your wine knowledge? There are so many different ways to play. The first thing you need to do is to choose the wine you want to taste. We’ve got lots of ideas for you. How about three wines of the same colour but different grapes? What about picking the same grape variety but from different countries or continents? Perhaps three Pinot Noirs, one from Burgundy, one from California and one from New Zealand. Can you and your friends tell the difference? This game is a brilliant way to improve your wine knowledge and develop your palate.
Playing the Wine Tasting Game
Once you have chosen the wines you want to taste you need to place each bottle in a blind tasting cover. Do this secretly so the tasters do not know which is which. It will probably be easier if you open the bottles before you place them in the covers. Give each taster three tasting glasses, a pencil, three tasting sheets and a score sheet. Once everyone is ready pour a small measure of each wine into each player’s glasses. Pass round the wine glass writer pen so that everyone can label their glasses; wine 1, wine 2, wine 3.
Wine Tasting
Begin tasting and discussing the wines. Use the tasting notes as guide. It helps to taste wine in a structured way thinking first about the appearance, then about the aromas and finally tasting and analysing the flavours. Swirl your glass to release the aromas of the wine. Some wines have more pronounced aromas than others. It sometimes helps to swirl the wine with your hand over the glass and then sniff as your remove your hand. When you taste each wine you may need to take more than one sip to assess it properly! You will want to consider how sweet or dry the wine is, whether it’s acidic or whether it feels light or full bodied. See how many flavours you can identify. These could be floral, fruity, spicy or herbaceous. There might be flavours of oak, if the wine was matured in oak barrels, such as vanilla or chocolate. If the wine is older you may identify flavours of dried or cooked fruit, caramel or even tobacco or meat. There is a lot to think about.
Scoring Your Wine Tasting
When you have finished your Wine Tasting you can play competitive part of the game. Try completing the score sheet and give players three points for each correct answer. You can award part points for close answers if you choose. You might want to add some additional questions of your own. Here are a few ideas:
- Is it a blended or single grape wine?
- Name the grape varieties associated with the wine region you think the wine is from?
- Which would you foods go best with each wine?As host you should be able to find most of the answers on the label of each bottle. Or, if you want to ask extra questions, by doing a little bit of research with your wine merchant.
The winner (or winners) are the players with the most points.
Discover New Wines and New Grapes
One of the inspirations behind this game was the thought of discovering wines that I would not otherwise try. This could be a cheaper a supermarket wine that stands up well against more expensive examples. It could a lesser known grape that stands up well in complexity and depth of flavour to better known varieties. Take the opportunity to try something different. You will enjoy it and you could save some money in the process.
