1.  No Colognes or Perfumes A vital aspect to any successful tasting is the ability to use your nose.  Smelling the wine’s aromas before you take that first sip enhances the entire experience.  So tell your guests not to put on any strong colognes, after shaves or perfumes which can disguise their sense of smell.

2.  No Smoking In this day and age, it should be a given.  However, for many smokers, wine and cigarettes are like peanut butter and jelly – they just go together.  But for the sake of other guests, make sure your tasting is done in a non-smoking environment.  Like perfumes and colognes, the smell of smoke will hinder the whole tasting experience.

3. The color white is your best friend Another key element for any successful tasting is the ability to judge the color of your wine.  So if the backdrop or tablecloth in the room contains multiple or dark colors, this task is now much more difficult.  Therefore, if possible, choose a room with light colored walls for your tasting and make sure the tablecloths are white.

4. Make it a blind tasting For your party, you don’t want anyone’s bias towards a particular wine to affect the outcome.  And since many bottles have both good and bad reputations, a blind tasting eliminates any subjective influencing while enhancing the suspense of the entire night when finally, the wines everyone has been judging are  revealed.  To do this, disguise the bottles by placing them in brown paper bags or by wrapping shelf paper around each bottle.  Then use a maker or pencil to identify each wine as either “A, B, C…” or “1, 2, 3 …”

5. Have scorecards and pencils for each guest In order to see which wines end up on top, provide each guest with a score card or sheet and a pencil so they can assign their ratings.  If you want the scorecard to be geared towards beginners, download and print off one like this.  For more challenging cards, where the people at your tasting are judging a wine’s clarity, color, etc.., try using this or a similar card.

6. Provide a glass of water to each guest and spittoons Tasting so many wines in such a short period of time without rinsing can play games with your palate.  So give your guests a chance to cleanse their mouths with either a glass of water or a spittoon (or something they can spit the wine out into if they choose).

7. Compare “like with like” To provide your palate with the best training, find a common link by trying what’s called a thematic tasting.  For example, choose one grape variety from different regions or the same type of wine but from different producers or the same wine across an array of vintages.

8. If you want to taste many wines, follow this order: White before Red Dry before sweet Light Body before Full Body Young before Old

9. Choosing the right glassware In addition to being clear and colorless, a tasting glass should have a generous rounded bowl, a sufficient stem with which to hold the glass and be spotlessly clean.

10. Be responsible As the host, its your job that everyone who attends your wine tasting arrives home safely.  So make sure that nobody who plans on getting behind the wheel has too much to drink.

Did we miss anything?  Comment below if you have any other suggestions or share your wine tasting experiences.

Thanks to Robert Henderson of the Toronto Branch for sending me this audio file of André Simon discussing the importance of wine.  Recorded during the late 1960s or early 1970s, his message proves to be relevant to this day.

Enjoy!!

As a student of the history of newsreels, I was excited to discover this Hearst-Metrotone (renamed News of the Day in 1936) gem which was first screened in 1933, titled “Prohibition’s Reign Ends!”  For those who have studied the era (or fans of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire), you’ll recognize all the names and terms synonymous with this period: Andrew Volstead, Al Smith, Rum Row, wets, drys, bootleggers, speakeasies, the Real McCoy, etc..

Of course, it was no coincidence that as this period in American history was ending, André Simon was busy establishing the first IW&FS branches in the United States.  Since you no longer needed a doctor’s certificate to drink wine legally, America became fertile ground (no pun intended) for the International Wine and Food Society.  You can watch a brief history of our society by clicking on the video below:

Cheers!

By Joseph Temple

“This is a masterpiece,” declared Richard Nixon over the phone to Henry Kissinger.  Referring to the Prevention of Nuclear War (PNW) agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union, he and Leonid Brezhnev had just eased Cold War tensions significantly through the president’s foreign policy known as détente.  And to celebrate the historic 1973 summit that moved everyone a step closer to world peace, both leaders sipped Champagne in a brilliantly orchestrated photo-op.

It was an ironic choice since neither leader cared much for the bubbly – Nixon being a Bordeaux man and Brezhnev more at home with a bottle of Russian Vodka.  But in front of the cameras, they both drank while hundreds of invited guests applauded their diplomatic breakthrough.

 
President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev toast with Champagne after signing a series of agreements in
the East Room of the White House on June 21st, 1973. (Photos Credit: National Archives)

“All these things this week are good,” Nixon told his daughter Julie.  “It gets people thinking about something else.”

That “something else” was the Senate Watergate Committee.  With Brezhnev’s visit to the United States, all hearings had been temporarily postponed. But as soon as he left for Moscow, they were ready to go back into full-swing, starting with the explosive testimony of former White House counsel John Dean.

However, on the other side of the world, it seemed that Nixon had committed an international Saturday Night Massacre when information about the menu from his state dinner with Brezhnev crossed the Atlantic.

A “gastronomic heresy” decried L’Aurore, a Parisian newspaper.  The crime: Cabernet Sauvignon had been served with beef, a clear mismatch according to the French.  “Most assuredly, the association of a filet de boeuf bordelais with a sauvignon wine would make a gourmet faint in France.”

Adding insult to injury, the menu contained phrases in “Franglais” like “supreme of lobster en bellevue.” And calling for lobster to be served with a remoulade sauce struck the French as very odd considering it was sauce only put on celery root.

It wasn’t the first time Nixon’s wine selection created controversy.  During the first month of his presidency, he enraged domestic wine producers by uncorking a bottle of French Champagne at an official White House function.  Since the Johnson administration, only American wines were served at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and for a Californian like Nixon to drink French wine in front of the television cameras was treasonous.

 
(Right) The French Press was outraged at the food and wine pairings for the State Dinner honoring
Brezhnev’s visit. (Left) Brezhnev, Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon attending the dinner.

But was it French pride over all things food and wine that caused this cause célèbre?  Or was there a more conspiratorial motive for blasting this White House selection?  One American newspaper hypothesized:

“We all know that West European countries fear their influence in world affairs will diminish as the United States develops closer ties with China and the Soviet Union.  Now supposed that Brezhnev became convinced that Nixon had served him an inappropriate wine.  That surely would be a a major setback in the effort to improve relations between the two countries.  At the same time, it would enhance the prestige of France – making it appear that French advice on wine selection is indispensable to the conduct of American foreign policy.”

Whether it was a well orchestrated plot by the French government to derail Nixon’s policy of détente or not, a few journalists did rush to the president’s defense.  “I don’t know whether Nixon was exquisite in serving a Cabernet with beef because I never tried the combination,” wrote syndicated columnist Andrew Tully. “Palates differ … you can advise an American on wine, but never, never a Frenchman.”

So what do you think of this little Cold War footnote?  Successful gastronomic experimentation or colossal failure?

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