Are you a saavy sipper? Photo: Bob Fila/for miami.com
Related Links
SoBe Wine & Food Fest: vino 101
By Fred Tasker
If you're serious about wine -- or want your date to think you are -- attending a big tasting is a little like plotting a war. If you don't have a good battle plan, you could end up a casualty.
The odds are stacked: 350 wines, beers, liquors, liqueurs, limoncellos and fancy mineral waters in front of you. Don't charge up that hill without that map they gave you at the door.
For planning purposes, here are some of my picks for good wines at the tasting:
Buena Vista Carneros Chardonnay.
Gary Farrell Russian River Pinot Noir.
Dry Creek Fumê Blanc.
Cosentino The Zin.
Trimbach Riesling.
Macon Lugny Les Charmes.
Viña Almaviva.
Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir.
Finca Flichman Reseerva Malberc.
Estancia Pinot Grigio.
Pio Cesare Barbaresco
Mionetto 'Il' Prosecco
Rubicon Estate Edizione Pennino Zinfandel
Schneby Redland's Passion Fruit Wine
Chateau Ste. Michelle Eroica Riesling
Rules of engagement:
When you get to the tasting tables, let them pour you a dollop, chat with the winemaker for a minute, then move aside. The most unpopular people at such tastings are those who plant themselves in front of the tables and carry on 20-minute conversations, keeping others from being served.
Don't demand a full glass of anything. This is a sampling, not a frat party. You shouldn't expect more than a 3/4-inch pour. (By the same token, don't load your plate with 37 pieces of boiled octopus at the food tables. It's a tasting, not an Army chow line.)
Don't double-dip your cucumber slice in the guacamole. We don't know where you've been.
Take notes. They'll give you a tasting book for that. You'll feel pretty dumb tomorrow if you start waxing eloquent about that fab cab you discovered, then can't remember its name.
Spit. (Each table will have a bucket.)
- Current 82.4 °F
- It's a tennis day
- Take a lesson in Brickell
