The ABC's of Wine Tasting

A wise business woman once said, "Get the Pinot ready. It's Turtle Time." Ramona Singer, like myself, has one love in life besides men, and that is wine. Turtle Time is a phrase coined by Ramona during season three of the RHONY and she has defined it as, "cutting loose, having some Pinot and even dancing." In South Africa, a bottle of wine can cost as little as R32 (which is equivalent to about 2 USD at the current exchange rate) and due to this, it is always Turtle Time here! 

                                  

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when you go to a somewhat classy restaurant and get handed a wine list of over 100 different types? I find it comical that anyone would expect me to be able to pick a good wine to drink when I am a 21 year old college student who, as of last semester, considered Chateau Diana wine product from Beer Cave a solid choice to pair with my buffalo chicken wraps from the Grille.

After visiting a winery in Cape Town, I have a new appreciation for the work that goes into making wine and my palate has now expanded to include wines other than boxed Sunset Blush. In the following demonstration, we were trying a chardonnay made at the Anura Winery. Our wine tasting guide explained that many people are a part of the ABC club (Anything but Chardonnay), but he was confident that after we tasted it we would fall in love with this unappreciated wine. The next time you have to choose a wine at the dinner table, just remember these steps and you will look like a wine connoisseur.

Step 1: Take your glass and twirl the wine in a clockwise fashion. Be sure to admire the color of the wine and use terms such as "light, medium, or full-bodied" to describe it.

Step 2: Next, dip your nose into the glass like my model CG is demonstrating. Make sure to fill your nostrils with the various different scents of the wine. There could be a range of aromas from citrus, to a hint of mint or vanilla.

Step 3: It's time to tilt your head back and enjoy the wine! Each wine tastes different from one another due to various factors such as the grapes used to make it, and whether it was kept in an oak or steal barrel. There are thousands of different types of grapes so the possibilities for new types of wine are endless. 

Step 4: Spit. Spit the wine out. *This step is optional and I totally recommend ignoring it*

I hope this helps you impress your next dinner date with someone you met on J swipe, Farmersonly.com, or Grindr. Cheers to being a little more classy and grown up!

Sincerely,
Stephen

*Note: No one was completely tipsy in the making of this blog post*