Wine Week - A course in Tasting in the Telegraph

by frenchduck July 16, 2007

wine quaffers A good introduction to wine tasting is being run in the Telegraph this week (starting Monday 16 July 2007) under the beguiling title of “Swirl, Sniff, Sip and then Slosh” which seems about right as an approach to demystifying the business of tasting wine. Suzy Atkins style is clear and uncomplicated and will hopefully help more consumers to choose wines carefully rather than just go straight for the big brands or heavily marketed names.
She asks readers to compare the “get it down your throat” approach with a slightly slower and more considered approach and contends that “If you don’t have a clearer, more exciting picture of the liquid in your glass, I’ll not only eat my hat but drink my spittoon with it.”
She also is spot on about note taking - I know I have fallen into bad habits since my wine-business days, but there is little substitute for a few memory jogging notes to remind you of a particular wine - it does not have to be a Michael Broadbent analysis!
“Don’t be shy about making notes. A few well-chosen words about each wine will help you recall what you liked and why.”