Vertical wine tasting tells you a lot about the quality of a producer.
When you sample several bottles of the same wine from the same vineyard, but from different years, you are conducting a vertical wine tasting. Tasting a particular wine from different periods of time is a great way to learn about how the age, weather, growing and production conditions change a wine's body and flavor from year to year. You can throw your own vertical tasting with any wine you'd like -- just be sure you can get several vintages of it.
Instructions
1. Set up the by laying out a white table cloth on a table and placing the bottles of wine on the table, with tasting glasses set out in front of them.
2. Pass out sheets of paper and pencils to you and your guests to write down any notes they may have about wine, including a score out of 100.
3. Start with a clean palette by eating a neutral food like crackers or fresh mozzarella. Wine critic Stephen Tanzer recommends having a tasting before lunch or dinner so the flavors of your food won't affect your judgment of the wine and so you can enjoy the wines you liked best with your meal.
4. Taste the wines one at a time in chronological order, from youngest to oldest. Refresh your palette in between every tasting. The older the wine is, the more you should notice a more complex taste and feel. Write down notes and compare with guests which wines you think may be too young, too old or just right.
5. Taste wines again after the first round. Some wines improve with sitting out in the open for a bit.
6. Vote which wines tasted best. Some vineyards provide growing and production backgrounds on their wines, such as if their region was suffering a drought. If you have this literature available, discuss what roles the age, aeration, and growing conditions might have played with how the wines tasted. You can also use professional wine critic reviews and scores for comparison.
7. Treat your guests to a few bottles of the winning wine for an post-tasting meal or later meet-up.
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