How To Look Like a Wine Expert at Your Next Dinner Party
Fake it until you make it - these 5 tips will help you fool anyone into believing that you are an expert wine drinker. These do’s and don’ts will help beginners simply and easily feel more comfortable at a wine tasting and impress fellow wine drinkers. And don’t worry, we won’t let you look like a wine snob.
Let’s dive in!
1.) Hold the glass with class
How you hold your glass will instantly give away if you are a wine novice or expert.
Always, ALWAYS hold the stem of the glass. Not only does it look classy, but you will look like a wine tasting pro.
NEVER hold the glass by the goblet. Holding it this way will instantly make you look like a beginner. Wine experts know that by holding it like this, the warmth of your hand will make the wine hot. And we don’t want that. Also, don’t stick out your pinky finger. You’re not a member of the royal family.
2.) Swirl and sniff - it’s all in the flick of the wrist!
This will make you look like a serious wine drinker who knows what they’re doing. After the wine is poured into your glass and before you taste, make sure to swirl it with a casual flick of the wrist. Yes this strategy makes you look like a you know what you’re doing, but wine experts actually do it for a reason. Swirling the wine aerates it, which our winemaker Donna Stephens says is very important.
‘Aerating the wine with a swirl adds oxygen to it, which opens the wine up and allows it to breathe. This essentially frees the wine’s aromas’ - Donna Stephens, Cappa Stone Wines.
Think about this - the wine is trapped in a bottle for however long without access to oxygen. So swirling it gives your wine the oxygen hit it needs to open up in flavour.
Okay, so now that you’ve swirled, it’s time for the sniff.
It might sound bizarre, but it will make you look like an expert for two main reasons. Donna explains:
‘When we sniff the wine, we are looking for faults and it is also an excellent precursor into how the wine will taste’ - Donna Stephens, Cappa Stone Wines.
These are two very simple actions to do every time you are poured some wine. And they will instantly make you look like a wine expert. So now you can walk the walk, but next comes the daunting part for every wine beginner - talking the talk.
3.) Talk the talk
This includes knowing how to pronounce common wine varieties, but brushing up on basic wine lingo and throwing those words around will make you look very knowledgable. For example, simply type into google ‘how to pronounce chardonnay’ and YouTube videos will come up to assist you. If you’re looking for common wine varieties to research how to pronounce, check out our wine list.
As for wine vocabulary that is worth knowing, here are 5 words our winemaker, Donna Stephens, thinks you should know:
Aromatic - ‘having a pleasant or distinctive smell’. Saying this gives you an out into not specifically identifying what you are smelling, but also gives you a moment to think about what notes you are tasting in the wine before discussing them. Don’t be shy, have a crack!
Smooth - this is a subjective term, but usually refers to wines that are very drinkable and aren’t overly tannic or acidic.
Length - refers to how the wine flavour lingers on your tongue. So if a wine has a ‘beautiful length’, it has a flavour and texture that has lasted on your tastebuds long after you’ve swallowed the wine.
Colour - the easiest thing to identify and comment on about a wine its ‘beautiful colour’. You won’t receive any weird looks about the comment and it fills in the awkward, long silence after you have tasted.
Tannins - tannins are a texture. They can feel silky or grainy, and it is something you will notice when tasting wine. It’s usually safer to talk about tannins when tasting red wines.
And always try and throw in the names of fruits and spices that you can taste. If you want more wine vocab, here is an in-depth glossary for wine tasting terms.
4.) Know what you like
This will help you look like an experienced wine drinker so you can express how you feel about the wine that you’re served at a dinner party.
If you’re not really a wine drinker or aren’t sure what you like - that’s okay! There are online surveys that can help you find out what wine styles you might prefer. The surveys ask you things like how you take your coffee, what kind of fruits you like and what smells you enjoy, and then it determines the wines that are best suited for you based on your choices.
Fun surveys like this one from Buzzfeed might help you out.
5.) Have fun with it
This is the most important tip. Relax, enjoy the process of tasting new wines and laugh at yourself while experimenting with these wine tips. You may forget a few of these practices or say the wrong thing every now and then, but that’s okay. Learn to laugh at yourself or ask questions when you are in doubt or incorrect. And know that we all start somewhere, it all comes with practice!
