i'm new to wine tasting

.com says...

Steve,

I agree completely. While one of my pbuttions is the pairing of food and wine, and I have wine with every meal served after about 11:00AM, I also enjoy " drinking" wine and cannot possibly eat constantly, from 11:00AM until Midnight - not without really good reason, anyway.

Just drinking wine, is basically "tasting" the wine. Even my "house wines" spend a great deal of time being swirled, and sniffed. Ah, that's part of the pleasure of it all. Even "event" wines, served in resort glbuttware (jelly-jars mostly), deserve a certain reflection. I hope to extract the most that the wine has, regardless of it cost, or prestiege.

When it comes to buying wines, I attend about 30 "tasting" events for the public, about 10 "trade-only" events, and as many barrel-room tastings as I can, per year. Many of my purchases are predicated on these "tastings." Now, in most cases, I will end up drinking these with food, but it not always possible to have it on hand, especially when the tasting is done outside of my home.

Years ago at a trade-only tasting, one importer of Chianti lamented that his wines were not showing well, because he was too far away from the food stations with any red sauce. I had to agree, and crossed the exhibit hall to retreive some plain pasta with a medium red sauce. His wines came alive and I urged him to direct any serious person to stop across the hall first, then come to him. Of this wine, I freely admit that it was less of a drinker, than a perfect accompaniment to the right foods. I bought several cases later, and it was my house Chianti for some years.

Taste all that you can, and just because a wine might leave you wanting, doesn't mean that it will not become a darling when paired with the right food.

Hunt