Heading to Italy this Summer? Napa? The Finger Lakes?

I’ve seen over a decade worth of wine-tasting visitors miss some small details that can get in the way of them having their Best Day Ever of Wine tasting. 

If you are planning a day (or week) of tasting in a wine growing region near or far, you’re going to want to listen in for some super-helpful tips on how to get the most out of your winery visits!

I'm breaking down:

• What NOT to wear
• Hints for planning your visits
• Where to put your water (hint, it’s not in your wine glass)
• What do to at the end of the experience

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Nikki:

You know, it can sneak up on you in a wine tasting. Typically you're getting one or two ounce pours. But, it adds up if you're tasting four, five, seven wines. You might have a full glass or a glass and a half in a tasting and then, you know, extrapolate that over two or three tastings in a day. If you don't have a giant wine tolerance like I do, that can sneak up on you.

So one of the best ways to manage that is to eat breakfast before you go wine tasting. And I'm not talking about a yogurt or some granola. But that's fine at home on a Tuesday. But I'm talking like some eggs, some toast, like some bacon if you eat meat, like give yourself a base to absorb that alcohol because it's just going to be better in the long run for the day, for your longevity, and just to keep you a little bit sharper so that you can really pay attention to what you're tasting if that's what you're going to do, right?

If you enjoy wine tasting, if you are new to it, or you're just planning an upcoming day in a wine region, or more excitingly, a trip of multiple days where you're going to be tasting, you probably have some questions and this episode is for you. I am going to be sharing my top tips for The actual wine tasting experience and how to get the most out of your time, the wine, your host, so that you can walk away accomplishing what you want to accomplish, which is maybe finding some awesome new wines to add to your own wine tasting.

Portfolio, your life, your home, your collection. So stick around as we talk about tips for planning and reservations, what to wear and do during the tasting, and how to wrap up the end of the tasting with action items. And if you haven't already downloaded my wine tips cheat sheet, hop to soupwithnicki.

com forward slash resource. And I have put together what I think is a pretty cool one sheeter PDF right to your inbox that will also help you while you're tasting wines and an upcoming tasting. So here we go.

So I am sitting here on my own vacation in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, one of my favorite magical places to spend time. But you might be thinking about your next vacation. And I often get a lot of questions about planning wine tastings, especially living in a very popular wine destination like Sonoma County where I live and Napa, my neighbor.

So I'm going to be doing some future episodes about the actual planning of like days and where to go and hotels and restaurants because again, I get so many questions about that. But today I just thought I'd give you a couple quick tips of the actual wine tasting itself. and what to do when you're there.

Because again, I get a lot of questions about these types of things. Like, what should we wear? And do we need to make a reservation? And do we need to tip the person? So that's what we're going through today. So, first and foremost, just to frame it up, these tips are guided by typical experiences, and I'm going to lump Napa Sonoma together, even though we nerds like to make sure geographically that everyone is aware that they are.

Separated by a mountain range, but these tips are for places like Napa and Sonoma or Paso Robles, Temecula, Walla Walla, Washington, the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York or Canadian wineries anywhere where there is a high concentration or a clustering of wineries where you might be visiting You know, multiple in a day and sort of planning your trip around that, that, that's kind of what these are going to be geared towards.

Um, and the overarching thought here, too, is these are tips for wine tasting, for going wine tasting, if you're really going to taste the wine. So what do I mean by that? You know, wine tasting can be a very social thing. experience, especially there's a lot of wineries that have like live music elements and picnicking and you may be gathering a group of friends and that's awesome, that's great, like enjoy wine in all the ways.

But this set of tips is specifically for, um, if you're really curious and, and going to taste the wine at a certain winery to see, if you like it and if you'd like to purchase or maybe if you'd like to have a relationship with them by being in their wine club, right? So, Um, a little bit more focused for getting the most out of your experience.

And wine tasting experiences, even if I just focus on Napa and Sonoma, the experience itself, you know, there can, it can be, um, done in so many different ways. So it could be a bar tasting where you're literally standing there in the hostel. Just pouring the next wine. Um, it could be like you're on a patio at a table and you have a host that's coming and going and, you know, bringing you the next wine.

Or it could be a very private and very dedicated experience. That's typically what I have experienced over the last 11, 12 years of hosting where it's, um, a tour and you have one host with you and your your party and they're guiding you and teaching you and showing you things and pouring wine as you go.

So just know that they can look like, um. different things. Um, but these tips can really apply to any of those types of tastings. First and foremost, I would just do your homework, hop on the website of wherever you want to go and make a reservation. More often than not, again, and in really established wine regions where there are.

Lots and lots of wineries to visit. Reservations are becoming more important. A lot of places went to reservation only during COVID as they were slowly reopening, obviously to manage the numbers and the spacing out. And a lot of places have stayed with that because I think that wineries find that they can just manage and offer a better experience if they know you're coming.

And wine tasting guests.

So, this is a generalization. Again, hop on the website. It'll tell you if you need a reservation or not, but I always recommend making a reservation. And then, simple courtesy, be on time. Um, showing up 30 minutes early is not always a positive thing, um, because the staffing is probably aligned to exactly how the reservations are and you may be throwing something off.

So just use that common courtesy and make a reservation and then try to be on time. You know, I usually say about a 10 to 15 minute window on either side is quote unquote on time. Better experience for everyone if they know you're coming. Um, before you arrive, especially if you're getting started in the morning, so important to eat.

Um, you know, it can sneak up on you in a wine tasting, typically you're getting one or two ounce pours, but it adds up if you're tasting four, five, seven wines. You might have a full glass or a glass and a half in a tasting and then, you know, extrapolate that over two or three tastings in a day. If you don't have a giant wine tolerance like I do, that can sneak up on you.

So one of the best ways to manage that is to eat breakfast before you go wine tasting. And I'm not talking about a yogurt or some granola. That's fine at home on a Tuesday. But I'm talking like some eggs, some toast, like some bacon. If you eat meat, like give yourself a base to absorb that alcohol because it's just going to be better in the long run for the day, for your longevity.

and just to keep you a little bit sharper so that you can really pay attention to what you're tasting if that's what you're going to do, right? Water, so important. We all know that wine, alcohol is dehydrating, so you want to make sure that you are Pre hydrating before you go tasting and then really keeping up that hydration throughout the day.

The good rule of thumb is one to one, right? So for every glass of wine, you should have a glass of water. That makes all the difference. When it comes to water. water in your mouth, not water in your glass. So again, depending on the tasting that you might do, sometimes you'll just have one wine glass and they may pour a taste and you have the next one in the same glass.

And often I will see guests pull out a little bottle of water because they took the advice of the nice wine podcast host, Nikki, and they're hydrating and they have water with them on the tasting. But then they pour the water in their wine glass thinking they need to rinse out any of the last wine before they put the next wine in.

And believe it or not, water in your wine glass does more harm than good. A couple different reasons. The obvious one is dilution, right? Just a couple drops of water is going to dilute the wine. So if you're really tasting it to tasting it, tasting it to taste it. That's going to make a difference, but also, um, pH, you know, we talk a lot about acidity and wine and how that makes the wine feel, you know, fresh and bright in your mouth.

And pH of water, remember, neutral, 7. pH of most wines, between 3 and 4. So lower pH, meaning wines are more acidic than water. So if you're putting water in your glass, it's going to change that and you're not going to experience the wine. in the way that you should. Uh, one or two drops of one wine to the next is not going to change the wine.

Okay. Now a great tip, and this is from my dear friend, Dr. Hobie Wedler. If you haven't listened to his episode number 13, uh, it is amazing. And he talks about when he gets a new wine in an already used wine glass. And he says, Just roll the glass around and let the wine coat the inside first, and that'll kind of neutralize, you know, anything that might be coming

from

one wine to the next.

But that's totally fine. Wine in the glass, water in the mouth. No water in the glass. Okay. Another important thing to think about as you're preparing to go wine tasting for the day is scent, uh, perfume and cologne. Just don't do it. How's that? Skip it for the day. Please put on your deodorant. That's important.

But why no perfume or cologne? Well, because as we've talked about, and if you've listened to my prior episodes, we talk about how so much of wine is aroma and your olfactory and what you're smelling. And two things, if you have a strong scent on, I don't care how lovely or beautiful it is. You are smelling that and everyone else around you is smelling that and it just throws off the perception.

I always say, um, and this is, you know, if you're not going wine tasting, this is just as someone who has a heightened sense of smell. Um, I'm very sensitive to people wearing scents and even outside of a wine tasting, like we were walking down the hallway in our resort hotel the other day and there was no person visible yet.

There was a very strong perfume scent in the hallway. So I say if the, if your scent arrives before you do in a space, Or, once you leave that space and the scent is still there, it's too much. It should travel with you. It should stay on you. One of my favorite tips is from Jonathan Van Ness, JVN. You may know him.

He is on the wonderful Netflix series Queer Eye. And JVN gives the tip of spray, delay, hay. So, spray your cologne or perfume in the air away from you. Delay. Give it about two seconds. And then, hey, walk through it and let it just sprinkle down like pixie dust on you. That is a much, much better way than psst, psst, on your neck.

I'm going on a whole tangent here, but this truly is important, not only for your host and the people around you or the winemaker who you may be lucky enough to be tasting with. These are all people who really, really focus on sense of smell. Super smellers, if you want to call us that, um, and, and also for you, right, your perception of the wine is going to be different when it is not clouded by a strong scent, okay?

Ladies, we love our lipstick and our chapstick and you might be tasting a Napa and Sonoma where there is a lack of humidity and feel like you need to be putting stuff on your lips, but I just want to have you stop and think for a minute. If you've got a waxed. Based or flavored lip gloss on your lips and you take a sip of a wine, don't you think that that is going to affect how the wine is tasting?

Not to mention it gocks up the glasses, but we're not even going to talk about that. This is about you getting the most of your experience. Skip it. You know, go, go with something very neutral on your lips in the morning and don't worry about like, I will see people take a sip of wine. halfway through a wine tasting feel like they need to reapply your lipstick.

No one's looking, no one cares. Do that when you're done. If you really want to get the most out of what you're tasting, skip the gloss. And then as far as the tasting itself, if you go back to last week's episode, episode 14, where I give you F E W fruit earth wood, I'm not going to get into that now, but that is a really simple overlay.

of how to, um, analyze wines when you're really tasting to taste and understand. So make sure that you're using your FRUITEARTHWOOD acronym from episode 14 during the tasting itself. Now, once your tasting is complete, A really good recommendation is to buy something. If you find something that you enjoyed, um, either take a bottle with you or, or have a shipment.

Especially if you're visiting very small, family owned wineries. You know, these people, their, their livelihood, um, is based on this visitation and tasting. So it's not always a good idea. Assumed, but it is always appreciated if you purchase something while you're there. That's kind of the whole point, right?

Um, beyond that, again, you can join their wine club or sign up for their mailing list. You know, those are all things that are going to be really beneficial not only for the winery and the owners, but for you so that you can continue to enjoy that wine moving forward. Most wineries, not all, but most wineries, if there is a tasting fee and so forth.

Some tasting fees can be 40, 50, 100, 150 a person, but most will waive that tasting fee when you purchase, right? The tasting fee is not really where the winery makes their money. It's in having now a relationship with you as a, as a customer. Find something that you enjoy and make a purchase that is just better for you.

It's better for them. It's enjoyment all around. Now it's time for a listener question.

So Ken in Virginia wanted to know, is it customary to tip a wine tasting host? So I'm going to give you just some general guidelines. Again, it's going to depend on the experience. Um, so a bar tasting where a host is, you know, pouring for many people at once versus a private tasting where you have a dedicated host or even a tour, you know, obviously those more dedicated private experiences, um, generally it's recommended, um, that you tip a little more graciously than, than something like a bar tasting.

But the general answer to Ken's question is, Yes, um, wine educators and wine hosts, it's hospitality. And for the most part, it is a gratuity based business and the majority of hosts are going to be able to accept tips. And there's not always a spot to do it. If you pay for your wine by a credit card, there's not always going to be like a tip or a gratuity line like there is in a typical restaurant bill.

Um, just because the payment processes are set up a little bit differently for a lot of wineries. So if you're going tasting for the day, you may want to plan ahead and just have some cash if you have an hour and an hour and a half with a dedicated wine host who's teaching you and giving you undivided attention, you know, a great guideline is 20, 30.

I mean, that is not unheard of, um, certainly up to you at your discretion. If you had a fantastic experience to go even higher than that. Um, but it is what we say in the business. It is always appreciated but never expected. Um, but it's a great question, Ken. Yeah. Think of your host as, you know, being part of the hospitality, uh, industry and, and tips are always appreciated.

So that's it, friends. Those are some quick tips on, uh, how to make the most of your tasting. And I hope it is helpful.

So there it is. If you just take these simple tips that we reviewed about planning and reservations and what to do when you're in your tasting, I think you'll find that it enhances the joy, which you know I'm all about that. Um, but also will help you just to better figure out wines that you like and what you might want to take home with you.

Stay tuned for a future episode where I will give you tips for planning a trip and how to select what wineries and restaurants and driving and planning and all of that. That's coming soon. So that's a little teaser for you. Don't forget to like the podcast. Make sure that you're following it with a little check mark, um, subscribing.

That helps us to continue doing what we're doing. And if you'd like to support the podcast, Buy Me a Glass of Wine, um, you can do so in the link in the show notes as well. And we would be so grateful. Until next time, sip well.

Producer Kathryn:

Sip With Nikki is hosted by Nikki Lamberti. Production and sound mixing by Catherine Bryan. You can always send your listener questions to Nikki at sipwithnikki. com or find us on the Sip With Nikki Facebook page or visit us on Instagram at Nikki Lamberti. Thanks for listening. Until next time, sip well everyone.

This is Sip With Nikki, a production of Take 10 Studios.