CLE Urban Winery owner Destiny Burns shares the tips and tricks you’ll need to taste and enjoy a variety of wines at home. Modern CLE Staff Report
Photo: Hilary Bovay Photography
Wine tastings are for snobs, right? Wrong. “Wine tasting is a fun, social activity,” says Destiny Burns, owner of CLE Urban Winery, a boutique winery in Cleveland Heights that’s trying to take the pretention out of wine and instill a deep love of whites and reds in a city that’s already committed to craft beer and its breweries.
Admittedly, while wine may never be as casual as, say, an imperial stout, wines—and wine tastings—are only as intimidating as you make them, Burns says.
In fact, wine tastings are “a great way to explore different types of wine, train your palate, and expand your wine vocabulary,” Burns says, and you can do it from the comfort of your dining table—or even your couch. Here, Burns walks you through how to host a tasting your friends and family will love—with wines you’ll adore.
Photo: Hilary Bovay Photography
Gather the Right Supplies
When it comes to hosting an at-home wine tasting, Burns says you should use the KISS method, and keep it simple, sweetheart. You only really need the following:
- Wine glasses. One per person will do—though it’s smart to allow guests to rinse their glasses in between pours so that wines flavors don’t mix.
- A dump bucket. (This can be a big bowl, a pitcher, or anything else you may have on hand.) That way, if guests don’t love a certain wine, they can easily dump it into the bucket and move on to a wine they might like even more.
- Paper and pens. You may want to take notes as you taste—even those notes are only what to buy for your own home once you leave!
- Wine! One bottle of wine provides about 20 one-ounce pours, Burns says, so do some simple math based on your guest count so you buy enough bottles.
- Sipping water between tastings helps refresh your palate and also prevent a nasty headache or hangover the next day, Burns points out.
- A palate cleanser, such as crackers. Chewing something like oyster crackers in between servings will help bring out the flavors of each individual wine.
Photo: Hilary Bovay Photography
If you’d like, Burns says, you could also add “wine-friendly foods, such as mild cheeses, fruits and veggies, chocolate, bread or crackers, nuts, and cured meats.”
Pick a Theme
Yes, your theme can be, “Let’s Get Together and Drink Wine!” But if you’d like to kick your wine tasting up a notch, you might consider doing a horizontal or vertical wine tasting, Burns suggests. These types of tastings highlight differences between similar wines, she explains. “In a vertical tasting, different vintages—say 2004 to 2009—of the same wine type, such as Pinot Noir, from the same winery are tasted,” Burns says. “In a horizontal tasting, you’ll stay in one vintage year, region, and wine type—say 2008 Pinot Noirs from Oregon. What varies is the winery or producer.”
Photos: Hilary Bovay Photography
You might also want to host a blind wine tasting by asking your guests to bring their favorite bottle of wine, then covering those wines with an opaque drawstring bag or even aluminum foil, so that the labels and contents are hidden, Burns instructs. All you have to do is separate the whites from the reds, and number them to keep track. “Taste the wines,” she says, “and discuss and collaborate with other tasters as you try to describe them and guess the varietal. Make a contest of it and give prizes!”
Or take a page out of CLE Urban Winery‘s own book: There, wines are paired with unexpected foods—think: Girl Scout cookies or Halloween-type candy. “Our Edgewater Blackberry Merlot is delicious with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,” says Burns, “and our North Coast Syrah pairs beautifully with Nacho Cheese Doritos!”
Follow the “Six S’s of Wine Tasting”
You may not be a pro wine taster, but Burns says you can look like one by having guests follow the “Six S’s of Wine Tasting” as they enjoy the wines you’ve chosen.
Photos: Hilary Bovay Photography
Those are:
- See: “Examine the color of the wine,” Burns instructs. To get a better view, tip the glass sideways against a white background to see color and clarity.
- Swirl: “Swirling the wine around inside the glass adds air to the wine,” says Burns, which in turn releases the aromas and flavors in the wine.
- Sniff: “Our senses of taste and smell are very directly linked, so smelling the wine will affect how you taste it,” Burns explains. “After you get some air into the wine, stick your nose well into that wine glass and take a good long sniff.”
- Slurp: It sounds silly, but “another part of the aerating process is taking in air as you sip the wine into your mouth,” says Burns. When you drink, try to “make a sound like a straw [slurping] up the last few drops out of a glass.”
- Swish: Yes—just like you do with mouthwash! “This may seem odd and unsophisticated,” Burns admits, “but swishing the wine around in your mouth ‘mouthwash style’ gets that wine on every part of your taste buds because different parts of your tongue will pick up different flavors.”
- Swallow (or Spit): “Drinking the wine is the obvious final step—unless you’re limiting your alcohol intake, in which case you take the ‘spit’ route,” Burns says. “Slowly savor the wine and assess the lingering flavors or finish.”
Photos: Hilary Bovay Photography
Talk It Out
No one expects you to talk tannins. But part of the fun of a wine tasting in engaging in discussion about the wines, says Burns. So, in addition to encouraging guests to take notes, ask them about what they taste—and see if you agree or disagree.
As you move through the tasting, “write down what you smell and taste, what you like and don’t like, and your impressions of the wine as you progress through the Six S’s,” says Burns. For example, if you tasted CLE Urban Winery‘s Drawbridge Pinot Noir, you might pick up hints of tart black cherry, or even leather and chocolate. In its Cedar Lee Chardonnay, a velvety white, you might taste green apple and pear.
Then, “share your impressions with others, because you may pick up something they don’t, or vice versa,” Burns says. “Describing what you taste and smell can be very suggestive—like telling someone that you detect a hint of plums on the palate or tobacco aromas in the wine, and then they try it again and say, ‘Wow, I do too!’”
It’s important to know that “you cannot say the wrong thing,” says Burns. “It’s really just what you taste.” Smoke, cheese, grass, dry leaves, bubble gum, wet stone—they’re all fair game. “Our Rust Belt Rosé smells like blue cotton candy,” Burns says.
Photo: Hilary Bovay Photography
Other Wine-Tasting Options
If you’re still not sure about hosting an at-home wine tasting, then check CLE Urban Winery’s calendar. It often hosts events that involve special wines tastings—perfect opportunities to gather friends or family for a night of enjoying delicious wine. The winery also offers a wine club; members of the U-Dub Wine Club agree to purchase two bottles of wine each month, and in exchange, they get access to members-only events—such as a monthly “pick-up party” that features complimentary food with the winery’s featured wines—a monthly wine tasting for two, and wine discounts.
This article was produced in paid partnership with CLE Urban Winery.
