We LOVE the Vancouver International Wine Festival. and since we have been attending for the past 23 years, we are here to share the must-know rules and etiquette you need to know before you hit the international tasting room (or any wine tasting, really).
1. Before You Go - EAT something substantial before you even head to the tasting. Alcohol is absorbed more slowly on a full stomach.
2. What to Wear? Anything goes generally, but you're not in Las Vegas and you are going to be on your feet for a while; so this is the time to wear something a little bit more practical & comfortable on your feet.
Also keep in mind that you may be bumped into by other people and splashes happen; we suggest darker clothing and something that is not made in a fabric that is too precious.
3. Don't Stink! Don't wear perfume, or smoke a cigarette, or vape, and go into the tasting room. Tasting wine is an olfactory and sensory experience; you want to keep things as neutral as possible.
There's nothing more sensitive to a winemaker who is trying to check the aromas of his wines to make sure that they have traveled soundly all the way from France, than to have you step up to his table and overpower his nose with your stinky eau de whatever. Wear deodorant, but not stinky deodorant; and you don't want to smell like BO either, because again, crowded room, lots of people…
3. One Glass, Many Wines When you enter the room you will be greeted and handed a wine glass. This is your glass to use for the entire tasting, so hang on to it; don't set it down and lose it. If you are concerned about flavours of wine mixing from one tasting into the next, first do bubble, then white, then rosé, then red and dessert wines.
5. Step Away From the Table, Ma’am Now let's talk tasting. Once you have been served a taster, take a step back from the table to let the person waiting patiently behind you have access to the same precious liquid.
6. Spit or Swallow? Next, swish the wine around in your mouth to taste it, and then spit it out into the provided spit bucket. Yes.
Spit. It. Out.
That seems like sacrilege to many, but let's just understand that you are being poured a tasting pour. If the wine is just too delicious to spit out, you may want to enjoy one or two samples that you actually drink, but trust us, if you start drinking every single wine you taste, you'll be wasted before you even make it through the first few tables. And that is going to ruin the experience for you, as well as everyone around you.
Also, on the note of tasting, to make sure that your palate doesn't become fatigued it's also a good idea to spit. And don’t chew gum or breath mints during the wine tasting because these things will alter the taste of the wine.
7. Don’t say “fill ‘er up”. The representative from the winery will pour a small amount of wine into your glass. You're not going to get a full glass of wine and it's considered rude to ask for more, because the expectation is that you're going to swish and spit out this wine like a responsible wine taster (see #6).
8. Offer Positive Feedback If you really enjoy a wine please let the winery know how you enjoy having them visit us and that you like tasting their wine.
9. Take the Experience Home Now we've covered spitting and how you should try not to get tipsy at the wine tasting (or ‘sloshed’, as members from our team like to say), but I leave the most important tip for now: at the end of all this tasting, make sure that you have a designated driver, or transit, or cab, so you get home safely.
10. Stock Up Lastly, as you're leaving the tasting room, make sure that you pick up something in the onsite store on the way out. Many special bottles that are not regularly available in stores are available for a limited time for the festival, right there in the tasting room. Grab something special and re-live your tasting experience again later at home.
#withTownHall – our firm’s involvement As you attend the tasting events, you’ll see printed materials, invitations, tasting mats, and booklets; and these were created by the Town Hall Brands design team.
Our Town Hall Brands PR team will be attending various events throughout the festival, and we have two wine PR clients that are exhibiting: Haywire, and Free Form. Both have amazing BC VQA wines including rosé, and bubbles that you HAVE to try. If we see you in the room, we are happy to take you over to these tables.
The annual festival takes place February 22-March 1, 2020. The eight-day wine and food extravaganza will showcase 163 wineries from 15 countries, including 42 wineries from France, this festival’s featured country. Joining France will be 121 wineries from around the world, pouring 1,500+ wines at 57 events with a global spotlight on rosé. For full program details, visit VanWineFest.ca
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(This is an edited and republished post from 2014.)