Wine tasting is one of the things that tourists love to do, especially when in places that are famous for their exquisite wineries like California, Oregon, New York, Washington, Australia, France, Canada, Italy or Chile. Here are some tips and certain things that you must keep in mind while wine tasting, in order for you to enjoy and make your vacation as memorable as possible.
1. Do some research on the winery you plan to visit. Look at their website, and check to see if the wines they offer are not out of your price range, especially if you desire to go to one of the famous and luxury wineries. However, if you are on a tight budget, you better just stick to visiting one of the smaller vineyards, like the family-owned ones.
2. If you have an appointment, make an effort to show up on time. Some wineries won't wait, and will close their doors on late arrivals.
3. Consider hiring a driver and instruct him to stay sober, to be on the safe side. You may get drunk, especially when visiting numerous wineries and tasting several drinks.
4. Ask if there is a tasting fee. If there is, ask again if it can be waived by making a purchase. A small winery rarely charges a tasting fee, while medium and large-sized wineries do. However, a medium-sized winery may waive the tasting fee, while large-sized ones most likely do not.
5. Make conversation with the tasting room employees. They are usually very friendly. Let them know what you thought about the wine and inform them on the kind of wines you like. Once you have informed them, they will recommend some wines for you that they think you'd like. Employees have a fairly good knowledge about wine and they will be more than happy to share it with you.
6. You must maintain good etiquette. If you did not like the taste of the wine, you may spit it into the spit bucket. None of the employees will get offended because they are aware of the spit bucket, so that you can spit the drink out after tasting it. Just make sure that you dispose of it properly, and not in an immature way.
7. Listen to the employees' recommendations. They would often suggest that you eat either a piece of chocolate or cracker with toppings or spread to eat with the wine, because it will bring out even more the wine's flavour and make the experience more fun. It is also good to eat something or drink water in between drinks so that the flavours of the different wines you taste won't mix together, thus you will not know the true taste of the next drink you take a sip of.
8. The winemaking business is a very competitive industry, so if you are on a budget, or looking for wine of a better value, you can find these at the smaller, family-owned wineries.
9. If you are paying a wine tasting fee, then you don't have to purchase a bottle if you don't want to. However, it is polite that you buy at least one, to show that you enjoyed the tasting and appreciated the service. If you are not paying a tasting fee, show some etiquette and buy at least one bottle.
10. Purchase the wine that you liked the best. If your budget allows, you may buy another one that you enjoyed. However, if you plan on visiting other wineries, you might just have to settle on buying just one bottle per winery.
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