The Tasting Box Selection
What better way to broaden your wine horizons than with a trip around the world?
In this tasting box, we’ve selected four wines showcasing some of the best the world has to offer. Classic grape varieties grown in unexpected regions: it’s a combination that promises to sparkle!
The Tasting
Pro tip: There’s an ideal order in which to taste wines. Start with sparkling wines, followed by dry whites and rosés, then reds from least to most tannic, and finish with medium-sweet and sweet wines. The idea is to build up the intensity to stimulate your taste buds without overwhelming them.
The wines are presented in the ideal tasting order.
Preparing for the tasting
• Our tasting boxes are designed to give you the best possible tasting experience. It’s up to you whether you taste all the wines in the box at once or spread the experience over several evenings!
• Our vials contain enough wine for two people to taste each selection.
• Remember, not all wines should be served at the same temperature. Check the ideal serving temperature in the leaflet included in the box or in the wine profiles below.
A good glass makes a big difference to how you experience a wine. Its shape affects factors such as how aromas are concentrated towards your nose at the top of the glass, how much the wine is aerated according to the surface area exposed to air, and even the wine’s temperature, depending on how much of it touches the glass.
To start with, we recommend using "INAO" glasses, whose shape has been scientifically designed for optimal tasting of all types of wine.
Alternatively, any tulip-shaped glass will do nicely, allowing the aromas to develop in the glass and concentrate towards your nose.
A packet of plain, unsalted crackers will do nicely to cleanse your palate between wines. The flour they contain helps absorb the flavour of the previous wine, refreshing your taste buds without leaving a new taste in your mouth.
Alternatively, any neutral-tasting food will do the job : bread, pretzels and, above all, water! This helps prevent "palate fatigue", which occurs when too many flavours build up at once.
The stages of wine tasting
• Clues to the wine’s age
Tilt the glass against a white background to distinguish a young wine from an older one.
• Clues to the alcohol, glycerol and residual sugar content
Keep the glass slightly tilted and swirl it gently to watch droplets form and run down the inside. These are the wine’s tears, or legs.
• The first nose
Tilt the glass to 45° and bring it towards your nose without swirling, to smell the initial aromas.
This stage primarily reveals faults in the wine: cork taint, a vinegar smell, oxidation or reduction.
• The second nose
Swirl the wine in the glass for a few seconds. This aerates it and releases more aromas.
At this stage, other, less volatile aromas should emerge.
Take a small sip of wine and swirl it around your mouth with your tongue so it reaches every part of your palate and you can pick up all its flavours.
The ultimate technique is retronasal olfaction: draw a little air in through your mouth while holding the wine there, then breathe out through your nose.
You can then swallow the wine or spit it into a small container set aside for the purpose.
The Connoisseurs’ Corner
In wine terminology, wines produced in traditional wine regions such as Europe and the Middle East are known as ‘Old World’ wines.
Wine production is more recent in the New World, in places such as the Americas and Africa. Can you tell which category each of the four wines in this tasting box belongs to?