The Wines in the Box
From fortification to freezing and even the sea, we’ve brought together four of the most extraordinary winemaking methods in this box.
With this unusual selection, you’ll discover some of the most surprising things wine has to offer...
The Tasting
Pro tip: There’s an ideal order for tasting wines. Start with sparkling wines, then move on to whites and rosés, followed by reds and finally sweet wines. The idea is to build up the intensity to excite 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 are sized to allow two people to taste the wines.
• Bear in mind that the wines should not all be served at the same temperature. Please check the ideal serving temperature in the leaflet included with the box or in the wine descriptions below.
A good glass makes a real difference to how you experience wine. Its shape affects how aromas are concentrated towards your nose at the top of the glass, how much air reaches the wine, and even the wine’s temperature, depending on how much of it is in contact with 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 aromas to develop in the glass and concentrate towards your nose.
A packet of plain, unsalted crackers will do the job perfectly to cleanse your palate between wines. The flour they contain helps absorb the taste of the previous wine and refresh your taste buds without leaving a new flavour in your mouth.
Alternatively, any neutral-tasting food will work well too: bread, pretzels and, above all, water! This helps prevent "palate fatigue", which happens 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 see 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 it to smell the initial aromas.
This stage primarily reveals any faults in the wine: cork taint, a vinegary smell, oxidation or reduction.
• The second nose
Swirl the wine in the glass for a few seconds. This aerates it and releases its secondary aromas.
At this stage, other, less volatile aromas should emerge.
Take a small sip of wine and move it around your mouth with your tongue, coating every area so you can pick up all the 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 provided for the purpose.
The Connoisseurs’ Corner
Did you know that in his masterpiece ‘Around the Moon’, Jules Verne sent his three protagonists on a mission to explore the Moon?
The characters celebrate their mission by raising a glass of Nuits-Saint-Georges on the Moon. In tribute to the novelist, Neil Armstrong left a wine label on the Moon during his exploration. It’s still there today!