Red Wine Tasting Party: Types of Wine Tastings

My White Wine Tasting Party article is a companion to this one and covers the first echelon of tasting types, Horizontal and Vertical, along with a General Tasting explanation. The types of wine tastings herein branch out to include Old World vs. New World wines and a fun Vintage Wars Wine Tasting.

First, check out the Horizontal and Vertical definitions in my white wine article and then circle back here to figure out the details of how you want to conduct your tasting.

The type of wine tasting outlined for this party is that of a General Tasting where guests are comparing red wines all within a certain price point per bottle. My list of 5 Red Wines for the Tasting suggests some terrific choices. You may wish to get more specific such as tasting the same varietal or grape, for example all bottles must be Cabernet Sauvignon. Or you could consider one of these tasting types.

Old World Wine vs. New World Wine Tasting

• Did you see the movie "Bottle Shock?" This wine lover's tale was about the first time a wine from the United States (New World Wine) beat a wine from Europe (Old World Wine) in a tasting competition; more specifically wines from Napa Valley beat wines from France. Here's the story on Chateau Montelena's website, the prevailing white wine producer from the 1976 tasting.
• Old World Wines are wines from certain areas of Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria), and New World wines are pretty much from everywhere else (North America and the Southern Hemisphere).
• When hosts choose this type of tasting they like to pair an Old World varietal against the same or similar version of the New World varietal, such as a French Bordeaux versus a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, to differentiate winemaking styles and personal preferences of grapes grown and vinted in different parts of the world.
• Go deeper with your tasting notes for this type of party and include historical facts about the wineries along with some info about the soil in which the grapes were grown, a big factor for comparing the old versus the new.

Vintage Wars Wine Tasting

• For the wine newbie, paying attention to a wine's vintage or the year the grape was harvested may be too much to take on for a tasting. But if your group has advanced beyond "this tastes like cherries" you may want to try this tasting idea.
• Get your hands on a Vintage Chart, like this one from Wine Enthusiast. A Vintage Chart provides a point system that "grades" the climate and other factors specific to wine-producing areas with the goal of determining the potential for great-tasting wine to be made and its timeliness with regard to consumption.
• So the way this tasting works is that tasters would compare the same varietal from a few producers in the same area but from grapes grown in two different years. (It's similar to a Vertical Tasting, but with more than one producer.)
• You determine the years by looking at the Vintage Chart to see which area scored the highest for the varietal in a given year. For example, a good comparison might be 2004 vs. 2002 Pinot Noir wines from Oregon or 2002 vs. 1998 Australian Shiraz wines.
• The further back you go the more expensive the wine may be or it may be hard to come by. If you are choosing older vintages, make sure you buy from a trustworthy source to be certain that the wine has been stored properly all these years.
• The Vintage Chart will also tip you off about the wine's drinkability letting you know when the wine is supposed to be at its peak or past its prime, so bring it along as a buying guide and display it at the tasting party if you like.