White Wine Tasting Party: Types of Wine Tastings

Let's face it, most of us are technically challenged with regard to the official checklist of wine tasting, which includes tannins, legs, and so forth. But, we are all masters of our palates and a night of tasting can romance the most casual wine drinker into becoming passionate oenophile.

If you've ever researched wine tasting, chances are you've come across two main types of tastings: Horizontal and Vertical. Everything else is lumped into the category of General Tastings, which is how most people conduct their wine tasting party.

The goal of any wine tasting is comparison and discovery. What you are comparing is determined by the type of tasting.

Horizontal Tasting

• The classic Horizontal Tasting includes wines from the same vintage or year that the grape was harvested. However, many also stipulate that the tasting includes the same varietal or grape, for example all Chardonnay.
• The goal with this type of tasting is to determine which wine producer excelled that year and to determine your personal preferences with regard to their winemaking talents.

Vertical Tasting

• A Vertical Tasting is what you've probably experienced if you have ever gone wine tasting at an actually winery. This type involves tasting different varietals of wine from different years but all made from the same producer.
• The goal with this tasting is to determine the skill of the winemaker with specific varietals and to experience nuances from different vintages with respect to the varietals.

General Tasting

• A General Tasting has no rules, except to discover what the tasters like about each bottle of wine. In following the lead of this article, the guidelines simply suggest tasting white wines within a certain budget, and in the world of wine, you get what you pay for.