What wine tastings are like, increasingly popular – 02/01/2024 – Food

Winemakers and sommeliers often use a curious expression to indicate the best way for those interested in wine to learn more about the drink. As important as studying traditional and historical aspects of the cultivation of grapes and their transformation into wine in theory, or understanding the influence of the production region and winemaking techniques, it is necessary to have “literacy”.

“You have to put the wine in your mouth, feel the aromas and flavors. To understand wine you have to learn in practice”, defended Daniel Perches, partner of the Encontro de Vinhos event, during the most recent edition organized by him, on Saturday ( 20), in Casa das Caldeiras, in the west zone.

While doing so can be expensive and time-consuming, requiring investment and dedication to buy bottles, drink and learn more about them, tasting events have become more popular in the country as they allow this process to be accelerated and cheaper. These are exhibitions in which the visitor buys a ticket, receives a glass of wine and moves between stands of producers, importers and resellers trying various bottles of the drink to get to know in practice (and in the mouth) the wines presented by them.

This is what is informally called gaining “literacy”: trying wines, evaluating their characteristics and creating your own repertoire. “It’s a way for everyone to know their taste, to know what they find most interesting to drink”, says Perches.

Fairs and events of this type have gained ground by bringing consumers (even the less experienced) closer to the wine market. Only in the second half of 2023, the capital of São Paulo hosted events such as those by the importer Mistral, Adega magazine, Prowine and the Encontro de Vinhos itself.

The experience can act as a crash course in drinking in practice. For the price of a single bottle of good wine (from around R$100) it is possible to discover dozens of different labels at once. In addition to the tasting, it is possible to buy the bottles that the visitor likes most, for prices starting at around R$50.

“It’s almost like a consultancy. The person walks around the place, meets wine lovers who work in the market, talks about the drink and tastes the different labels”, argues Perches.

Unlike fairs aimed at market specialists, the Meeting has stood out for being more informal and welcoming to a beginner audience. During the most recent event, the Sheet He approached almost all of the approximately 40 exhibitors claiming to know nothing about the drink, and received excited and detailed information about the countries, their regions and vineyards, the grapes and the preparation processes. To do this, they used simpler language, accessible to those who are just starting out in the world of wine.

Even without experience, the visitor could seek to discover wines that are more valued by the market and have a higher price – sometimes almost inaccessible. To this end, the event organizers carry out a blind test with the wines that exhibitors consider to be highlights in each edition. And visitors receive a leaflet indicating the “top 5”, with the best bottles that can be known even by those who have never paid more than R$50 for a wine to drink at home.

The Amorino Montepulciano dAbruzzo (which usually sells for R$300) was considered the best European red of the edition, while the Argentine Contramano Tannat (R$220) was the best red from the “new world”. Among the whites, the Poggio del Cardinale Est Est Est (R$ 117) was elected the best of the old world and the Uruguayan Mataojo (R$ 50), the best of the new world.

If the aim of the event is to provide “literage”, the reporter managed to try 78 different wines over the course of four hours, which is a very successful experiment in helping a new wine drinker (although it is important not to chug them all and drink plenty water at intervals).

But the wide variety of wines on display can make tasting somewhat confusing, and end up causing some people to overstay their welcome. That’s why Perches suggests attending the event with specific goals. “The visitor can come to try just one type of wine, for example. The person can focus on just whites, sparkling wines, just reds from a specific country or just one grape. There are more than 30 Cabernet Sauvignon options available, for example , which allows you to gain a lot of knowledge about it quickly”, he explains.

It was easy to see that it would be possible to make a selection like this only with Brazilian, Argentine, Italian and Chilean wines, for example. Or discover the production of countries less famous for the drink, such as Bolivia, Bulgaria and Moldova.

Despite talking about liters of wine, the idea of ​​the event is not to get drunk or stuffed. During tastings, each wine is served in very small doses (less than 20 ml), enough for one or two sips, just enough to get to know the drink. Experts who attend these meetings often prefer to spit out the drink after tasting it, to avoid excessive alcohol consumption.

“It’s not a party. Most people are here to learn, to gain knowledge. We realize that many people consume the drink consciously, and prefer the educational side of the experience”, says Perches.