Tips for a Great Tasting Room Experience

Want to make your visit to a PA Wine Land tasting room the best it can be?

Then your wine “experience” should actually begin before you walk through the tasting room door.  Expect to taste some friendly and familiar wines, but also open your mind – and your wine glass – to exciting new experiences.

“We encourage our customers to open up a bit and venture into some unfamiliar territory!” advises Christine Carroll of Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Washington Crossing.  “We respect their comfort zones, but our advice is to try something new – and keep an open mind.  Your ‘favorite’ wine may be one you haven’t tasted yet.”

Caryn Dolan of Paradocx Vineyard in Landenberg says, “Our winery motto is ‘Uncork, relax, unwind.’  We always encourage our customers to smell, sip and enjoy their wine flight experience.” As Dolan points out, a wine flight of four different wines – which is what Pardocx offers – allows visitors to compare and contrast wines in a deliberate, relaxed manner.

Beyond this advice, here are the standard rules of wine tasting:

• Look for vibrancy in a wine’s color.
• Swirl the wine gently to allow it to open up.
• Take a sip and swish it around your mouth to reach all taste points.
• Slowly swallow, reflecting on what you have just tasted, noticing flavors, textures, the wine’s finish and how long it remains on the palate.  (No need to spit it out unless you are trying many wines or if you are the designated driver.)
• If you would like, take the time to jot down a few notes.  Note-taking will help you concentrate on what you’ve just tasted.

All wineries want you to be comfortable in your winery experience, realizing the more Pennsylvania wines you sample during your repeat visits to wineries, the more you can appreciate the range of great wines available – and the better you and your palate can enjoy them.

Learn more about the exciting world of your PA Wine Land by checking in regularly at www.PAWineLand.com.  There you will find information on upcoming wine events for Pennsylvania’s 12 wine trails and its more than 150 wineries as well as wine tips and wine information.

And while you’re on the road, find nearby wineries by using the mobile website at m.pennsylvaniawine.com.

Check us out:  Our wine glass is always more than halfway full.