Anyone been to a wine tasting before?

Yes, yes I have.

Yeah. Boring as fuck. Did it for a friend's birthday and it sucked. You have to be interested in wine to like it.

Yup

Prefer Brewery tours/tasting tho

No, nobody on this message board has been to a wine tasting before.

subpar spatula said:

Yeah. Boring as fuck. Did it for a friend's birthday and it sucked. You have to be interested in wine to like it.

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Person who doesn't enjoy wine hates wine tasting.

Did it during a friend's bachelor party.

Got preeeeeetty drunk which was nice.

Went on a mini road trip with my gf and a friend too and found a cute little wine place in some tiny town, and they enjoyed it too (I was DD so didn't get to partake :<)

Yes. It's not my cup of tea but if friends are going I'm down

I biked to a wine shop and it was a place run by some cool dudes who kept popping magnums of burgundy and random weird german wines from the 80s and it cost me zero dollars and it was ridiculously amazing. also we opened a bottle of champagne with a sword. I bought a case of wine because it was stupid and fun and great and those guys were awesome. basically the opposite of the experience you'd expect from a "wine tasting"

my brother is a huge wine nerd so I've gone back to this shop a number of times. Buying him a champagne saber for his birthday too; nothing like drinking and playing with swords

Yes, I have. Usually when I go to the wineries where I live I do a tasting before selecting a wine. Just in case I want to try something different. There's a local authentic Swedish winery that serves Glögg, and I can't wait until it gets cold enough to drink it.

The aching middle-classness of it all? The fuck OP?

Usually they come to me (I curate the wine list at the restaurant I manage) but I go to a few per month.

It's fun for me since I get to see a lot of friends and familiar faces in the industry. I choose to spit since I'm usually taking extensive notes but it's nice to try a bunch of wines I'll never be able to afford.

Yeah. I prefer brewery tours with samples, although depending on the crowd beer snobs can be even worse than wine snobs.

What? They're fun! I love doing those. Beer tasters are great too. Never really thought of it as a middle class thing. I used to go some with a friend when I was in college.

Sure, they're cool.

Not much of a wine drinker anymore though.

Although, I'm not sure there's anything more boorish than the low key classist bull shit in your post.

Yup, quite a few different times in SLO and Napa. It's usually a fun time, but I'm not too much of a wino so the experience is kinda lost on me. Sparkling wine though, that's my shit

Wine tastings are cool if a little too boujee for me

I learned that you can just spit the wine into a bucket instead of drinking it so that you don't get wasted after your third winery

No but I have seen frasier several times.

Done wine tours in California.

I'm more of a beer guy myself.

Done it multple time. We do mini vacation based around wine tasting. I've done it in several midwest state and never really felt it was fancy. Most places are run and staffed by the owners who are happy to chat normally.

Sometimes I go to Total Wine on the weekends

ElectricBlanketFire said:

Person who doesn't enjoy wine hates wine tasting.

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Person unable to read gets confused about my statement.

Wine and beer tastings are awesome if you go somewhere with good stuff and knowledgable people who can teach you about what they have (or if you go with people you like). I guess it's pretty bourgeois, but I'm pretty bourgeois and I've made my peace with it.

Here in Melbourne that's like a usual weekend option so must have been to dozens by now. I love vineyards but prefer beer myself.

Yeah, went to one at the Biltmore estate in Asheville, NC. It was fun, and their wines were pretty good.

Went with a group of friends for a work team outing a couple months ago.

It was fun, but only because my coworkers are fun people and we had a large group. Wouldn't ever do it on my own because i'm the only one in my family that drinks.

It's definitely a frou-frou activity. Especially if you go with a wine snob. Try not to laugh at the ridiculous flavor descriptions they come up with to try to sell a bottle.

they're alright. prefer beer tastings/whiskey tastings though.

Yep, the older I get the more I enjoy them. No need to worry about wine snobs because most of them are full of it.

I used to go once a week here with my friends. Love it. But the store closed. :(

They told me this was dry, but it's obviously wet.

Yes, smaller store/festival ones. Not vinyard ones.

I mean ive had a wine tasting house party at a friends house if that counts.
We scored them out of 10 on a spreadsheet like fuckin gamers, and had cheese and crackers and fruit.
I can dig whatever class that is.

Yes, multiple times. I live in Argentina, where a lot of high quality wine is produced. I love wine more and more as I get older, even if I´m not drinking alcohol at all because of health reasons.

In January I went to my last "wine tour" in Mendoza, a sunny mountainous region known for its fabled Malbec. It was particularly interesting because of two factors:
-The tour combined a visit to a state-of-the-art, high tech winery with another to a old-school, XIXth century, family-managed one. The contrasts were fascinating.
-It was the first wine tasting I did with my wife, who generally is indifferent to wine. She was initially sceptical and even bothered by the idea of spending half a day drinking wine, but she ended up loving the experience.

I toured an english vineyard down in cornwall and learnt about how they grow the grapes properly and it was great. Saw the bottling process too, and then finished the day by sampling a whole load of wines and ciders. It was great! Why wouldn't anyone like that.

shaneo632 said:

I live near a posh wine shop and they do weekly free wine tastings. Ended up trying like 12 different wines and 6 different beers. Ended up feeling pretty buzzed without paying anything, and they had cheese and meats. I dig it if you can tolerate the aching middle-classness of it all.

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Middle classless of it all? What lol.

They're rather pedestrian things.

subpar spatula said:

Yeah. Boring as fuck. Did it for a friend's birthday and it sucked. You have to be interested in wine to like it.

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Back to OP,

They're alright. I live in CA and we are pretty spoiled for choice here if you are a wine drinker. Personally I hate when they go on about the history of the vine and the soil its grown in and yadayadayadayada. I think people go into wine tasting like its an experience unto itself (sometimes it is) when its usually just drinking and hanging out with friends like going to a bar.

i have, in tuscany. it was interesting.

It really depends on the winery that you go to.

I've been a few times and it always goes one of two ways: super straight to the point and bland or super interesting and fun. I went to a winery in Nashville that was on a plantation (Belle Meade Plantation). Other than the initial terrible feeling on being on a plantation that was once run by someone who owned slaves (some of which were buried on the property) the building/winery itself was rich with history and made for a great day. The wine was great, too.

Yes, been to a lot with my work.

I've visited a handful of vineyards here in England too. Not a massive industry here obviously, and you don't always get fantastic value, but it's great to see how far it's come.

I have since stopped drinking, but I have been to several. They're not formal ones where you spit out after tasting, but you swallow and usually get a glass of your favorite. Then you repeat for 3 more wineries on a tour bus. Popular in Fredericksburg near Austin. By the time the bus gets you back to Austin your BAC should be below the limit unless you drank 2 glasses at the last 2 wineries.

I've been to several, as well as beer and spirit tastings. I enjoy them :)

Yes, but the tastings I went to usually just had one or two actually good wines among a sea of mediocre ones. Good wines generally sell themselves I guess, don't need to organize tastings. Still a fun activity of course. Wine is great, doing the snobbish turning and looking and smelling a nice way to appreciate it even more.

Yes wine a few times, a wine/beer festival with tastings, even a tequila tasting, once. They're cool as a date night/couples thing.

I was going to comment on the class shaming or whatever it is but it's probably just projection.

No and I don't intend to go to one. When I drink, I try to taste as little as possible. So, just getting the taste with none of the benefit sounds like a raw deal.

I've been to the Savannah Food and Wine festival. Fantastic event I recommend it for anyone that lives near Savannah.

i have done a fair bit of wine tasting in my travels: sonoma, mendoza, stellenbosch. wine regions tend to be in beautiful parts of the world so even if you arent into wine you can enjoy the natural beauty while having a drink and maybe some food. i have also done it at smaller wineries in the northeast US, where the wine isnt as good, but its still fun.