04/15/08 Vertical Wine Tasting

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and yesterday we talked about a "Horizontal Wine Tasting". So today let's go in the other direction and talk about a "Vertical Wine Tasting". We discussed yesterday that a "Horizontal Wine Tasting" is a tasting of wines from the same vintage but different producers. In the other direction, a "Vertical Wine Tasting", is a tasting in which all of the wines are from consecutive vintages from the same producer. For example if each year a winery produces a Reserve Syrah, you could conduct a vertical tasting of each vintage for the last six years. Although there really isn't any rule, about how many wines are necessary for a Horizontal or a Vertical Tasting, it seems that at least six to eight make for an interesting tasting and more conversation. A "Vertical Wine Tasting" is one that many collectors hold if they are fans of a particular winery and purchase wines at every vintage release. If in fact the wine has been made by the same person - This is a great way to learn about the differences in vintages rather than winemaking styles. It will bring home just how important the weather is to the character of a wine year after year. Hopefully, the winery is respectful of those differences, and does not over manipulate the wines to produce an overly consistent product. That wouldn't be very interesting in a tasting such as this. Try organizing a "Vertical Wine Tasting" and see just what you can learn while having fun. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.