Wine Tours

Tips for Touring

• All those sips add up – choose a designated driver or take a guided tour and leave the driving to others. Cycling wine tourists should limit their wine intake to ensure they remain safe along their route. 
• Call ahead for hours; booking in advance for tastings and tours is often recommended and sometimes required. Some wineries are open year round, others are seasonal, and some have irregular hours.
• Travelling in a group? Call ahead to book a tour or to advise smaller wineries.
• Tasting and tour fees are at the discretion of the winery. Many wineries offer complimentary tastings, while tours and tastings at some wineries may cost a nominal fee.
• On the day you'll be tasting, do not apply strong perfumes or colognes as this affects how well you and those around you can smell the wine.
• Wine spoils in the heat so don't leave it in a hot trunk too long; bring a cooler to store your wine purchases when travelling during warm weather.
• The legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19; winery tours are typically open to all ages, but those under 19 years of age will not be permitted to taste wines.
• Check the winery websites for release dates to ensure the wines you are most interested in sampling will be available when you visit. Many of the wines you'll taste are limited vintages, available only at the winery. If you like one, buy it onsite.
• Attend a wine festival where you can sample a wide variety of wines. Then decide which vineyards you would most like to visit.
• You can't taste them all, so focus your wine touring. Taste only reds or be even more specific and taste only Merlots. Then you can explore how the wine changes from one vineyard to another.
• When planning your route, include other attractions of the area: a lavender farm, a goat cheese producer, a farmers market or an orchard for fresh fruit.
• Break up your tasting and touring with a sumptuous meal at one of the wineries – many have wonderful restaurants or bistros with spectacular vineyard views. Or pack a picnic and spread your blanket on the hills overlooking the vineyard. Most wineries welcome picnickers.

Tips for Tasting

The first inclination is to take a sip, but there is more to the tasting experience.

Look
Tilt the glass and really look at the wine.

• Red wines vary greatly in colour and as they age, display hints of reddish-brown at the edges.
• White wines become more golden as they age.
• As a rule, the darker the wine, the more full-bodied the taste.

Smell
The tongue can only detect four flavours while the nose can detect thousands. This is why wine connoisseurs use the term "on the nose".

Gently swirl the wine in its glass.

• As you swirl, the alcohol vaporizes, releasing the aroma of the wine.
• Draw the aromas in through your nose and try to identify what you smell - sage, clover, apricots, plums, blackberries?

Taste
Sweetness is sensed at the tip of the tongue, bitterness at the back, acidity on the sides.

• Take a small amount into your mouth and swirl it around.
• Is the wine sweet, acidic, crisp, light or full-bodies?
• Are you still tasting it ten seconds later? Did you taste change as you finished?

Feel
"Feel" is the touch of wine on your tongue.

• Is it rich, full, lean, light or bubbly?
• Does it tingle at the edges of your tongue?
• Tannins, for example, feel dry on the tongue, like biting into a grape seed.

Spit and Dump
Not drinking all the wine in the glass enables tasters to sample more wines.

• It's okay to spit. The winery will provide a bucket for just this purpose.
• It is also okay to pour the remainder into the bucket.

Cleanse

• Eating plain crackers or white bread between tastings will cleanse your palate and allow you to taste the next sample with more clarity.

For more information about identifying the flavours and aromas of BC wine visit Wine BC's Five Minute Expert page.

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