‘So what do you think the wine tastes of?’ is one of the one of the most frightening questions to be asked during an evening class in wine appreciation. Because not only is your ability to pronounce waffle being judged but also how well you’ve got the whole body language thing under control. Because bum shuffling and mumbling gets ‘nul points’ when you’re face-to-face with teacher. But what if all that could be avoided? It can if your wine class meets online through Twitter.
Twitter is a way for a bunch of people to talk to one another online. And if they have a shared interest even better. So wine enthusiasts can interact and type messages discussing what a wine tastes like and whether it matches certain foods – all without setting eyes on each other and from the comfort of the front room.
Which should reduce the pressure a bit if your last experience of learning was a draughty classroom and a chalk-chucking teacher.
So how do you go about organising a wine class on Twitter?
First you’ll need to create a Twitter account (just go to Twitter.com and fill in the online form) and convince several like-minded friends to do the same. Then encourage everyone to ‘follow’ each other (that’s Twitter language for reading messages from the people you chose) and announce with your first ‘tweet’ when the first tasting takes place.
Use your second 140-character tweet (time and messages are short on Twitter) to announce the particular wine to taste during the first ‘class’. Suggest a wine that’ll be easy to get – a well-known brand available from supermarkets and corner shops is a good choice.
And on the night of the tasting make sure all your tweets, and everyone else’s, contains a keyword preceded by the # symbol so that the #tasteclass tweets are tagged and don’t get lost among the rest of the Twitter traffic.
The following wines make good choices for a Twitter tasting.
Then let me know how it goes through Twitter @huxelrebe.
PG Wine Reviews
M&S Reggiano Rosso 2014, Italy
£6 M&S
Tastes of cherry Tunes throat pastles.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Chilean Sauvignon Blanc 2015
£6 Sainsbury’s (down from £8 until February 2)
A really nice balanced wine that tastes equally of lemon and gooseberry.
The Little Penguin Australian Shiraz 2014
£6.50 Sainsbury’s
Sweet liquorice and cherry flavours.
Les Jamelles Reserve Mourvedre 2013, France
£7.49 Co-op
Cherry, liquorice and star anise spiciness.
Chateau des Jacques Moulin-à-Vent 2011, Beaujolais France
£13 Sainsbury’s (down from £16 until February 23)
Lots of dosh but it is from a named French chateau in a famous wine region plus it’s been aging since 2011 so someone has to foot the bill. Which is you if you like bramble and liquorice tasting wine made from the Gamay grape.
Tweet me a wine question @huxelrebe
© Paula Goddard 2016 www.paulagoddard.com
