‘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 280-character tweet (time and messages are relatively 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.
PG Wine Reviews
Reino de San Adrian Rioja 2016, Tempranillo Blanco
£5.79 Aldi
New in at Aldi, this aromatic white tastes of pear and pineapple.
Root:1 Chilean Sauvignon Blanc 2017
£6 Morrisons (down from £8 until February 27)
Nice fruity white: tinned pears, apples and apricots.
Co-op Irresistible Australian Chardonnay 2016
£6.99 Co-op
Fresh pear and lemon flavours.
Wild Thing Organic Sauvignon Blanc, Spain
£7.99 Vintage Roots
Refreshing white with light gooseberry and apple flavours.
Cune Rioja 2016, white
£8.99 Co-op
Subtle apple and pear flavours with a touch of peach. Creamy.
Tweet me a wine question @huxelrebe
© Paula Goddard 2018 www.paulagoddard.com
