‘Relax’: A beginner’s guide to Okanagan wine tasting

Saying something like “a fruit-forward, crisp and unctuous blend” when you gargle and spit a sip of wine into a bucket, isn’t actually the point of going to a wine tasting in the Okanagan.

Andrea Jittler used to be a chef in Italy for several years before becoming the manager at Tightrope Winery near Penticton. She told iNFOnews.ca learning about wine and going on a tasting can be intimidating, but it’s more important to be open-minded and curious rather than trying to employ some expertise.

“Be open to trying something new. Pace yourself, and relax,” she said. “People think you need to have lots of knowledge when it really just comes down to what you enjoy.”

She said being patient with a new wine is important since it takes a little while for the flavour to actually set in on your tastebuds, especially if you’ve eaten something tasty or spicy before trying the wine.

“It’s always good to like, disregard the first sip. And then the second sip is sort of going to get you a little bit there, but not quite. But the third sip is really allowing yourself to experience the wine,” Jittler said. “You’re not going to get the gist of it by having a tiny sip and saying that you don’t like it.”

Booking a whole day of winery tours and tasting is a good time, but by the end of the day not only is the alcohol having an effect, but your palette is going to be skewed by the wine you tried throughout the day.

“By the fourth winery you think everything tastes great,” she said. “You gotta pace yourself and hydrate.”

Rather than getting bogged down by an attempt at objectivity by looking at the legs or the flavour notes it’s better to try to find something you like.

“You really don’t need to know any of that. You just have to enjoy the wine,” Jittler said. “It’s not about what you know, it’s about what you enjoy.”

For tourists coming to the Okanagan to check out wine country, asking questions is the best way to have a good experience, including asking wineries about other wineries to try.

“What are you known for? Each winery is known for something different… asking about the stories, because that will tell you more about the wine that you’re drinking in the glass,” she said. “Ask the winery, where do you recommend? Always ask for the recommends.”

There are some regional differences to vineyards within the Okanagan.

Jittler said wineries further south will generally be able to make more red wines and as you travel further north you’ll get more white wine.

When it comes to wine pairings Jittler said some easy rules to follow are matching up the flavours in the wine with the flavours in the food, or using food to ease the flavours in a strong wine.

“If you have a very dry wine, that’s very lemony and very dry. If you have something that has a little bit of citrus or lemon in it, like chicken souvlaki with lemon,” she said. “Same as with the Chardonnay, like it’s slightly oaked. It has a little bit of butteriness. You pair that with a roasted chicken that has a little bit of fattiness to it… it’ll be like a little marriage made in heaven, because it just softens that wine.”

People dedicate their careers to learning about wine so there is always more to learn, so she thinks anyone interested in wine should just start exploring.

“Go off the beaten track. There’s a lot of tiny wineries out there and a lot of people pick the big ones, and then they miss the little ones… there’s some hidden gems out there,” she said.