TastingRoom.com Tasting Kit

I received my TastingRoom.com tasting kit a couple weeks ago, and finally had time to review the wines they sent me to customize my next wine club shipment.

For $10, you get:

6, 50 mL bottles of wine to taste (2 white, 4 red)
1. 2010 Ten Sisters Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
2. 2010 Loophole Santa Barbara Chardonnay
3. 2011 Hangtime California Pinot Noir
4. 2010 Château Tour Saint-Georges Bordeaux
5. 2011 Elelin Vineyard Selection Patagonia Malbec
6. 2010 Fortuna Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon
White & red wine tasting mat
Instructions

What you need is:

6 clean wine glasses
the white wines chilled
about 15 minutes

TastingRoom gives you this snazzy video showing you what's in the kit, and how to properly taste the wines

As instructed, I started with the two white wines. They came out of the refrigerator and sat for 5 minutes, then I dumped them into the glasses, which sat ontop of the circles for white wine 1 and 2 on the tasting mat. Each bottle is numbered, so make sure you pour bottle 1 into glass 1, and bottle 2 into glass 2.

I swirled, I sniffed, I sipped, and I thought. What I like about the instructions is the last line of the “Think” process: “There's no wrong answer!” This is what YOU think of the wine, not what others think! And you don't have to explain yourself… just go to tastingroom.com/rate and tell them if you like white #1 or white #2 better, then specify if you like it “a little” better, or “a lot.”

After the whites, set up 4 fresh glasses on the red side of the tasting mat, pour out the bottles, and start comparing: bottle 3 vs. bottle 4, then onto bottle 5, then finally bottle 6. This round works a bit different, as you compare 3 vs 4, then that winner goes against 5, then that one is compared to 6. In my case, 3 beat 4, then 3 beat 5, and finally 3 beat 6.

Now in a couple of weeks, TastingRoom.com will send me a case of wine (that's 12 bottles) based on the wines I reviewed. The cost of this case is $85, and that includes shipping!