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Horizontal
and Vertical Wine Tastings
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Horizontal
tastings and Vertical tastings of wine are two different ways
of comparing wines side by side. Since the best way to judge the
differences (and similarities) in wines is to taste them side
by side, some different concepts have developed regarding the
organization of those tastings.
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When you
are going to hold a wine tasting, you can decide to have: a general
tasting, a vertical tasting or a horizontal tasting. The differences
between the types are:
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General
Tasting - This is a free-for-all. There are no real limitations
on the wines that you have involved. You may, of course, limit
the wines to those from a particular part of the world, or grape
variety, or price range or whatever other criteria that you select.
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Horizontal
Tasting - A Horizontal Tasting involves wines that all come from
the same vintage. You decide the vintage and you determine if
you are going to place any other limitations on the wines involved.
You might decide to have only red wines, or wines from a single
grape variety or just "Bordeaux First Growths"; but,
the wines will all be from a single vintage. A horizontal tasting
is a good way to see which winery was most successful within a
given year. You can also begin to detect styles for which a given
winery may be known. For instance, if you had a horizontal tasting
of wines that all came from the 1997 vintage and were only Cabernet
Sauvignons from the Napa Valley, you would find that some of the
wines were 'bigger' and had more aging potential. Others might
express more forward bouquet at an early age. This type of tasting
tells you more about the producers than about the vintage since
you are really comparing multiple wineries instead of different
years.
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Vertical
Tasting - A vertical tasting involves wines from different vintages
but all the wines will come from the same winery. If the winery
produces more than one type of wine, you would select a single
wine from that winery and taste multiple vintages of that wine.
For instance, you might have 5 vintages of Chateau Mouton Rothschild
(a famous wine from Bordeaux in France). When you hold a Vertical
tasting, you are learning more about the differences between different
vintages rather than the differences in wineries.
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There
is no rule or accepted practice about the number of wines that
you need for a Horizontal or Vertical Wine Tasting. I suppose
you could just have two wines tasted together and that would qualify.
I tend to think that a minimum of three wines or, more usually,
5 or 6 wines makes a more interesting tasting. Some of the Wine
and Food Festivals or other big events may have hundreds of different
wines available. You can make your own Horizontal tasting at one
of these events quite easily by limiting your tasting to a particular
type of wine from the primary vintage that is being poured.
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