Navigate a Wine Festival

Attending wine festivals should be a lot of fun. However, the fun can be marred if you realize you have consumed too much alcohol, which is easy to do without proper and careful planning. Follow these steps to derive the most enjoyment from a wine festival, while being responsible, avoiding a hangover, and not being annoying.

Steps

 * 1) [[Image:San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival 7618.jpg|thumb|150px|Even chocolate is a snack!|right]] Eat just before the festival, and snack throughout your time at the festival. Many wine festivals include food booths or stalls and often feature local produce. It is likely that you will be able to enjoy such foods as cheese, olive oil tastings with crackers, bread, olives, dried fruits, etc. Take time to enjoy this food as well as the wine and your body will absorb less alcohol as a result.
 * 2) Drink equal parts water and wine or, better yet, more water than wine. The easiest way to accomplish this is to carry your own water with you. While many booths will provide water, sometimes they run out, and you also don't want to hold up the line drinking water in addition to wine.
 * 3) *Drinking a lot of water will probably mean that you end up taking several trips to the toilet, but doing this will keep you from getting dehydrated, especially if the weather is warm.
 * 4) Have a plan of attack. Stick with the following order and select only a few wines from within each range. Do not double back! The recommended order is:
 * 5) *[[Image:San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival 7054.jpg|140px|thumb|Light white wine first please!|right]] Try the white wines first, then the reds, and finally the sparkling wines and ports. Also try dry before sweet and light before full-bodied wine.
 * 6) *Take your time to smell the wine before trying it. This is an important part of the sampling experience. Try to guess the aromas coming from the wine in each glass.
 * 7) *Remember your wine tasting skills. Smell, swirl, see, sip. Follow this, and you will get the best of your wine. For more tips on how to taste the wine, see How to Taste Wine.
 * 8) Spit two or three of every five wines you sample if you can't spit them all. At least some of the tastings should be just that; mere tastings.
 * 9) *Carry your own spit cup (spittoon). This gets around the problem of no such cups being available, although a good wine festival should account for this adequately. You can rinse the spit cup regularly with the water that is usually supplied. If not, nip into the bathroom and rinse it out periodically.
 * 10) [[Image:Food And Wine Festival 1839.jpg|170px|right]] Keep a record of your favorite wines rather than trying to quaff down more of them. If you find a wine you really like, write it down and stick the information in your pocket. Plan to buy it later to enjoy in the comfort and safety of your home.
 * 11) Have a designated driver or some plan to avoid driving. It is always safer to have a non-drinker in charge of the driving. Organize this in advance, or have a taxi or booze bus booked in advance.

Video
In this video, get tips from Lakewood winemaker Chris Stamp on how to enjoy a wine festival.

Tips

 * Alcohol is a toxin and for all its good, it still needs to be flushed out of your system. For each drink you consume, drink twice the amount of water. Alcohol can cause dehydration; this is another reason to drink water, especially when you are consuming alcohol in the heat out of doors.
 * Be sure to have a bag that will carry your personal items such as phone, wallet, diary, etc., without falling forward whenever you lean over the taste wines. You will only have enough hands for wines and nibbles!

Warnings

 * Avoid dehydration! Drink water continuously.

Things You'll Need

 * Carry a small bag to collect all the information and goodies you collect.
 * A small notebook and a pen.
 * bottle of water that fits in a bag or has a strap

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