Session 6: Age & Vintage

Age & Vintage

This week we will discover how time and weather affect the wine in your glass. Why do some wines need drinking young and others need laying down for a few years? How do different wines mature over time? Is old wine always better wine? How does the weather during the harvest affect the final product, and how is climate change affecting wine? We’ll be looking at all the different components of wine to answer these questions, so this session is perfect for beginners!

This week’s session will be led by Victoria Phan, winner of the Top Taster award in the 2024 Oxford–Cambridge Blind Tasting Varsity Competition, and international wine tasting competitor.

We will provide six white and six red wines for the tasting.

We ask that you please aim to arrive 10-15 minutes before the session begins so that we can begin pouring immediately.

Tasting glasses: we ask that you please bring your own set of SIX tasting glasses to this and all future session. We will not be providing tasting glasses because we do not have the ability to wash and store hundreds of glasses and don’t want to pay corkage at our venues! Glasses are available to buy on our website here. You will be able to collect your glasses at the next tasting that you attend.

CUBWTS tasting guide: Our Tasting Guide, which is a phenomenal reference if you wish to learn more about blind tasting, is also available for purchase on our website here. It goes through a huge number of grape varieties and their identifiable features (including all the bankers) — an invaluable source of information. We highly recommend purchasing one!