One of the things I love most of all about running corporate virtual wine tastings is helping people to find their wine words. So many corporate virtual wine tastings (and indeed, real life wine tastings) seem to in advertently talk down to people, or most of the content goes right over most of the audience’s head. That’s not a good event for anyone – either the presenter or the audience!
Corporate virtual wine tastings should be fun. Most people don’t want to get too deep into the wine world – they want to know a few things that they didn’t know before and have something to say at their next Zoom call/dinner party/family chat. There are specialists out there – of course there are – and if you’re really into vintage Bordeaux or natural wines then there’ll be a wine tasting out there for you.
But for most people, it’s not about that. It’s about helping them to find their voice, to be able to not just say that they like a wine but giving them the words and the confidence to say why they like it. Which is simple and difficult all at the same time – most people are very articulate and can describe tastes, sensations and feelings in detail – but for some reason, when it comes to wine, they clam up! They don’t want to look silly or say the wrong thing – so I spend a lot of time on my corporate virtual wine tastings helping everyone to feel included, empowered and able to feel confident to speak up and say what they feel, and what they taste.
A great corporate virtual wine tasting can feel just like a ‘real life’ event when you get the chemistry right and people feel confident that their opinions will be heard. You just need to create the right environment for them to do so.
Here are five simple rules for helping people to feel confident talking about wine:
1) Trust yourself. If you can talk about why you and don’t like food, you can do the same for wine
2) Memories matter. A lot of your palate was shaped in childhood. Most British people didn’t eat olives as a kid – most Italians do. That changes your taste in adulthood
3) You don’t have to love the wine. It’s fine to not like something. Be confident to say what you do and don’t enjoy!
In my next blog I’ll talk about how to get a group interacting at a corporate virtual winetasting.
Take care till then xxx
