If you’ve read our guide to vertical wine tastings, you’ll know that they’re all about sampling different vintages of the same wine to zero in on the influences of growing season and cellar aging on a bottle.
Horizontal wine tastings represent the other side of the same coin. Rather than holding geography constant and exploring the effects of time, horizontal tastings keep to the same year in order to better uncover the differences wrought by geography and producer styles.
This focus on geography makes horizontal tastings a superb way of familiarizing yourself with the ins and outs of a wine region like Burgundy.
What is a Horizontal Tasting?
A horizontal wine tasting is a structured tasting session where you sample different wines from the same vintage year.
Unlike vertical tastings, whose main purpose is to assess the effects of growing conditions and maturity, horizontal tastings hold those factors constant to explore the influence of geography and producer practices instead.
This opens the door to all sorts of interesting experiments, especially if you hold the grape variety constant too. For instance, how does a 2020 Pinot Noir from Burgundy compare to one from Australia, Chile, or California?
Certainly it’s great fun to travel the world like this, but with such enormous distance you generally won’t learn much beyond the fact that higher temperatures produce bolder, juicier, and more alcoholic wines.
That’s a fun lesson in itself, but more interesting in our experience are tastings that concentrate on a single geographic region… like Burgundy!
Burgundy Horizontal Wine Tastings
Burgundy is the perfect candidate for horizontal wine tastings. While the north is slightly cooler than the south, the weather conditions are generally quite similar across the whole region, allowing for the smaller differences in terroir and producer practice to shine.
And shine they do. Centuries of experience and family tradition have resulted in winemakers armed with an intimate understanding of their local terroir. Burgundians elevate and celebrate the minutest differences in geography, going so far as to name and identify the differences between individual vineyards, known as climats.
But for winemakers who have turned terroir into an art form, these micro-variations can result in surprisingly different wines from one acre to the next. South-facing slopes capture more sun, leading to bolder flavors, while cool shaded valleys are more conducive to elegance and restraint. Limestone, clay, and marl for their part can all provide different combinations of drainage and nutrients.
Over the centuries, generations of winemakers have learned and internalized exactly what makes their plot of land unique, and now produce their wines with the express intent of highlighting those unique differences.
And that doesn’t even touch on the differences between classifications like Grand Cru, Premier Cru, and Village wines.
How to do a Horizontal Wine Tasting
Setting up a horizontal tasting is similar to a vertical tasting, with the main difference being in the wine you choose.
Choosing the wine
Pick three or more bottles from the same vintage year, while introducing some level of geographic variation. Picking the wine is the second-best part (with the first best being tasting), so feel free to get creative!
For example, you can compare the fresh and mineral Chardonnays of Chablis with the rich golden whites of the Côte de Beaune. Try one red from the north (Côte de Nuits), one from the center (Côte de Beaune) and one from the south (Côte Chalonnaise)..
Perhaps even more interesting is to try different vineyards from the same producer, focusing down on the individual nature of nearby plots with surprisingly different terroir. Or explore the differences between Village, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru wines (keeping in mind that Grand and Premier Cru won’t shine until at least a couple of years aging have opened them up.)
Finally, to explore the differences between producer practices, choose wines from different producers farming nearby rows of vines in the same single vineyard from the same vintage. For example, over 80 different producers make wine from the Grand Cru vineyard Clos de Vougeot, and you’ll be surprised at the variation between them!
Setting up the horizontal tasting
If you have the glassware, set out one glass per bottle for every guest you’ve invited (so three glasses per guest if you’re tasting three bottles).
If you don’t have enough glasses, that’s fine too! Just make sure there’s no wine left at the bottom of the glass when you pour the second and third wines.
If you can find the time, do a bit of research into the particular wines you’re drinking. Most producers have a website detailing the geography of their vineyards, and it can be fun to keep these details in mind as you move through the tasting.
They can also provide useful information on what sorts of flavors you can expect from the wine. It’s best to start with the lightest wines and move your way up to the boldest to keep from overwhelming your palate. When in doubt, start with the wines with the lowest alcohol!
The Winetasting
Now for the best part.
1. Pour a small serving into every glass. (A typical tasting serving is about 2–3 ounces, but you you can always eyeball it. Just be sure to start with light pours)
2. Swirl the glass, note the color and aroma, then take a sip and reflect on what you’re tasting. Try swishing the wine around in your mouth and breathing out through your nose, tasting practices that accentuate the flavor of the wine through retronasal olfaction.
3. Take a few more small sips to get a sense of the details. What stands out to you? Feel free to take some notes and share your thoughts with your friends.
4. Once you’ve got a sense of the first wine, have a nibble of a plain cracker to clear your palate, and then pour the second bottle into your empty glasses. Then repeat the process.
Note: If you have the glassware to pour all the wines at once, try to leave a small amount in each glass so that you can return a little while later and taste all of them again. Often a little aeration and time in glass will reveal what the same wine might taste like - for better or worse - if given more time to age (a particularly good idea if you have additional bottles of any in your cellar).
Conclusion
Once you’ve finished the initial tasting, feel free to start in on any food you put out, or to go back and taste some of the earlier wines to see if you can spot anything different on the second pass.
Open up a discussion with your friends. Which wines were your favorites? Did you notice any of the differences that geography or producer might lead you to expect? Take note of your favorites - maybe you can compare them against others next time.
As always, be sure to enjoy yourself. That’s what wine is all about!
Santé!