We were excited when we received the invitation to attend the launch event for Hewlett Packard’s newest ultra book the Envy Spectre XT. The invitation promised a night of celebration at an exclusive downtown Toronto wine cellar complete with wine tasting class with Angela Aiello, the founder of Toronto wine club, iYellow Wine Club. As we turned on a sleepy side street in downtown Toronto, we entered a beautiful brick building and were greeted at the front door. Access to the facilities is strictly controlled by gadgets you would see in a James Bond film, complete with a finger scan controlled entry way. The decor of the cellar is intimate and welcoming, and is topped off with luxurious state of the art details throughout the space. After chatting with a few of the other guests we were invited into the formal dining space where we educated on wine tasting. Here’s a little bit of what we learned:
1) The Swirl – Slowly swirl the wine around in your glass and watch the wine’s legs (streaks of wine on the side of the glass pooling back into the rest of the wine)
2) The Smell – Small bursts of sniffing the aromas from the wine heighten the senses as you try and decipher between the different notes of a dark red or sparkling white.
3) The Taste – Swish a small amount of wine around your mouth, coating your palette thoroughly, but be sure not to over do it (it’s wine, not Listerine!). After swallowing, drink a little more of the wine, this time by sucking back a small amount of wine while allowing the liquid to roll back on the tongue, from front to back.
These are the golden rules to anyone wanting to learn some of the basics to becoming a wine connoisseur. Its optional to spit or swallow the wine at the end of your tasting, but the latter is usually a lot more fun. Mixing this wine tasting lesson and the beautiful venue space to host the launch of the HP Envy Spectre XT was a smart move for HP as the company has increasingly become a brand known for developing products for stylish and busy consumers. To learn more about our experience using the new HP Spectre XT at home click here to check out the post, and try out those 3 golden rules the next time you pour a glass of vino. Cheers!
