What is a Horizontal Wine Tasting?

You may have heard a friend tell you about a horizontal tasting, or you may have been asked to participate in one? Vinatis demystifies this type of tasting.

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Horizontal Tasting

Horizontal tasting makes us smile when it is mentioned, as we can well imagine ourselves lying on the sofa with a glass of wine in our hands and pretending to be highly professional! It is actually, unlike vertical tasting, a tasting of several wines from the same vintage. More frequent than vertical tasting, it is above all more accessible and is not limited to wine professionals. Horizontal tasting can be done in different ways, as long as it respects the principle of the same vintage in order to put all the cuvées on the same footing. The idea is to discover an appellation, to better understand the concept of AOC, or to grasp the characteristics of a grape variety, a terroir or the style of a winemaker! The possibilities are numerous. The objective is of course to progress in the knowledge of wine, just like with vertical tasting.

Discovering an Appellation

Horizontal tasting is the ideal opportunity to discover an appellation. Since the Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée all meet strict specifications, and therefore have very specific characteristics, tasting several wines from the same AOC makes it possible to determine what makes a particular wine a good or bad ambassador for its appellation. It highlights the terroir, the authorised grape varieties, as well as the style of the winemaker. For although all the wines of the same appellation must meet certain common criteria, no two are alike. When wine journalists or great tasters come to the wineries to taste the new vintages, they carry out a horizontal tasting.

Different domaines, different styles

The winegrower is an artist of viticulture and vinification. Each decision they make, each action they take in the vineyard or in the cellar brings its own result. Even if several cuvées are from the same appellation and the same vintage, no two are alike - which is due to the work of the winemaker. Several factors come into play. You may find in your glass the particularities of a biodynamic agriculture, or the very woody style of a winemaker who uses oak barrels. Horizontal tasting allows you to compare all the wines from the same vineyard and the same year in order to reveal the precise work carried out in the parcels and in the cellar. To discover all the Vinatis partner estates and châteaux, consult our directory of winegrowers from all over the world, divided by wine-producing region.

Varied soils, varied wines

In the same appellation, even if it only concerns a few hectares of vines, it is possible to find different types of soil. Horizontal tasting allows us to detect the variations in taste brought about by the soil and its characteristics. The famous historical appellation Châteauneuf-du-Pape, for example, with its 13 authorised grape varieties and 4 distinct soil types, produces wines that have nothing to do with each other. The aromatic palette of Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines is absolutely varied, since a grape variety can express itself differently depending on whether it is planted on a parcel of rolled pebbles or sand! The rolled pebbles produce powerful and warm wines, whereas the sand brings great finesse to the wines of this same appellation, with the same grape varieties and the same vintage!

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The Terroir in the Spotlight

Horizontal tasting is an excellent way to understand the notion of terroir. For estates or wine merchants with different parcels in different AOCs, it is the best way to explore and understand the characteristics of each terroir. It is also an opportunity to demonstrate the work and talent of the winemaker in places with different difficulties.

Burgundy, Champion of Horzontal Tastings

The Burgundy vineyard, with its hundreds of appellations and clos, is the ideal place for horizontal tasting. It is not uncommon in Burgundy for a single estate or trading house to have several parcels located on different terroirs. This type of tasting is then favoured, as it allows the particularities of each terroir and their effect on the wine to be observed on all the cuvées. Moreover, as Burgundy does not blend any wines and only makes single-variety cuvées, the exercise is all the more interesting.

Our Vinatis experts particularly recommend an estate for this horizontal tasting exercise: Domaine Chanson, where the excellence of the product can be tasted from one vintage to another. This historic estate owns several parcels in different AOCs, Clos and even monopoles! With Domaine Chanson, it is an opportunity to understand and grasp not only the essence of the estate's brand, but also that which the terroir can provide.

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Discovering a Grape Variety

Horizontal tasting is also an opportunity to discover a grape variety. Some grape varieties have the particularity of being able to flourish in different places in France, in Europe, as well as in the world! Some of them flourish wonderfully in every corner of the world, while developing different characteristics, specific to the terroir.

This is the case for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Malbec, to name but a few. This is a very interesting exercise, as it allows us to compare wines from the same vintage, from the same grape variety, but from completely different countries and estates. It should be taken into account, however, that Mother Nature did not express herself in the same way in Burgundy, California or New Zealand in the same year. Horizontal tasting thus allows us to discover all the facets of a single grape variety, to understand the ways in which it can express itself in different soils and with different climates.