Top 5 Common Wine Mistakes

Avoid these 5 common French wine mistakes and prevent big "faux pas" when drinking wine in France on a casual level.

1 – Trying to Imitate the Wine Experts

If you don’t know what you are doing, and start stirring your glass or looking at its color in a grand ceremony in front of the sommelier, you won’t fool anyone….

It’s an art form to know how to taste wine like the experts, so keep it simple.

This being said, it doesn’t mean, you can’t enjoy a good bottle, and remark about it:

1. What do you taste?
2. Any special flavor like fruits, chocolate, or maybe earthy forest?
3. Do YOU like it? Why?
4. Is it strong or light?

It’s fun to see what the wine makes you think of, so don’t be shy, but be humble.

More useful phrases to talk about wine in French.

2 – Putting Ice Into Your Wine

Although many French people do it at home, it’s considered “sacrilège” and should never be done at a fancy restaurant with a good bottle of wine.

Now if in a small bistro in Provence, in the middle of the August heat wave, you feel like adding a couple of ice cubes to your “pichet de rosé”, a lot of people will forgive you.

I certainly will since I do it myself :-)

3 – Pouring Too Much Wine in the Glass

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