Why online wine tastings are here to stay, even after the pandemic is over

Online wine tastings have taken over from in-person tastings around the world amid the Covid-19 pandemic

Participants send off for the wines before a virtual testing session, which can involve hundreds of tasters. They have been a massive hit

Reading Time:2 minutes

A woman takes part in an online wine tasting session. Virtual wine tasting is proving so popular that many believe online tasting sessions will continue after the pandemic passes. Photo: Priority Wine Pass

Published: 8:15pm, 25 Aug 2020Updated: 8:15pm, 25 Aug 2020

After the coronavirus lockdown put a stop to in-person wine tastings and visits to wineries, the industry had to get creative. Enter virtual wine tastings.

From Manchester in the UK to California in the United States, people are now logging on to take a sip together, and judging by the popularity and surprising ease of this approach, it’s not going to disappear when the pandemic ends.

So how do online tastings work?

The participants send off ahead of time for the bottles of wine being tasted. Then everyone sits down in front of their computers with some open bottles.

Theresa Olkus (top) from an association of German wine estates talks to Rheingau vintner Alexander Jung about three wines before an Instagram tasting event. Photo: DPA

Alexander Jung, a vintner from Germany’s Rheingau, an area west of Frankfurt, recently led a virtual wine-tasting session with more than 100 people. Streamed live on Instagram, it kicked off the first of three tasted bottles with a Riesling from a vintner in western Germany’s Erbach wine-growing region.