Vertical (wine)
A vertical is a special form of wine tasting . In such a sample, only or predominantly wines from a single winery are tasted, but in the time axis “vertically” downwards.
The main purpose of a vertical is to find out for a single winery (or for the growing area, represented by a single winery) which vintages are successful and which are less recommendable.
The order of the years for such a sample does not necessarily have to be given in chronological order. It is more advisable to put matching vintages of presumably similar wines in the testing rounds, the so-called flights .
You can definitely try each wine individually, one after the other. However, it is more informative to use at least two glasses filled next to each other to sense the differences between the wines in comparison and to combine wines that were estimated to be approximately "equivalent" beforehand - which then needs to be specifically checked sensorially. However, three or four glasses next to each other require a correspondingly large number of glasses available from the organizer of this sample as well as a certain experience of the sample participants.
The counterpart to a "vertical" is the horizontal : a wine tasting in which the wines of one growing area and one year, but from different wineries, are compared.
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