(Enlarge) Heidi McLain, a former employee at Corridor Wine and Spirits, shows off her prototype for a wine-tasting party game she developed to help consumers understand how to rate wines. (Staff photo by Drew Anthony Smith)

For her, wine is not just something to quaff at a party or over an expensive meal. It is an integral part of her life, an aesthetic activity that enhances the pleasure of living.

"Wine is not just a beverage. It's not just something to accompany a meal, it's actually a way of life," McLain, 53, of Laurel, said. "That's the way I approach wine, it's a part of my life."

McLain, a former sales associate at Corridor Wine and Spirits, has devised a prototype of a party wine-tasting game that teaches players the basics of wine appreciation.

Shields Hood, a wine educator with the Washington, D.C.-based Society of Wine Educators, said McLain is part of a growing wine culture in the U.S. that still is learning from its European counterparts.

"Wine is culture in Europe. In America it's just now taking off," Hood said. "You've got to master Europe first then you've got to know the new world."

With wine tastings and educational seminars increasingly in vogue, McLain's game offers party-goers an easy way to bypass the expense of having a professional wine educator host a party, Hood said.

McLain's kit simplifies "a subject that Europeans made complicated for Americans. It makes the people buying the kit the `wine people' as opposed to me charging $500 a night and giving up my Saturday night," Hood said. "You've first got to learn the basics of wine, then you've got to master the terminology, which she's done in her kit," he added.

In playing the game, budding connoisseurs write reviews of what they taste, learn how "balance" sorts out all the components in a wine from acidity, to tannins to flavor intensity, to alcohol levels, and how all those components come together in a pleasing "structure" to provide a satisfying wine. They learn the ins and outs of the complex 100 point wine rating system, how subjective taste melds with objective qualities of a wine and how much the sense of smell affects the sense of taste, McLain said.

"Some people pick up on flavors much more so than others," she said. "It's mostly in the nose. The taste sensations are really limited to sweet, salty. Mostly it's in the nose. And it's totally subjective, too."

McLain's game is still in the development stages. She is intent on raising $500,000 and has interest from an Indian distributor to market a limited amount of about 500 units of the games to test the market, she said. "We don't want to go to market with production of 10,000 units," she said.

McLain said the current depressed economy is affecting her ability to raise money. She said she is currently at the "mercy of the retail cycle. If we have the money by May we may be able to go to market instead of next holiday season," she said.

McLain said she began wine tastings and joining wine tasting groups in her early 20s, but only started professionally in the wine world in the last 10 years, when she was a sales associate at Corridor Wine and Spirits from 2001 until 2008. Working in the wine store helped her understand widespread confusion about wine reviews and helped her understand customers' strange requests.

"They would come in and say, `I want a wine that has raspberry and chocolates in it,' and they didn't understand that it was just made with grapes," she said.

McLain decided against writing a book on the subject because there are "so many books out there." But she knew the importance of wine parties through working in the wine industry. "I wanted to clone myself and the knowledge that I had," she said. And, she added, a kit is something customers "can use over and over again."

user comments (2)

user belovedcartoonmouse says...

"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?"- Homer Simpson

Posted 6:49 PM, 12.23.09 | Permalink

user cguttmann1 says...

What a great party idea! I think it would be "hit" with my friends. I wish Ms. McLain much success and hope it gets to the stores soon!

Posted 8:50 PM, 12.26.09 | Permalink