What Is a Wine Flight?

You may have heard the term “wine flight” thrown around when visiting Wine Country or at your local wine bar. The term is used a lot, but it can mean different things in different settings.

Why Do They Call It a Flight of Wine?

A “wine flight” is a fancy phrase for a selection of wines. It’s usually between three to six wines that have something in common. That common thread could be the producer (perhaps they all come from the same winery), region of origin, variety, type of wine (sparkling, Rosé, Pinot Noir, etc.) or something else.

How Many Drinks Is a Wine Flight?

Typically, a wine flight is served in 2oz portions. For extremely special wines or sweet wines, 1oz tastes are common. For reference, a full glass of wine is 5oz, but if you have a heavy hand, your pour may be closer to 7oz. These smaller, 2oz tastes allow you to try multiple different wines in your flight before deciding which one is your favorite.

A full wine flight typically serves one to three glasses worth of wine. Remember, 5oz of wine is one glass, so this could equal up to 15 single-ounce tastes. When trying so many wines, it’s always ok to taste and spit out the wine into a spittoon. That’s what the pros, like sommeliers and wine buyers, do because they could be tasting hundreds of wines in a busy day.

What Is the Difference Between a Wine Flight and Wine Tasting?

To put it simply, a wine flight is one type of wine tasting. While wine tastings can encompass any type of wine, a flight of wine is a curated selection meant to have something in common.

If you’ve joined us for a tasting at one of our wineries, you already know that we love to serve flights. This allows you to try both of our current release Cabernets—and maybe even an older vintage.

We offer a number of different flight options from our Silver Oak and Twomey tasting (four wines) to our Silver Oak Cabernet Vertical Tasting (6 vintages of Cabernet). Each flight offers a different experience and is a great reason to come back and visit us.

Wine Flight Ideas

Wine flights are not just reserved for wineries and bars. You can make your own at home. Invite a few friends over, grab a bunch of glasses and open a few bottles of wine. Taste through them to see which ones are your favorites.

Recreating a winery tasting can be a great place to start. For example, the Duncan Family Selection provides a taste of four different wine regions and includes one 750ml bottle each of Twomey Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, Twomey Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. If you’re looking for one more bottle to round out your tasting, try a bottle of Timeless Napa Valley, a single vineyard proprietary blend.

Looking to curate a few special bottles for an at-home wine flight? Our Customer Care team can help. Reach out by emailing customercare@silveroak.com or calling (707) 942-7137.