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Tasting by daniella
Wine Tasting Component I: Look
The first step you have to undertake
in wine tasting is visual.
1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never
fill it more than half;
2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find
this too pretentious but there are good reasons for
it:
?) by doing it this way you can actually observe the
wine in it;
b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;
?) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature
of the wine.
There’s a good saying by one of the greatest French
wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine
and you can immediately tell whether he/she is a connoisseur
by the way they hold the glass.” Even though you
may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could
still learn how to hold the wine glass.
3. Focus on the color intensity and the transparency
of the liquid.
a) the color of the wine, and more specifically its
nuances, are best observed on a white background.
?) the wine’s intensity is best judged by holding
the glass without slanting it and looking at the liquid
from above;
4. Next comes the swirling of the glass. This can also
seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a
full glass or a white top. But this movement is important
since it prepares you for the next step in wine tasting
– the Taste. The easiest way to swirl the glass
is to place it on a table or other even surface, and
to swirl your hand while holding the glass by the stem.
Swirl hard and have the wine almost touch the rim of
the glass. Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with
irregular shapes on the inside of the glass. Some “experts”
then read them with as much zeal as coffee-tellers.
The truth is however, that they are just an indicator
for the quality of the wine – the more alcohol
a wine has, the more wine traces it forms.
What does the color of the wine tell us? The wine’s
color tells us many things about its character.
First, the color shows the grape variety. Let’s
take two popular varieties as examples – cabernet
sauvignon and pinot noir. Cabernet’s grapes are
smaller, with a thicker and darker skin than those of
pinot noir. As a result, the color of wines made from
cabernet sauvignon is usually described as violet to
dark while the color of wines made from pinot noir is
associated with ruby.
Second, the color is influenced by the climatic conditions.
A hot summer and dry fall result in ripe grapes, with
a dark, intense color. A cold summer and rainy fall
will produce undeveloped grapes with a lighter color.
Third, wine-making practices also have an influence
on the color of wine. For red wine, the grapes are fermented
with the skin. Since the coloring agents are in the
grape skin, and not in the juice, the longer the process
of maceration, i.e. the longer the skin stays with the
juice, the darker the wine color will be.
Fourth, the process of wine aging also has an influence
on the color of wine. The young red wines are rich in
coloring agents and that makes their color denser and
fuller. In the course of time chemical reactions take
place in the bottle and a sediment is formed at the
bottom. The wine’s color gets lighter and is often
described as brick or amber.
Let’s go through an example: you pour yourself
a glass of red wine and after carefully observing it,
you notice a full granite color, good density, and not
so good transparency. What conclusions can you draw?
Well, you can safely say that the wine is:
- from cabernet sauvignon grapes;
- from a Southern region;
- relatively young;
- from a good yield;
- that the wine-maker has gone for a good long maceration.
If you know the wine, compare what you know with what
you see: maybe the wine has a very full color and the
yield has been bad – this speaks of a good wine-making
technique; or maybe the wine is too pale for its age
– this speaks for undeveloped grape or poor wine-making
technique.
Wine Tasting Component II: Smell
The second wine tasting component is
smelling and inhaling the wine’s aroma.
Concentrate as much as you can and smell the wine, swirl
the glass, and smell once again.
The stronger the aromas, the stronger the impression.
Most of the wines, especially the more delicate and
the older ones develop their aromas only after “being
walked around” the glass.
There is no consensus as to the exact technique of whiffing.
Some say do two or three quick whiffs, others prefer
one single deep whiff.
The goal of whiffing is to inhale the aroma as deeply
as possible so that it gets into contact with our sensory
nerve and hence, with the part of the brain that is
responsible for registering, storing, and deciphering
sensations. The spot where that takes place is extremely
sensitive: a cold or an allergy might completely block
even the most intense aromas. With enough practice and
concentration, you’ll learn how to extract the
maximum from different aromas and how to interpret them.
The vivid connoisseurs love to concoct different aromas.
“Dark chocolate!” says one. “No, that’s
more like pepper,” claims another. “Tea
leaves, tobacco, and mushrooms,” adds third. Are
they joking??
Probably we don’t quite realize it but nowadays
we are exposed to so many different smells that we find
it difficult to find words to describe all the complex
aromas that a glass of wine can offer.
Like color, a wine’s aroma can tell us a lot about
its character, origin, and its history. Since our sense
of taste is limited to only 4 categories (sweet, sour,
bitter, and salt), the wine’s aroma is the most
informative part of our sensory experience. So take
your time, sit back and contemplate the aroma! Like
the perfume of a loved one or the smell of freshly baked
bread, a wine’s aroma can evoke memories of times
and places that we cherish.
Wine Tasting Component III: Taste
This is the best part of wine-tasting.
You might be enchanted by wine’s sparkling color
or mesmerized by its aroma but it’s actually drinking
the wine that the whole thing is about.
Maybe you are thinking that drinking is the easiest
part – after all we start drinking from a glass
from a very young age and we keep practicing for a lifetime.
However, there’s a real difference between just
swallowing liquid and conscious tasting. Here, just
like in all good things in life, the difference is in
the right technique. The appropriate technique can make
sure we get the best out of the whole experience.
1. Still under the influence of the aromas you’ve
inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don’t
make it too big or too small. You need just enough to
walk the wine in your mouth and not have to swallow
it just yet. Let wine uncover its secrets. For reference,
you may keep good wine in your mouth for 10 –
15 seconds, sometimes even more.
2. Walk the wine very well in your mouth, ensuring it
touches each part of it. This is important because our
tongue, palate, the inside of the mouth and our throat
each detect different aspects of the wine.
For many years, it was believed that the tongue has
different areas each of which is sensitive to a particular
taste – sweet for the tip of the tongue, sour
for the sides, bitter for the back and salty for the
whole tongue. Today we know that all the tastes can
be felt with the whole tongue, only there’s a
“blind” spot in the middle of it which is
not sensitive to any taste.
Another important step in wine tasting is being able
to tell one’s impressions of the wine. “Astringent”,
“elegant”, “fruity”, “flat”,
“young” are only a few words of the wine
vocabulary you’ll need to amass.
About the Author
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