FIVE WINE TASTING RULES One can read many books about wine tasting. I encourage you to experience wine by tasting first, allowing yourself to really TASTE by following these easy steps. Then, enhance your experience with the academics of reading about wine tasting. 1. COLOR- The best way to see the color of a wine is to drink from a clear glass and have a white background. A white napkin or linen tablecloth would serve this purpose well. Our perception of color is subjective. One may describe a white as pale yellow-green while another may see gold! White wines, as they get older, gain color. Another reason a white wine may have more color may be due to the different grape varieties. For example, Chardonnay is usually a deeper color than a Riesling. Aging in wood barrels also results in a deeper color. Red wines lose color as they get older. Be aware as you assess color that different people have different perceptions. As you enjoy your fruit of the vine, share with your fellow aficionados your perceptions. 2. SWIRL- We swirl wine to aerate the wine- to allow oxygen to get in the wine and offer you the bouquet. Here’s the academic explanation: swirling releases the esters, ethers and aldehydes combined with oxygen to yield the bouquet of the wine. If you want to impress someone, repeat the previous sentence amongst wine enthusiasts! 3. SMELL- Once the bouquet is released, what does the wine smell like? What type of “nose” does it have? The “nose” is the word that wine tasters use to describe the bouquet and aroma of the wine. Many people do not spend enough time on smelling the wine or discerning the color of the wine. The idea of identifying the “nose” is to come up with your own characteristics of the wine. You may be more likely to recognize some of the defects of a wine through your sense of smell. 4. TASTE- Taking a sip and swallowing is not tasting wine. Tasting is something you do with your taste buds; and you have taste buds on both sides of your tongue, underneath your tongue, on the tip of your tongue and all the way to the back of your throat! Most people take a gulp and bypass these important taste buds! When tasting wine, be aware of the most important sensations of taste and where they occur on your tongue and mouth. You can perceive 4 tastes: SWEET, SOUR, BITTER and SALT. You can smell over 150 different scents! SWEETNESS- found on the tip of the tongue. The tip of your tongue is very sensitive and detects sweetness. FRUIT and VARIETAL CHARACTERISTICS- found in the middle of the tongue. ACIDITY- found at the sides of the tongue and cheek area. It is most commonly present in white wines. TANNINS- found in the middle of the tongue. Tannin often exists in red wines or wood aged white wines. It dries the palate to excess when the wines are too young. AFTERTASTE- this is the overall taste that lingers after you taste the wine. Pay attention to how long it lingers. A high quality wine will often linger 15-20 seconds. Everything we reviewed thus far- color, swirling, smelling, tasting- happens in 30 seconds! 5. SAVOR- After you’ve tasted the wine, savor it. Focus on your experience and ask yourself these questions: Is it light, medium or full-bodied? If white - how was the acidity? Too little? Just right? Too much? If red - is the tannin too strong or astringent? Is it pleasing? Or is it missing? How long did the aftertaste last? Did you like the wine? Is the wine worth the price according to your taste? The definition of a good wine is a wine that YOU enjoy. Do not let others dictate taste to you! Simply follow these basic rules and your wine tasting experiences will be YOURS! Please contact us with any questions or comments! WineBarrelsForYou WineBarrelsForYou dslinking@gmail
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:23:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015