One of the most intimidating aspects of wine is all the fancy terms that wine drinkers use to describe what they are tasting. “A toasty nose with loads of fruit on the palate, finishing with just a touch of tannins on the otherwise ultra smooth finish.” What does that mean? How do they come up with so many adjectives to describe a glass of grape juice?I pondered this last week when wine tasting with some friends. We got together to try an assortment of affordable wines procured from local grocery stores. Our goal was to find several that I could recommend in a future column. But I was sidetracked from my goal when one of my friends said, “So, how do I taste a wine?”
Learning about wine is really as simple as trying new wines and remembering (or writing down) what you like and don’t like. But how do you analyze a wine as you taste it to know what you like and what you don’t? There are three key steps:
1. Look at the wine. Holding the stem, swirl the wine and hold it up to a light. Notice the color. If it’s white, is it more green or gold? If it’s a red wine, is it more red or burgundy or perhaps even brown? Generally, the more the wine has aged, the darker the color. Make sure you are not holding the bowl of the glass, as that will alter the color of the wine.
2. Smell the wine. Stick your nose down in to the glass so that the rim of the glass is touching your face. Breathe deeply. What do you smell? Toast? Fruit? Flowers? Spice? Pepper? Smoke? If you have trouble identifying the aroma, try sniffing something around you – a flower, a candle, an air freshener. This will have the effect of clearing your nose from the wine aromas. Then, breathe quickly and shallowly several times, exhale and then stick your nose back in the bowl of the glass. I promise you the aromas will be more intense this time. Try it.
3. Taste the wine several times. Sip it slowly. In fact, slurping it is probably the best way to taste it because you aerate it as you’re tasting it. This will give you maximum flavor. Of course, it may require some practice before you’re ready to taste publicly! Take several sips. As you swirl it around in your mouth, consider the tastes you experience on each part of your tongue. Generally, the tip of your tongue senses sweet or salty flavors. This is where you will taste fruit. Interestingly, your tongue will perceive a fruity wine as sweet, even if the wine is not actually sweet at all. The sides of your tongue are generally where you will taste sour flavors, such as citrus. The back of your tongue is where you typically sense bitter foods. That’s why a really bitter wine leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth – it’s the last flavor you notice before you swallow.
It’s as simple as that. Observe, smell, taste. To maximize your experience, there are a few guidelines to consider when observing, smelling and tasting. First, don’t pour too much in your glass. You need room to swirl and to stick your face in the glass without getting a wet nose.
Second, when you taste a white wine, hold the stem of the glass rather than the bowl. If you hold the bowl, you will unwittingly warm the wine, which will dull the flavors. When you taste a red wine, it’s generally a good idea to hold the bowl – especially when you are smelling it. The warming action of your hands will help release aromas from the wine.
Third, if you are tasting champagne or other sparkling wines, use tall skinny glasses rather than wide-mouthed glasses. Much of the fun of such wines is the bubbles. The bubbles will last a lot longer in the tall skinny glass.
Fourth, don’t rinse a glass out with water when you are changing from one wine to another. The water will dilute and diminish the flavor.
Fifth, if you are tasting multiple wines, the general rule of thumb is to taste them in this order: pink, white, red and finally dessert (regardless of the color).
Next, don’t be afraid to spit wine rather than swallowing it. If you are tasting several wines at once, I strongly recommend spitting; not only is it perfectly acceptable but it assures that your tasting skills are not dulled as you get to later wines. Most wineries and wine tastings offer a “spit bucket,” a bowl or bucket into which you can spit the wine after you’ve tasted it or into which you can pour the leftover wine from your glass.
Finally, do not forget to write down the name of the wine, the year it was made, the impressions you had while drinking it and whether you liked it or didn’t like it. Without those notes, you’ll be surprised at how much trouble you have remembering which wine you loved and which one was a real stinker.
Wine doesn’t have to be scary, and enjoying it isn’t just for snobs. Follow the simple guidelines above: Observe, Smell, Taste. I guarantee your enjoyment of wine will grow as you taste. Before too long, you’ll find yourself talking about wine in the same terms as those wine snobs you once feared!
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