Wine Tasting
One of things I have noticed about a lot of new people in our store or people attending wine tastings is that they are totally frustrated about their lack of knowledge when it comes to wine They don't know what to choose or what to look for when they are tasting a wine, and that frustration takes away from what should be a great experience.
The best way to deal with this problem is to keep it simple. Learn a few basic tricks so that the fun begins and then you can spend the rest of your life on a wonderful world of discovery. Those that attend wine tasting events are already well along on this road as this is the quickest way to learn about wines.
Pre Wine Tasting Rules
- Don't wear heavy perfume or cologne as they cover up the fragrance of the wine.
- No spicy food before the tastng as it will cover up the flavour of the wine.
- Avoid smoking as it affects both flavour and aroma.
- If you can, prepare a plan of what type or types of wine your are going to taste.
The first three are self explanatory, but I need to go into more detail about the plan.
If you are going to a big wine tasting, you could find yourself facing from 200 to 900 bottles of wine. You walk into the room and find table after table of wines with anywhere from two to eight bottles per table. Somebody new to the sport rushes up to the first table and tries them all and then runs to the next table. Five tables down, they find themselves totally baggged and there are still 20 or more tables to go. You could put paint thinner in front of them at this point, and they would down it and asked for seconds.
20 is usually the limit of what a person can actually taste and make some decisions on whether the wine is good or bad and that depends whether they spit out the wine or not. Even spitting the wine out doesn't help that much, because your tongue absorbs alcohol. (Remember that if you plan to drive after) You can still use your nose at this point as it takes longer for it to be affected by alcohol. Isn't it interesting that for a number of people the tongue is the most used muscle in the body after the heart, but a couple of little drinks, it doesn't do what you want it to. So much for a workout.
At a lot of big wine tastings booklets are handed out at the start and it is a good idea to take a few minutes to look through it to see what is on offer. Decide if you want to try white or red and if you are going to try both, taste the whites first and come back later for the reds. You may also want to break it down into type of wines such as only tasting Chardonnay or Shiraz. If you decide on a certain wine type such as Shiraz you can compare them by region or price. This means you will be going back and forth from table to table, but it is worth it because you than can actually focus on learning something.
A couple of days before starting this page, I attended an Australian wine tasting with 200 wines on offer. One of the tables was serving Yellow Tail wines, which are nice dependable table wines that you have likely been served at a number of friends homes. There were also a number of wines that I had never tried before in the $25 to $90 range. Why would a go to the Yellow Tail table, which is serving a basic table wine that is going to have the same taste year after year, no matter what the vintage is?
It is not being a wine snob, but rather a question of what would I learn by the experience.
These rules also apply when you go wine tasting at winneries. I have watched people roar up to the winery, rush in, slosh back as much wine as they can get for the price of admission and run back out to their car and off to the next winery. They have learned nothing. When you figure the price of gas, it would be cheaper to buy a cheap bottle of wine, put it in a brown paper bag, put another one over your head in case the first one breaks, guzzle the wine like crazy and pass out. Look at the money you will save.
When you go into the winery, study what they have to offer. If you are new to wines, tell them that, and if you can, tell them what you like. They will make recommendations based on this. Ask questions and make observations on what you are tasting. The people serving the wines are there to not only sell wine, but to help people to learn about wine. When you show an interest and don't act like a wine pig, they sometimes even forget that you were only supose to taste 3 or 4 wines and they may even open a special wine for you to taste.
Don't choose a wine strictly based on price. It does have a bearing on quality, but so does taste, and sometimes a less expensive wine can be the better one.
When Nancy and I were at that Australian wine tasting, we didn't waste time on the really low priced wines and tasted mainly high end wines, but we have learned to communicate with other people at these events and listen to what they like.
We tried a Shiraz that was priced at $90 and found it to be a fabulous wine, but we had been told about a $20 Shiraz that was worth trying. It wasn't a fabulous wine, but it was a really great one. The first one was a better wine but not $70 better, and in fact not even $25 better. The second wine was better value for your money.
A good example of this is Anthony Gismondi's wine column in the Saturday Vancouver Sun. You will find wines listed with their prices, plus a point score out of 100. If there is a wine costing $14 and 86 points and another wine that is $30 and has 89 points, is it really worth it to you to pay $16 more for an extra 3 points in quality?
That is something only you can answere. If the more expensive wine was one I really enjoyed and I bought a bottle every two or three months, then I would likely spend the extra money. For day to day wine, I would say no and go with the less expensive one.
Tasting Wines
Just as I decided to start this page, our February / April Wine Maker magazine arrived and it had all the information I needed for this section in an article by Pat Henderson. He is the senior wine maker at Kenwood Vineyards in the Sonoma Valley. Pat says the only thing you have to worry about in judging or tasting a wine is whether you like the flavour or not. I couldn't say it any better.
I do disagree with him in one area. He says we only need to use four of our senses - sight, smell, taste and touch when we evaluate a wine. I say hearing is very important, especially the sound of the cash register.
Pat says, "Of the four senses that are used, the concept of the flavour of the wine is defined by the impression it makes on one's sense of smell (aroma), and the sense of taste and touch (texture). Sight is important to evaluate the aesthetic visusal aspects of a wine, such as colour or turbidity (cloudy), but does not directly play a role in a wine's taste."
Now you are ready to begin.
Appearance
If a wine is hazy or cloudy, it can affect your whole perception of the wine. As you learn more about wine, the appearance can tell you if the colour is appropriate for the wine you are tasting. At that Australian wine tasting, I had just walked up to a table and saw that the server was pouring a wine that was light red in colour. Just by sight, I knew that the wine should be a Pinot Noir. If that had been a Shiraz, I would have had some serious concerns about the wine. As it turned out, the wine was a great pinot Noir and met all my expectations.
What you are looking for is the colour of the wine such as pale yellow or dark yellow, straw or gold. You also want to know the depth or intensity. (remember the Pinot Noir versus the Shiraz) Once you start tasting more and more wines, you wil realize if what you are seeing is appropriate for the wine.
Hold the glass up to the light or have a piece of white paper behind it so that you can see better. If it is a red wine, tilt the wine and look at the edge of the wine through the top of the glass. I even hold the glass over a printed white page and tilt it until I can start to read the letters. If the letters are easy to read, then the wine is clear.
Aroma
Smell is one of our oldest and strongest senses; even more powerful than our sense of taste. In fact it has a lot to do with our ability to taste. Remember when you were sick and your nose was all plugged up and food just didn't taste right. That's because the aroma of the food isn't going up the back of our mouth into the upper sinus and so the sense of taste is thrown off kilter.
First you want to swirl the wine to release the aromas. If you are new at it, place the base of the glass on a flat surface and swirl it around. As you get more comfortable with it, you can hold the glass in the air while swirling it.
Now place you nose in the glass and inhale deeply so that the aromas go way back into your nose. Is the smell pleasant or unpleasant? Note the intensity of the aromas and make note of which ones are more obvious. When you first do this you likely will not be able to identify the aromas, but note if you like them. Truth be told, most people can't identify all those smells and tastes, but they can enjoy them all the same. If you get one or two, you are at the head of the pack. Women are better at it than men. That's why they notice if we don't change our socks.
If you get some off or wrong aromas, let the wine sit for a few minutes and try again. Sometimes the bad ones go away, and that is why it sometimes pays to decant a wine.
Aromas are reduced if the wine is too cool and the same for taste. That makes me wonder about people that can only drink really chilled wines. It could mean they really don't like the wine they are drinking and they should search for another wine. Check out the section on Texture found near the bottom of this page. People that drink really chilled Chardonnay may want to check out a slightly sweetened Jo'berg Riesling with its higher acids and intense flavours.
If the Riesling is served a little warmer they will get more flavour but also the same texture of the acid and sweetnessthey are looking for in a wine. If you can't smell the wine, warm the glass with your hand.
Flavour
There are really only four main flavours that we can taste, which are bitter, salty, sweet and sour, plus sometimes you can pick up a metalic taste. This is done be receptors found in the taste buds located on the tongue. At one time is was thought that each of the four main flavours were located in their own specific areas of the tongue, but it is now felt that you can taste them in all areas; its just that some are more concentrated in one area that another.
It is those four flavours, plus the sense of smell that gives us the taste of citrus, caramel, coffee, and other sensations when we drink wine.
This makes me wonder if that is why we don't all like the same wines. The way the tongue and nose work together could mean that you and I don't smell exactly the same thing. Yes we might both smell what we perceive as chocolate in the wine, it is just that one of us finds it a pleasant experience, while the other doesn't enjoy it. Maybe that is why kids say the great meals parents put in front of them taste like garbage.
To properly taste the wine, you need to once again swirl the glass and smell and imediatly take a small sip of wine. Hold the wine in your mouth for a few seconds to examine the flavours, plus the acidity and astringency. Some people at this point swish the wine in their mouth so that it coats more of the taste buds. Tilt your head slightly forward and take in air through your mouth, which pushes the aromas up into your sinuses. Note the flavours and see if you like them. You can spit the wine out at this point, but note the after flavours and see if they linger and are enjoyable. I spit out most wines at a major tasting and only swallow the really great ones. That is because after you have tasted about 20 wines, your lose that edge to tell if it is a good wine. Remember, even if you spit out all the wine, your tongue has absorbed alcohol into your system and you could be impaired. A police roadblaock at this point could ruin a fun evening.
Texture
This is not from flavour buds, but rather from nerve endings in your tongue and so can best be descriped at a sensation. Even so, it is a very improtant part of tasting a wine.
The temperature of the wine is very important because the warmer it is, the more intense the aromas due to the volatility of the aromatic compounds. A cooler wine has a more refreshing quality, but it dimishes the aroma while increasing the sour taste of the acid and the sweetness of the sugar.
To see if the wine is high in acid, note whether your mouth goes dry and then is flooded with saliva. That is a sign of higher acids and is what you would expect in a dry wine.
Now take a second sip of the wine which allows you to confirm the flavours and aromas from the first tasting. Sometimes tha acid, bitterness or astringency can be insufficient or too strong, making the wine out of balance, but if consumed with the right food it becomes a perfect wine.
The viscosity, which is the body or thickness of the wine is influenced by temperature and composition, An overly warm wine can seem flabby. Alcohol, acids, tannins and sugar all play a role in viscosity. A wine that is low in alcohol will seem watery. Even a dry wine will have residual sugar that will give it body.
Effervescence is a prickly sensation from carbonation of wines like champagne, or in wines that have not been degassed properly . In sparkling wines it can contribute to tartness and fresh taste. Remember that carbonating a wine makes it drier and so these wine are usually sweetened to counter act this. Drink lots of champagne and you may have to buy larger clothing.
To much alcohol in a wine can result in a burning or hot characteristic. It is not as noticable in a big bodied wine, but in most cases is inappropriate in light reds or white wines.
Astringency is the most poorly understood sensation in a wine. It is a coating on the tongue like you get when you drink cold tea. It is caused by tannin in the wine and would be a sign of a big red wine.
Some people descripe the wine as bitter or vinegary. If you remember from earlier in this page, bitterness is one of the flavours, while astringency is a sensation. It takes longer to notice astrigency than the other textures and it is important to the aftertaste of the wine and how it compliments food.
Appearance, aroma, flavour and texture all add up to the overall impression of flavour. The only way you can better at tasting and enjoying wine, is by more tasting.
Why didn't they teach this course in school?
My homework would alway have been done, and I would have finally got an "A" in a course.
Now get out your corkscrew and get studying.
Class dismissed.