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WINE TASTING TIPS

WINE TASTING TIP AND TRICKS

Wine tasting has become a favorite pastime for many a wine lover. The process of tasting so many wines in a day would be mind boggling if there wasn’t ways to evaluate your tastes and determine the sensory bests each person has. Right from the drawing table of Darwin and the wine tasting tables of the sommelier are some simple ways to taste your wines and note their character and importance. It doesn’t take a wine steward to tell you what you appreciate. With a little bit of wine tasting expertise, you can try to explain the which, what and why of the wines you like.

 

Before you approach the first wine glass make sure you have worked on preparing yourself for a fantastic day of wine tasting, the excitement can overload the best of us. Be strong, exercise the nostrils, the wrist, the eyes, the tongue and cheeks. Call a friend if you start to tremble with anticipation. After you ready your mind and you have done the research on wine tasting, it is time to begin…

THE ‘S’ OF WINE TASTING

The ‘S’ is just the memory trick used to remember the techniques for examining a wine. Over time I have added Ss because the just seem to fit. But if we start at the simplest techniques, there are 6 Ss. If we put an order to them here they are 1. See / Sight, 2. Swirl, 3. Sniff / Smell, 4. Sip / Slurp, 5. Swallow / Spit 6. Savor. The actual order changes as you reexamine one or more of a particular wine but once you get the hang of it, it will become your special order, you are the ultimate judge.

SEE THE WINE

The first examination of a wine while out wine tasting is “seeing the wine.” The color can tell you a lot about the wine. Young wines generally will have one color tone while older wines might have layers of color. Color can be affected by the grape variety, the length of time the skins maserate, the vessel for fermentation, the glycerine present and the like. If you put a piece of white paper behind the glass it allows you a good even reference of it’s color. Terms like inky, light, brilliant, opaque can be used to describe the attitude of the color.

SWIRL THE WINE

Swirling the wine does a couple of things. It exposes the wine to the precious oxygen it loves. This gets the esters moving and open up the aromas of the wine. The wine will cling to the wine glass and spark the next step: the smell / sniff.

SMELL THE WINE

Smell the aromas released after the swirl of the wine glass. Try to identify any familiar smells. Take a big long sniff. What does it smell like? Earth? Herbs? If you place your nose to the top of the glass, the alcohol can be examined. The lower rim will expose the aroma. Descriptions might be Earthy, herbaceous, nutty, fruity, spicy. Practice makes perfect, let those olfactory tell the story.

SIP THE WINE

Take a sip of the wine. Allow the wine to rest a moment, gently breathe over the juice (slurp). Close your lips and allow the wine to discover the corners of your palate. What is the mouth feel. What parts of your mouth do you feel the most. What taste stands out? Fruit? Oaky or wood taste? Can you taste the acidity? The Acid is make the backs of your cheeks tingle a bit. Descriptions might be flat, fleshy, tannic, playful, nutty, seductive , meaty, woody, young.

SAVOR THE WINE

Give the wine one more view. Smell, sip again. Savor

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