Wine tasting is what we’ll be looking at in this part of our wine 101 guide…
There are three stages to properly tasting wine: smell; taste; finish. We’ll look at each of those individually.
To smell a wine, you should steadily swirl the glass to throw the wine up onto the side of the glass (thus increasing the surface area of wine in contact with the air) as this causes the wines aromas to be released. To swirl effectively, don’t fill the glass too full – in fact less than half full is recommended. Put the wine glass up to your nose as you’re swirling and think about the aromas that are being released. Young wines will have primary aromas, relating to the grape variety (such smells are often fruit related). As wines age more secondary aromas develop, which may be more earthy or animalistic. Remember that a wines aromas can take on many different forms, and very rarely will it simply smell of grapes.
When you taste wine, it’s important to realize that little of the flavor that can be sensed actually involves the tongue. Your upper airways are filled with the aroma of wine when it is in your mouth, and it is your nasal receptors, not your taste buds, that do most of the ‘tasting’. Therefore, you should breathe steadily through your nose whilst the wine is in your mouth, thinking about how the wine changes as you inhale and exhale. Your first impressions on taking the wine into your mouth may be referred to as the fore-palate, which are followed by the mid-palate and the end-palate. Each of these will be different, so look out for the changes in taste.
The finish describes the sensations derived from swallowing the wine. It will often be different to how the wine came across on the palate. You might notice the wines flavors remaining on your palate after you swallow, and this feeling is called length. The more length a wine has, the more time you have to enjoy it, and it’s probably true to say that such wines are generally of better quality.
Comments on this entry are closed.