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WINE TASTING EDUCATION
How to
Taste Wine
Step 1: Visual
Observation
Wine tasting has a
process, a set of simple but purposeful procedures that will
increase your enjoyment of wine. To the novice, some of these may
seem odd or snobbish, but they have evolved over centuries as the
best way to gather sensory data from wines.
Observing the Wine
Fill the glass about one-third, and never more than half. Pick it up
by the stem gently but firmly. Don't hold it by the bowl; your hand
will hide your view of the glass, and may warm the wine. The
telltale sign of a person's expertise by the way they hold their
wineglass.
Observe the color, intensity and clarity of the wine. The true color
of the wine is best determined by tilting the glass and looking at
the wine through the rim, keying on the variation from the deepest
part of the liquid to its edges. Intensity, the depth of color, is
best judged by looking straight down through the glass from above.
Clarity, degree to which sediment or particles are visible, is most
visible when a light shines through the side of the glass.
Color Coding
A wine's color can provide great insight to its character. Different
varietals (grape varieties) possess differing color attributes.
Compare two common red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.
Cabernet fruits are usually small, with thickish, deep indigo skin.
Pinot Noir grapes are more delicate, redder and slightly fuller.
Wines from Cabernet would usually be a deeper, more intense purple,
rather than the ruby or garnet tones of Pinot Noir.
Growing conditions also influences color. Summer warmth and a dry
autumn produce fully ripened grapes with a high skin-to-juice ratio.
Wines from these grapes will have deeper colors. Cooler summers or a
wet harvest yields unripe and diluted grapes, lessen color and
intensity. Winemaking (vinification) techniques also affect color.
Color is derived from the skin, not the juice. In fact, most grape
juice, even from dark purple grapes, is relatively colorless.
Fermenting wine in contact with the skins leeches pigment from the
skins themselves. Longer skin contact means darker wine.
The winemaker has great control in determining a wine's clarity.
After fermentation and the skins are discarded, many minute
particles remain suspended in the wine. Some winemakers remove this
material through fining or filtering. Most modern wines are
filtered. Others believe wine benefits a small amount of residual
deposit. Look at an old bottle of wine and you will often see it
settled on the bottom.
Also, bottle-aging itself affects both color and intensity. Aged red
wines lighten, developing a brick or amber tinge. Aged white wines
deepen in color, becoming more amber.
Final Observations
Lastly, just before smelling the wine, rotate your glass to swirl
the wine. Be gentle, or you may end up wearing some of the wine.
Swirling is primarily designed to release the hidden aromas, but it
also coats the walls of the glass with wine. Watch as the wine drips
downward. If you see long lines of wine remaining on the glass,
these are the "legs" or "tears." Legs are a sign of the combination
of sugar/alcohol/glycerin. There is much debate over whether these
are predictors of wine quality.
Learn to observe these visual characteristics in reference to each
other and to other wines. You will quickly develop the ability to
identify wines from these visual cues and to make judgments about a
wine, as you taste. This is very useful while tasting at wineries.
ON TO STEP 2
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