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WINE TASTING EDUCATION
How to
Taste Wine
Step 2:
Smelling the Wine
You've
just finished swirling the glass, the tears are falling, so what
now? Its time to sniff. Swirling wine aerates it, causing vapors
from the wine to rise. Put your nose right into the glass (not in
the wine!) and inhale deeply. You made need to swirl and sniff
several times to get sufficient aromatic data. As you become more
experienced smelling wines, you will notice a wide array of aromas.
Red
wines are often associated with smoke, cherries, chocolate, mint,
tea, tobacco, leather, bell peppers, and a variety of other earthy
smells. White wines may exhibit flowers, pineapple, fresh apples,
mown grass, or similar crisp aromas. Winemakers and wine tasters
alike have developed a whole vocabulary of terms to describe wine
smells. To further complicate this, wine aromas are broken into two
broad categories.
"Nose"
is a common term describing smells developed from the grape and the
fermentation process. "Bouquet" describes aromas developed through
the aging process, either in casks or in the bottle. Worse, some
tasters use different words to mean the same thing and lengthy
debates often ensue regarding whose terms are more accurate. Smell
is our most acute sense. A human can smell over 10,000 compounds,
some too small even for scientists to measure. So it stands to
reason that smell would be our best tool to appreciate wines.
The key
point is that wines have many layers of aromas, and learning to
identify them will help you better understand and appreciate wine.
Just as with color, wine's aromas offer insights into character,
origin and history. Swirl and sniff, try to identify the aromas, and
then revel in the joy of the wine.
ON TO STEP 3
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