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Ideally,
there are five stages to wine tasting. These focus on three senses:
firstly sight, then smell and finally taste.
Of course, the most important thing is to enjoy the wine and these five
steps will help you to discover and fully appreciate the pleasures of
drinking wine
1
Read the label This tells you a great deal about the
wine: its region of origin, age, alcohol level, sometimes its grape
variety. The design - traditional or modern - can hint at the
intentions of the winemaker. At a blind tasting, you will begin at
the next step. |
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2 Look at the wine Pour
the wine into a glass so that it is about one-third full. Tilt the glass
against a white background so that you can see the gradations of colour
from the rim to the centre. The colour can begin to suggest the taste of
the wine, with clues to grape variety, climate and age. A young red wine
may have a deep purple tinge, an older one will be lighter, sometimes
brick red. A very pale white will be young, fresh or neutral-tasting, a
deeper yellow one will be fuller in flavour, sweeter or older (not always
a good thing in white wines).
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3 Smell the wine Swirl
the wine around the glass to release the aromas, then stick your nose into
the glass and take a steady, gentle sniff. Register the smell in terms
that mean something to you: if it reminds you of herbs, spices,
strawberries, wet wool or tar, that is what makes the wine memorable. |
4 Take a sip Take a
decent mouthful, so that your mouth is about one-third full, and hold the
wine in your mouth for a few moments, breathing through your nose. Draw a
little air through your lips and suck it through the wine to help the
aromas on their way to your nasal cavity. Note any toughness, acidity and
sweetness that the tongue detects, then enjoy the personality and flavour
of the aromas in your nasal cavity. Now gently 'chew' the wine, letting it
coat your tongue, teeth, and gums.Note the first impressions, then the
taste that develops after the wine has been in your mouth for a few
seconds. You can now swallow the wine or spit it out.
5 Spit or swallow If
you have to taste a number of wines in a limited time, spitting is the
only way to appreciate the flavours and stay sober. Practise your
technique in front of the bathroom mirror. A bucket with sawdust in the
bottom makes a practical spittoon.
These five reverential acts will allow you to get to know precisely how
good the wine you are drinking is. Again it is important to stress that
more than anything, you should enjoy the wine. However, enjoying wine
means more than simply liking the taste. Wine should complement your mood.
You rarely feel the same way from one day to the next and therefore one
wine will match a moment better than another. As a result, each wine
taster will have his/her own feel for a wine and should therefore learn to
enjoy not only tasting the wine but also talking about it and sharing
opinions with others.
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While it is beneficial to compare wines, we should always try to compare
wines of the same category. There is no sense in trying to compare a great
Fitou wine that leaves an unforgettable memory with the taster, with a
“little” vin de Pays which could be equally promising in its own
place.
A very experienced oenologist advised us to take particular note of the
completeness of a wine: is there harmony and balance throughout the five
stages of tasting? If you can sense any disharmony in the aroma, for
example, the wine will almost certainly lack an overall coherence.
Wine
and food should always complement one another.
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| The greatest sin you
can commit is to serve a bottle of red wine with a chicory salad:
there is no escaping the fact that chicory will turn even the best
wines to vinegar! (We will be tasting a superb Banyuls Vin Doux
which complements chocolate perfectly….a concept once thought
impossible!)
Remember that sometimes a wine will not be at its best until the second
glass. The reasons for this are many: the temperature might not be right
or the wine may need to breathe a while to release some acids that have
built up. Be patient.
And finally don’t be afraid to drink a wine that you opened the day
before. Some wines – for example, red wines – will benefit from
standing for a while after being opened. This can in fact improve the wine
and it will give you even greater satisfaction.
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