Tasting the Wine

1.Take a sip of wine and let it linger in your mouth.
One important difference between drinking and tasting is expectorating. Roll the wine around in your mouth, exposing it to all of your taste buds. Pay attention to the texture and other tactile sensations such as the sense of weight or body (the wine feels physical). What are the initial flavors that stand out? Most importantly, do you like it?

• Spit the wine into a spittoon, provided on all wine-tours, if you are planning to taste lots of wine. Getting drunk will make it harder to taste complex wines later on. If you’re driving, use the spittoon.

2. Aspirate the wine after your first taste.
With your lips pursed as if you were to whistle, draw some air into your mouth and exhale through your nose. This liberates the aromas for the wine and allows them to reach your nose via the passageway at the back of your throat, known as the retro-nasal cavity. The nose is the only place where you can detect a wine’s aromas. However, the enzymes and other compounds in your mouth and saliva alter some of a wine’s aromatic compounds. You are looking for any new aromas liberated by the wine’s interaction with the environment of your mouth.

3.Take another sip of wine, this time with air with it.
In other words, slurp the wine (without making a loud slurping noise, of course). Note the subtle differences in flavor and texture. Flavors and scents come in successive waves in fine wines, they are revealed as your sensors adjust to the wine.

• This is especially important with red wines.
• Don’t worry if this makes you feel out of place. It is an accepted step in wine tasting.

4.Look for balance in a good wine.
Is there any one taste that overpowers the rest? Can you detect the same flavors you smelled now that you are tasting the wine? Great wines are balanced so that they don’t attack your taste buds. You can taste 2-3 different fruits, a mixture of sweet and sour, and some earthy characteristics.

• A little bitterness is natural, but it shouldn’t ruin your palate.
• All wines are different — whites and dessert wines, for example, are usually on the sweeter side. You are looking for balanced flavors, whatever they are, not one “perfect” balance.

5.Note the aftertaste of the wine.
How long does the finish last? A good, 60 second or longer flavor as an aftertaste is a good sign of quality. At times, you will pick up things in the finish that was not detectable in the initial taste. Do you like the taste? Has it changed?

6.Write down what you think about the wine.
You can use whatever terminology you feel comfortable with. The most important thing to write down is your impression of the wine and how much you liked it. The more specific or detailed you are the better your reference will be against a similar wine from another winery. Many wineries provide booklets and pens so that you can notes. This can be a great aid in helping you to pay attention to the subtleties of the wine and remember what you like

• Keep a booklet of your favorite bottles and what meal you ate them with for future reference.

Learning More about Wine

1.Match the glassware to the wine.
Stemware/drinkware comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. The more experienced wine drinkers and connoisseurs often enjoy wines out of stemware or bulbs that are tailor-made for a specific varietal. When starting out, the basic rule of thumb is that you want larger glasses for reds and smaller glasses for whites.

2.Know how wines change with age.
Wines have a myriad of components that can be generally categorized into aromatic or tactile. Aromatics relate to what you smell. Tactile elements include bitterness, saltiness, sweetness, tanginess/acidity, and savory elements.

• Aging will soften tannins, which is the bitter taste in some wines.
• Perceived Acidity will soften throughout the life of a wine as it undergoes chemical changes, including the breakdown of acids.
• Flavor and aromatic intensity will rise and then fall throughout the life of a wine, going into a cocoon stage mid-life and reemerging.
• Alcohol content will stay nearly the same. All of these factors contribute to knowing when to drink/decant a wine.

3.Remember some common flavors for different wines.
There are some commonly found tastes for each of the most common varieties. However, remember that the growing region, harvesting decisions, and production choices have a great impact on a wine’s flavor as well.

4.Know how common wine flavors are produced.
There are a lot of decisions a winemaker must make when designing a wine, and it would be impossible to explain them all. Some of the most common methods, and the taste they produce include:

• Malolactic fermentation (the natural or artificial introduction of a specific bacteria) will cause white wines to taste creamy or buttery.
• Aging in oak will cause wines to take on a vanilla, caramel, or nutty flavor.
• The minerality and earthiness of a wine comes from the soil the wine was grown in.
• “Tannins” refers to the astringent, bitter compounds found in grape skins, stems, and seeds as well as the oak barrels in which the wine is aged. If you want to know what tannins taste like, bite into a grape stem or eat a cabernet grape off the vine. In young red wines, tannins taste bitter and drying, but they get silky with age.

5.Try pairing wines with new ingredients and note how it enhances or diminishes the flavors of the wine.
With red wines try different cheeses, good quality chocolate and berries. With white wines, try apples, pears, and citrus fruits.

• Pairing wine with food is more complicated than “red with beef and white with fish.” Feel free to drink whichever wine you want with whatever food you want, but remember a perfect pairing is a highly enjoyable experience