“Unleash your senses and reveal the exquisite flavors in one glass of wine.”
Wine appreciation goes further than the taste. There’s body, color, smell, and many other tastefully delicious characteristics in a glass of wine. Learning how to taste wines provides you with a greater appreciation for both the wine glass, the vintner (wine maker), and of course the wine itself.
It’s time to get all of your senses in on enjoying this flavorful grape concoction! Instead of just tasting, let’s learn how to smell and see the difference in every glass of wine. While your taste buds are limited to salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, you nose can take in and differentiate thousands of unique scents! It’s time to Learn Wine Tasting and combine all of our senses and enjoy wine like never before.
I’ll Toast to That!
Check that out!
Pour that deep full red wine, and sweet sparkling white into your tall wine glass. Next, tilt the glass away from you and check out the clarity of the wine from the rim edges to the middle of the glass.
What a Tasteful Color!
That sounds like a potentially stupid question, but there are thousands of different colors of wine. Wine tasting goes much further than red and white and blush. If it’s a red wine its color has the potential of maroon, purple, ruby, garnet, red, brick or even brownish! White wines can be clear, pale yellow, straw-like, light green, golden, amber or brown in appearance.
Once you’ve established the color, look into the wine’s opacity. Is the wine watery or dark, translucent or opaque, dull or brilliant, cloudy or clear? Older red wine tends to be more translucent than younger red wines.
Take a Wiff
Our sense of smell is a critical analyzer that is often overlooked when tasting wine! Take your wine for a spin as you gently tilt your glass to bring out the full body smell of the wine (this technique helps vaporize some of the alcohol and releases the wine’s more natural aromas).
I hope you’re not having a bad allergy season, because next you should stick your nose down into the glass and take a deep inhale to enjoy the full aroma. Does the aroma give off an oak, berry, flowers, vanilla or citrus? The aroma of your wine is an excellent source to tell you the quality and unique flavors of your wine.
Mmm Mmm Good
Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for- the taste test! Tilt your glass of wine for a small sip, and let the wine roll across your tongue to take in the flavors. Enjoy the three stages of Wine Tasting: Attack phase, the Evolution phase and the Finish.
- Attack Phase:what’s the initial sensation on your palate? The Attack is comprised of four parts: alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity and residual sugar. In a good bottle of wine, these components will be in delicate balance, none overwhelming the others. This phase does not define taste, rather, it defines the sensation of a light or heavy, sweet or dry, soft or firm wine.
- Evolution Phase: what are you actually tasting. This phase tells you the actual taste of the wine. When drinking white wine, this phase may include flavors such as apple, pear, tropical, fruity, honey, butter, herbs etc. When drinking red wine, you flavors may consist of berry, plum, prune or fig, clove, cinnamon, oak, cedar, etc.
- The Finish: How long does the flavor remain after you’ve swallowed the wine. Is the aftertaste different, or similar to the full flavor you just experienced. How long did it last? What was the last flavor you enjoyed?
Now that you know all of the hidden characteristics there are to each bottle of wine, you are set free to enjoy wine on a whole new level! Based on your personal preference, you can now pair wine with cheese, bread, and a variety of dishes. You now know the right questions to ask, and the different qualities of wine in order to pick out your new favorite bottle!
photo by pedrosimoes7on flickr