Tasting Wine
As with most things life, if they come naturally we tend to take them for granted. You need to breathe to live (Biology GCSE still serving me well), but we don’t think about it – we just do it. That is, until a cold comes along and all you do is dream of the ol’ days when simultaneously eating and breathing didn’t give you near heart palpatations. The same attitude seems to apply to the senses too: seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and touching (though the latter 2 don’t really apply here) and things we do every day without so much as a thought.
Typically tasting wine is, for many, the epitome of the Wine World’s pretentious setup – the delicate sniffing and the not-so-delicate gurgling don’t really do the situation any favours. However, if you look at it objectively, really tasting wine is just paying attention to 3 of the senses you rarely take the time to appreciate.
The process of wine tasting is not a complex one: (theoretically speaking) there are just 4 steps to being the 'ultimate' wine connoisseur (realistically speaking, there’s quite a lot more training involved but we’ll cheerfully ignore that fact and march swiftly on).
Typically tasting wine is, for many, the epitome of the Wine World’s pretentious setup – the delicate sniffing and the not-so-delicate gurgling don’t really do the situation any favours. However, if you look at it objectively, really tasting wine is just paying attention to 3 of the senses you rarely take the time to appreciate.
The process of wine tasting is not a complex one: (theoretically speaking) there are just 4 steps to being the 'ultimate' wine connoisseur (realistically speaking, there’s quite a lot more training involved but we’ll cheerfully ignore that fact and march swiftly on).
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1. Look
So, Step 1 is to welcome Sight to the party. Believe it or not, looking at a wine can tell you more than just what colour it is – I know, shocker. A wine’s colour is also a good indicator of it’s age. For red wines, for instance, the younger ones are generally ‘ruby’ in colour, that deep red we all know and love. However, with age reds loose their colour and take on a ‘garnet’ colour, so a sort of reddy-orange. The opposite can be said for white wines, who develop more colour as they age; in their youth they’re usually a pale yellow, but after time they become more golden in tone. |
Image courtesy of Wine Folly.
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2. Smell
Now, Step 2 has a bit of a bad rep I feel. Admittedly the swirling and comments about ‘hints of wet stone’ and ‘a little forest floor’ do little in the way of not making look like a completely ridiculous procedure, but there really is method to the madness. You can tell a huge amount about a wine from its aromas; age, grape variety, how it’s made and often where it’s made. The nose is a very powerful thing it seems.
It might be hard to believe but the swirling of the wine is actually a pretty important part of the whole process, it really isn’t just for the fun of looking like a pompous doofus (promise). The swirling basically increases the wine’s contact with oxygen which in turn enhances both its flavour and smell.
In terms of what to look out for with regards to smell, there are 3 groups of aromas you can look out for:
Now, Step 2 has a bit of a bad rep I feel. Admittedly the swirling and comments about ‘hints of wet stone’ and ‘a little forest floor’ do little in the way of not making look like a completely ridiculous procedure, but there really is method to the madness. You can tell a huge amount about a wine from its aromas; age, grape variety, how it’s made and often where it’s made. The nose is a very powerful thing it seems.
It might be hard to believe but the swirling of the wine is actually a pretty important part of the whole process, it really isn’t just for the fun of looking like a pompous doofus (promise). The swirling basically increases the wine’s contact with oxygen which in turn enhances both its flavour and smell.
In terms of what to look out for with regards to smell, there are 3 groups of aromas you can look out for:
Image courtesy of Wine Folly.
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3. Taste
This one can’t exactly be a surprise, it’s bit of a given really. Even so, there 3 factors to take into consideration…
This one can’t exactly be a surprise, it’s bit of a given really. Even so, there 3 factors to take into consideration…
- Of course, taste in terms of flavour is very much relevant. For starters the wine’s sweetness is something you’ll easily be able to detect, those without any residual sugar being labeled ‘dry’. Often the aromas you smell in a wine can also be picked up on the pallet too.
- Texture is another aspect of wine that can have a big impact on how a person perceives a wine. It’s often the case, particularly for those who are new to drinking wine, that red wines seem too harsh due to the tannins they contain, which dry the drinker’s mouth out.
- Last but by no means least, is what is called the ‘length’ (or ‘finish) of a wine. This is how long you can still taste the wine for after you have swallowed it, and generally speaking the better the quality of wine, the longer the finish – though that rule does vary according to the grape type.
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4. Think
I know, using your brain can be a scary concept. But just take a second or 2 to consider exactly how your senses have responded to the wine. Do all the flavours/textures work together? If yes, then you’ve got yourself a ‘balanced’ wine. Can you smell aromas from all 3 of the categories? Then your wine would be labeled ‘complex’ and will likely have a bit of age on its side. |
Image courtesy of Wine Folly.
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So there you have it, a comprehensive guide to tasting according to V & V, happy drinking folks!