Wino101: How To Taste Like a Pro (part 4 – final)

Part 1. The overall visual appearance of the wine,

Part 2. The wine’s scent,

Part 3. The wine’s taste and,

Part 4. The texture or feel of the wine in your mouth.

This last part will add to what we looked at last week. Last week we looked at the flavours that you tasted from the wine. Now we will examine the different textures that wine can have when tasting them.

Tannins: A naturally occurring preservative in wines from the grape skins. Tannins are more commonly seen in red wines which are made to be consumed years after they are bottled (especially more expensive red wines). In younger red wines tannins can leave a harsh drying taste in your mouth. You will feel tannins towards the back of your mouth when tasting wine. Breathing your wine either in a decanter, the bottle or in your glass for the wine’s flavours to develop and allow the tannins to become more balanced is one way to overcome a wine being too tannic.

Body: Wine’s are rated on a scale of light to full bodied. The body of a wine is in a sense how dense and rich it feels in your mouth. A wine’s body can be affected by the age of the wine as well as the wine’s style and production methods.

Length: How long the taste of the wine lingers in your mouth after you have swallowed or spit out the wine. Generally the longer it remains the better the quality of the wine.

I hope this series has helped to demystify wines for many of you! Feel free to continue to let me know how your wine tasting adventures go and any other questions or requests you may have on Facebook, Twitter or down below in the comments section.

Until next time!

Wino101: How to Taste Like a Pro (part 3)

Part 1. The overall visual appearance of the wine,

Part 2. The wine’s scent,

Part 3. The wine’s taste and,

Part 4. The texture or feel of the wine in your mouth.

So we are up to part 3 in this mini series, the part where the good stuff gets to happen! You finally get to taste the wine! When tasting a wine it is often referred to as the ‘palate’ of the wine.

1. take a small sip – don’t immediately swallow the wine but instead let it move around your mouth so it comes into contact with the different parts of your mouth, each of which picks up on different taste factors. If you’re feeling game also try to suck some air into your mouth to aerate the wine further, this really allows you to taste the full range of flavours that the wine would develop if allowed to completely breath before being consumed.

Things to look out for when tasting a wine:

Sweetness: the tip of your tongue is where your sweetness indicators are in your mouth. A wine is either sweet or if it is not sweet than it is a dry wine.

Acidity: too much acidity can make a wine taste ‘tart’ and be unappealing but if done right with the right wines (like say and SB or SSB) than the acidity in the wine will produce a zesty, refreshing and balanced finish.

Fruit: generally the fruitier a wine the younger and/or better quality the wine is.

Alcohol: needs to not overpower the other elements of a wine. If it is too high then it can lead to a burning sensation when swallowed.

These are just a list of simple indicators and like in part 2 there is an unending list of different flavours that can be found in wines as a result of the grapes, the methods used to produce the wines as well as the region and terrain in which the grapes are grown.

When compared with the aromas you noted in part 2 and the flavours you have noted since tasting the wine you will tend to find similarities and differences. Sometimes a wine may also surprise you! For example the Plantagenet Riesling that i tried 2 weeks ago had quite a sharp aroma that you would expect of a young Riesling, while it’s palate was smooth and balanced, with none of the commonly expected flaws of a young wine.

Until next time!

Wino 101: How To Taste Like a Pro (part 2)

Part 1. The overall visual appearance of the wine,

Part 2. The wine’s scent,

Part 3. The wine’s taste and,

Part 4. The texture or feel of the wine in your mouth.

This week we are on to the second step for when tasting a wine – it’s bouquet. To get a good whiff of the wine’s bouquet (aka the wine’s ‘aroma’) you need to give the wine a good swirl in the glass so that the wine has the greatest chance to interact with the air and to allow the wine’s aroma to be released, this is why you need to be careful to not overfill your wine glass.

Nose needs to go into the wine glass.

Once you have swirled the wine in the glass give it a deep inhale. And when you are inhaling don’t be afraid to stick your nose in the wine glass! If you want to really smell the wine then you need to get as close to it as you can!

Nose is too far from the wine in the glass to really get a sense of the wines bouquet.

When you first start to think about and noticed the bouquet of a wine it can be tough to place the scent that you are noticing (the same is true for when you taste the wine’s palate). This is a skill that you will develop over time, from listening and conversing with people who know more about wine, to reading wine descriptions, and the most simplest is to pay attention when you smell things as you go about the daily grind of life.

At the end of the day there is no right or wrong answer to what you can find in a wine’s bouquet, so don’t be afraid to give it a go!

1. Does the wine smell “off”? – this is a simple question of does it smell like it is musty, or something you don’t really want to drink. Obviously if you have not had much wine before this may be an overwhelming decision but after a few attempts at some not-so-ok wines you’ll begin to develop your understanding of what makes a wine smell ‘off’.

2. Different grape varietals have different commonly associated aromas. The aroma’s found in a wine arise from numerous conditions such as the grapes, the terrain of the region the wine is grown in, fermentation methods, as well as the bottling method chosen. Below is a small list of common aroma’s you’ll find for certain grape varietals:

Sauvignon Blanc

Think: zesty, citrus fruits, fresh/crisp, stone fruit, and storing the wine in oak can lead to vanilla or smoky aromas.

Semillon

Think: stone fruits, apples, pears, grassy, and like above storing the wine in oak can lead to vanilla or smoky aromas.

Chardonnay

Think: stone fruits, citrus fruits, tropical fruits, floral, and oak can introduce vanilla, smokey or even buttery aromas.

Pinot Gris/Grigio

Think: fruity, and floral.

Riesling

Think: floral and stone fruits.

Chenin Blanc

Think: honey, melons, grassy, vanilla, and sweet.

Shiraz

Think: berries, pepper, woody/oaky, vanilla, and earthy.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Think: berries, capsicum, vanialla, and oak.

Merlot

Think: berries, floral, caramel, vanilla, oaky (if oak is used in processing the wine), and earthy.

Pinot Noir

Think: berries, floral, vanilla, and oaky (if oak is used in processing the wine).

Best thing to take from this is to always be honest with what you smell whether it seems normal or weird to be coming from a wine.

Until next time!

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www.facebook.com/GourmetVicarously

@efthyc

and as always, feel free to comment below!