The Common Ritual of Wine Tasting
There is a lot I can write about how to "properly" taste a wine. But as I have said before, what is most important when tasting a wine is whether its aromas and flavors give you enjoyment. I will try to keep this brief so when you next taste a wine you can have a simple method for tasting a wine that can help you determine if it is any good. The traditional way to taste a wine is done in the following method.
Appearance:
After opening a bottle, pour yourself a half-full glass of wine. To observe a wine's appearance, tilt the glass away from you and look at the color of the wine against a white background. Notice how dark or how pale the wine is, what color it is, and whether the color fades from the center of the wine out toward the edge, where it touches the glass. Also notice whether the wine is cloudy, clear, or bright. Eventually, you will begin to notice patterns, such as deeper color in younger red wines.
Smelling:
What a wine smells like is commonly referred to as the "nose" or "bouquet." Keep your glass on the table and rotate it three or four times so that the wine swirls around inside the glass and mixes with air. Then quickly bring the glass to your nose. Stick your nose into the airspace of the glass and smell the wine. Is the aroma fruity, woodsy, fresh, cooked, intense, light, etc. If you can, start to pick out certain smells that you can associate with the aromas coming from the wine, such as blueberries or black pepper.
The point behind this whole ritual is that what you smell should be pleasurable to you, maybe even fascinating, and that you should have fun in the process. A good wine should stimulate your nose the same way a batch of cookies out of the oven does.
Taste:
The normal procedure for tasting a wine:
- Take a medium-sized sip of wine.
- Hold the wine in your mouth, purse your lips, and draw i some air across your tongue, over the wine.
- Swish the wine around in your mouth as if you are chewing it.
- Swallow the wine.
Taste buds on the tongue can register various sensations, which are known as the basic tastes: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami, a savory characteristic. Of these tastes, sweetness, sourness, and bitterness are those most commonly found in wine. By moving the wine around in your mouth, you give it a chance to hit all your taste buds so that you do not miss anything in the wine. When you begin to taste a wine, start by focusing on these characteristics before trying to pick out particular flavors. How a wine feels inside your mouth is another important element when tasting. Figure out if the wine is light or heavy on your palate and what kind of texture it has as it glides across your tongue. Also pay attention to the aftertaste a wine leaves in your mouth; a good wine should leave an enjoyable aftertaste in you mouth for quite some time.
Final Note:
Many people are concerned that they are not able to detect as many aromas and tastes as they think they should. Smelling and tasting wine is really just a matter of practice and attention. If you start to pay more attention to smells and tastes, you will get better at picking you certain aromas and flavors. Getting a journal to record what wines you have and what they taste like is a great way to help expand and remember your vocabulary to describe a wine.
I hope these guidelines help you discover the full potential of a wine the text time you open a bottle.
I have included a link to Wikipedia.com on wine tasting if you would like to read more information.
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