Wine Tasting
Wine tasting, despite having ancient roots, is a constantly-evolving modern practice, and a respected profession. Professional wine tasters (such as sommeliers) use an ever-changing formal terminology to describe the range of perceived flavours, aromas and general characteristics of a wine. Recreational tasting also makes use of this formal terminology, but with less emphasis on analytics, and more emphasis on personal appreciation. Whether you wish to delve into the wine-tasting profession, or gain some personal knowledge, it is important to remember the basics of wine tasting.
Tasting Methods
Blind Tasting: To ensure impartial judgement of a wine, it should be served blind — that is, without the taster(s) having seen the label or bottle shape. Blind tasting may also involve serving the wine from a black wine glass to mask the colour of the wine. A taster's judgement can be prejudiced by knowing details of a wine, such as geographic origin, price, reputation, colour, or other considerations.
Vertical Tasting: In a vertical tasting, different vintages of the same wine type from the same winery are tasted. This emphasises differences between various vintages.
Horizontal Tasting: In a horizontal tasting, the wines are all from the same vintage but are from different wineries. Keeping wine variety or type and wine region the same helps emphasise differences in winery styles.
The Five "S"'s of Tasting
| | See Check out the Colour and Clarity. Pour a glass of wine into a suitable wine glass. Then take a good look at the wine. Tilt the glass away from you and check out the colour of the wine from the rim edges to the middle of the glass (it's helpful to have a white background - either paper, napkin or a white tablecloth). What colour is it? Look beyond red, white or blush. If it's a red wine is the colour maroon, purple, ruby, garnet, red, brick or even brownish? If it's a white wine  is it clear, pale yellow, straw-like, light green, golden, amber or brown in appearance? After you distinguish the colour, move on to the wine's opacity. Is the wine watery or dark, translucent or opaque, dull or brilliant, cloudy or clear? Can you see sediment? Tilt your glass a bit, give it a little swirl and look again; is there sediment, bits of cork or any other floaters? An older red wine will be more translucent than younger red wines.
Swirl The bouquet--or aromatic experience--of wine tasting is best revealed by gently swirling the wine in a wine glass to expose it to more oxygen and release more of the essential molecules that comprise a wine's bouquet. When swirled, sweeter wines, being denser, will leave thick streaks (called legs or tears) down the inside of the glass.
Smell Our sense of smell is critical in properly analysing a glass of wine. To get a good impression of your wine's aroma, gently swirl your glass and then take a quick whiff to gain a first impression. Then stick your nose down into the glass and take a deep inhale through your nose. What are your second impressions? Do you smell oak, berry, flowers, vanilla, or citrus? A wine's aroma is an excellent indicator of its quality and unique characteristics. Gently swirl the wine and let the aromas mix and mingle, and sniff again.
Sip and Savour Thoroughly tasting a wine involves perception of its array of taste and mouth-feel attributes, which involve the combination of textures, flavours, weight, and overall "structure". The wine taster savours a wine by holding it in the mouth for a few seconds to saturate the taste buds. By pursing ones lips and breathing through the small opening of the mouth, oxygen will pass over the wine and release more esters. The acts of pausing and focusing through each step distinguishes wine tasting from wine drinking. When tasting several wines in succession, key aspects of the tasting experience (length and finish, or after-taste) are sacrificed through expectoration (i.e. the effects of alcohol on a person's judgement)--to limit expectoration, we spit out the wine after tasting.
The finish is appropriately labelled as the final phase. The wine's finish is how long the flavour impression lasts after it is swallowed. This is where the wine culminates, and where the after-taste comes into play. Did it last several seconds? Was it light-bodied (like water) or full-bodied (like the consistency of milk)? Can you taste the remnant of the wine on the back of your mouth and throat? Do you want another sip or was the wine too bitter at the end? What was your last flavour impression? fruit, butter, oak? Does the taste persist or is it short-lived? |
Wine Tasting Etiquette
| Here are a few of the wine tasting etiquette basics:- Allow other tasters the chance to form their own opinions. Wait until everyone has had a chance to taste a wine before making any comments.
- Don't interfere with other taster's sense of smell. This means no smoking or use of highly scented products such as after-shave, perfume or scented lotions.
- Drawing air into the mouth enhances tasting ability. The gurgling sound this can make is considered perfectly alright at a wine tasting.
- Spitting is permitted at wine tasting events. Usually a spittoon, plastic cup or ice bucket is provided for this purpose. In wineries, professional tasters even spit directly into drains or onto a gravel floor.
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Related Guides
External Links
- Wikipedia.com: A detailed wiki article about the process of wine tasting.
- About.com: The basic "how-to" guide of wine tasting.
- TastingWine.com: An article that supplies a tutorial on how to taste wine, which venues provide wine tasting, and wine tasting etiquette.
