Enjoying Wine

Wine tasting

Appraisal starts with the appropriate shaped glass, the international XL4 tasting glass is the standard. The narrow top end of the glass helps contain the wine while swirling to concentrate the vapours. The hand should hold the stem and the glass should be clear (complete absence of colour) so that the colour and clarity of the wine can be assessed.

When assessing or appraising a wine we use four of our five senses:

• Vision (sight)
• Olfaction (smell)
• Degustation (taste)
• Tactile (feel)

Sight

You make two judgements when you look at a wine.

1. One is the colour, both the hue (the colour of the horizon of the wine) and the intensity. The other is its appearance. From this it is possible to make some judgements about the condition and the age of the wine. The colours of a white wine may be water white, yellow, gold, straw yellow, amber, brown, golden yellow, pale gold or other. Aged white wines will have typically deeper yellows and golds. Red wines may be pink, orange, light red, tile red, brick red, ripe plum and many other descriptions. Ageing will show orange and browns.
2. The wine clarity is essentially how clear the wine is (brilliant, clear, transparent, cloudy, dull, hazy, turbid or other). Naturally the wine should be clear and brilliant.

Smell

The smell of the wine can be divided into its aroma, grape derived odours, and the bouquet, odours derived from the winemaking process.

During the fermentation of the grape many chemical compounds are made which produce odours that can be recognised and described, eg. licorice, blackberry, melon etc. The maturation of the wine in oak may also add to the smell of the wine through vanilla, caramel and creamy type smells. The list of perceived smells is endless and unfortunately not all are pleasant. Good winemaking endeavours to avoid those unpleasant odours like mousse, foxy or swamp type odours.

Taste and Tactile sense

Of the four primary tastes three are predominant in wine tasting: sweetness, acidity and bitterness.

Associated with the sense of taste is the feeling produced in the mouth. Alcohol in moderate concentrations can be perceived as sweet. High alcohol wines may produce a warm or hot sensation. Dissolved carbon dioxide can be felt as a fizz and astringent wines can cause dryness or puckering in the mouth. Wines high in glycerol appear viscous and give a fatter or thicker feel in the mouth.

All of these sensations will lead to the overall mouth feel. A balanced wine is one without holes or gaps where all the components fill the mouth with a uniform smooth enjoyable feeling. Balance is what the winemaker strives to achieve.

1. To appraise the wine, the glass should be clear and one third full.
2. Tilt the glass on a 45-degree angle away from you with a white background so the visual assessment can be made.
3. Swirl the wine in the glass several times so the volatile chemicals, those that give rise to the wine's aroma and bouquet, can collect in the glass.
4. Smell the wine with 2-3 full quick sniffs. If you continually sniff the wine the smells will become confused. Most people can only detect 3-4 different smells at one time.
5. Make a written or mental note of the smells and your assessment of the wine's aroma and bouquet.
6. Now take a generous mouthful, suck air through the wine, swirl it around the mouth so as to cover the mouth with the wine and, if at a formal tasting, expectorate (spit) the wine and record your impressions.
7. Predominant tastes and odours are best detected with the mouth empty as the volatile chemicals will rise through the retronasal passage. As the wine warms when swallowed vapours will rise up through to the nose, for further smell detection. Many perceived tastes are indeed a smell. Try to taste the same wine while holding your nose closed and you will find the tastes you were able to detect difficult to find.