2WineSnobs

If wine tasting technique had to be boiled down to just two words, they would be:

• Have patience

The Technique

The process of tasting wine can be described in 5 simple steps:

1. See
2. Swirl
3. Sniff
4. Swish
5. Swallow

See

Enjoying the visible characteristics of a glass of wine is the beginning of the experience. You can often get a sense of the wine’s taste from inspecting its color. As you hold the wine, look at its:

• Color - Observe the hue of the wine against a white backdrop. White wines tend to range from pale green or yellow when young to deep amber when aged. Red wines redden as they age, from dark blue or purple to reds and then a russet brown. Lighter bodied wines (wines that feel light in your mouth) are also generally lighter in color.
• Legs - Tip the wine glass just a bit to the side so the wine runs slightly up the side. Now set the glass flat again and watch the way the wine runs down the sides of the glass: certain wines form “legs” running down the side. This is a function of the wine’s viscosity, or flow, and the rate of evaporation of the alcohol.

Swirl

Swirling wine accomplishes two things:

• It aerates and oxidizes the wine
• It helps increase and develope the flavor of the wine

Note: The less wine there is in the glass the more vigorously you can swirl it.

Sniff

As soon as you finish swirling the wine stick your nose into the glass as far as you can without actually touching the wine and take a deep whiff. The swirling action vaporizes some of the wine and makes its aroma (also called its nose or bouquet) rich and redolent.

As you smell the wine and just after, contemplate and try to name the aromas you discover (woody, fruity, smoky, fresh, breezy, etc.) At first this naming might be difficult and seem pointless. But after a while it will become easier, and you’ll start to make connections between the aromas of different wines. With some wines, such as Pinot Noirs, many wine drinkers enjoy smelling them almost as much or even more than they enjoy drinking them.

There’s another reason to smell your wine before you taste it. Your sense of smell is much more acute than your sense of taste. In fact, much of what you think of as your sense of taste is actually your sense of smell, as aromas from the food you chew reach your nose through the back of your throat. Recent studies have shown that 80% of what you experience as taste actually occurs in highly sensitive regions of your nose. If you find this hard to believe, think about how hard it is to taste anything when you’re sick and have a stuffed-up nose. So when you sniff the wine in this way before drinking it, you’re actually helping yourself taste it.

Swish

Now sip the wine and draw in some air. Then gently swish the wine around your mouth for a few seconds.

Wines are said to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. In each stage, a good wine will create subtly, or even not so subtly, different flavors, aromas, and textures in your mouth and nose.

The first flavor you will taste is the sweetness of the wine, because sweetness is primarily sensed at the tip of the tongue. As the wine moves backward over your tongue, the sweetness may or may not progress into sourness and, possibly, a tingling astringent bitterness in the hollows between cheeks and gums as the wine’s acidity and tannins take hold. Meanwhile you will also sense the texture of the wine: its thickness or thinness, roughness or smoothness. As the air and swishing vaporizes and energizes the aroma of the wine, you will smell (through the neonasal cavity at the back of your throat) the wine’s multiple aromas: buttery, earthy, floral, fruity, nutty, smoky, etc.

Swallow

When you swallow the wine, don’t immediately reach for another sip or take a bite of food. Instead, concentrate on the aftertaste of the wine you’ve just swallowed. An acid crispness will linger on the deep back and sides of the tongue, cleansing the palate. The particular lasting flavor that the wine leaves is called its finish. Now go for that next sip, sniffing first if you so desire.

To really understand wine, you have to know how it is made. The basic process is really fairly simple:

1. Grow the grapes
2. Pick the grapes
3. Crush the grapes
4. Collect the juice in a large cask called a fermentation cask. In the cask, the yeast that naturally exists on the grapes causes the juice to ferment. Fermentation is the process in which the yeast eats the sugar in the juice, transforming it into alcohol.
5. Age or mature the wine in casks for a length of time.
6. Age the wine some more in bottles.
7. Drink - which is, of course, the best part!

What makes good wine?

Master winemakers don’t just follow the process above - they master it. They know how to control every step in the process to produce specific flavors and characteristics in their wines.

Here are just a few factors that affect the taste of wine:

• The type of grape used - The type of grape plays the largest role in determining the character of a wine. All grapes can be broken down into those that produce red wine and those that produce white wine. But there are significant differences among the grapes within each of these categories too: that’s why among red wines a Pinot Noir tastes so different from a Cabernet Sauvignon, and why among whites a Chardonnay tastes different from Riesling.
• Climate - The soil and mineral content of a region can make wines made with the same grapes taste quite different. That’s why the same type of grapes grown in one region will produce better wines than those grapes grown in another. The temperature, sunshine, humidity, rainfall, and other weather factors will also affect the quality of wine produced from a particular grape, which is why wines made in different years at the same vineyard can vary in quality.
• Material of the Fermentation Cask - Casks are usually either stainless steel or oak. Stainless steel is non-reactive, which allows the wine to keep its fruity flavor. Oak casks lessen the fruity flavor, imparting instead an oaky or roasted nutty taste along with a smoother texture.
• Aging time - Certain wines improve with aging in the bottle. As they age, wines will mellow and gain in balance and complexity. But be careful not to age for too long; wines improve with age until they reach a peak, and then decline. How long a wine should age depends on the wine.

The list above describes just some of the factors that affect the taste of wine. There are many others, some quite technical, and some made possible only by the advent of modern science (such as the development of super-yeasts that can produce wines with higher alcohol contents).