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WINE TASTING EDUCATION
How to Taste Wine
Step 1: Visual Observation
Wine tasting has a process, a set of simple but purposeful procedures that will increase your enjoyment of wine. To the novice, some of these may seem odd or snobbish, but they have evolved over centuries as the best way to gather sensory data from wines.
Observing the Wine
Fill the glass about one-third, and never more than half. Pick it up by the stem gently but firmly. Don't hold it by the bowl; your hand will hide your view of the glass, and may warm the wine. The telltale sign of a person's expertise by the way they hold their wineglass.
Observe the color, intensity and clarity of the wine. The true color of the wine is best determined by tilting the glass and looking at the wine through the rim, keying on the variation from the deepest part of the liquid to its edges. Intensity, the depth of color, is best judged by looking straight down through the glass from above. Clarity, degree to which sediment or particles are visible, is most visible when a light shines through the side of the glass.
Color Coding
A wine's color can provide great insight to its character. Different varietals (grape varieties) possess differing color attributes. Compare two common red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. Cabernet fruits are usually small, with thickish, deep indigo skin. Pinot Noir grapes are more delicate, redder and slightly fuller. Wines from Cabernet would usually be a deeper, more intense purple, rather than the ruby or garnet tones of Pinot Noir.
Growing conditions also influences color. Summer warmth and a dry autumn produce fully ripened grapes with a high skin-to-juice ratio. Wines from these grapes will have deeper colors. Cooler summers or a wet harvest yields unripe and diluted grapes, lessen color and intensity. Winemaking (vinification) techniques also affect color. Color is derived from the skin, not the juice. In fact, most grape juice, even from dark purple grapes, is relatively colorless. Fermenting wine in contact with the skins leeches pigment from the skins themselves. Longer skin contact means darker wine.
The winemaker has great control in determining a wine's clarity. After fermentation and the skins are discarded, many minute particles remain suspended in the wine. Some winemakers remove this material through fining or filtering. Most modern wines are filtered. Others believe wine benefits a small amount of residual deposit. Look at an old bottle of wine and you will often see it settled on the bottom.
Also, bottle-aging itself affects both color and intensity. Aged red wines lighten, developing a brick or amber tinge. Aged white wines deepen in color, becoming more amber.
Final Observations
Lastly, just before smelling the wine, rotate your glass to swirl the wine. Be gentle, or you may end up wearing some of the wine. Swirling is primarily designed to release the hidden aromas, but it also coats the walls of the glass with wine. Watch as the wine drips downward. If you see long lines of wine remaining on the glass, these are the "legs" or "tears." Legs are a sign of the combination of sugar/alcohol/glycerin. There is much debate over whether these are predictors of wine quality.
Learn to observe these visual characteristics in reference to each other and to other wines. You will quickly develop the ability to identify wines from these visual cues and to make judgments about a wine, as you taste. This is very useful while tasting at wineries. ON TO STEP 2
Travel Guide to France
Northern France Travel Guide > Amiens Guide > Beauvais Guide > Bologne Travel Guide > Calais Travel Guide > Champagne Travel Guide > Dunkirk Guide > Épernay > Lille > Reims Holiday Guide > Troyes France
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