BASICS OF TASTING

INTRODUCTION

Tasting can be the most intimidating aspect of wine. When tasting in a crowd it is easy for one to feel nervous when trying to identify the various flavors in a wine, much less knowing the wine’s identity.

Don’t panic! You already have a well-developed innate sense of smell and taste in terms of strong preferences in the food and beverages you like — and those you strongly dislike. In other words, you’re already halfway there. We just need to bring your nose and palate up to speed with the language, the aromas, and the taste sensations of wine. Onward.

MODULE OBJECTIVES

In this module you will learn:

•An introduction to the Deductive Tasting Method

•How to examine a white wine and a red wine using the Deductive Tasting Method

•Using the Deductive Tasting Method to expand your wine vocabulary

TASTING PREAMBLE

Before we get started, a few words of vinous wisdom:

•Everyone is gifted with a unique sense of smell and taste. In wine we call this one’s organoleptic set-up. Organoleptics is the combined senses of smell and taste.

•Everyone also has different tolerances and sensitivities to the various components that make up wine. Thus one person may be sensitive to tannin in red wines while another taster may be sensitive to wines with high acidity.

•It is no mystery that one’s tolerances and sensitivities have a lot to do with the specific kinds of wines one likes — and dislikes.

CATCH AND RELEASE: EXPECTORATE

You mean I have to spit? Yes, you do!

Spitting, when tasting, is mandatory for two reasons:

•You’ll stay more focused — and sober

•The brain does much better analyzing a wine when you are not drinking it. That is because there are strong associations to drinking and quenching one’s thirst — as in survival.

THE DEDUCTIVE TASTING METHOD

Why use a tasting method?

Although it is perfectly acceptable to blithely sip a glass of wine, you will get a lot more out of wine if you learn to taste using a consistent method. Here is why:

•You will improve your palate and ability to taste

•You will increase your focus when tasting

•You will form valuable future taste references

•You will increase your overall wine knowledge

•You will increase your overall love of and appreciation for wine and food

THE DEDUCTIVE TASTING METHOD

Deductive Tasting is just such a method and breaks down into four criteria:

•Sight • Palate

•Nose • Conclusion

The Conclusion is used in blind tastings (no prior knowledge of the wine) to determine the wine variety and age. Since we are not blind tasting we will not cover the conlusion aspect of the method.

DEDUCTIVE TASTING: SIGHT

The appearance of a wine can provide valuable information about its age and/or storage conditions.

Key: To assess the appearance of a wine, take the glass in hand and tilt it away from you against a white background.

You are looking for:

•Clarity

•Color and secondary colors

•Particles/sediment

•Legs/tears

SIGHT: CLARITY

The first thing to look at when assessing the appearance of a wine is clarity. Most wines we enjoy here in the U.S. are clear and that’s because they have been filtered — put through a series of filter pads like swimming pool water or filtered with another kind of filtering agent.

Wine is filtered for two reasons:

•To remove yeast that could cause the wine to re-ferment in the bottle.•To remove microbes which could cause the wine to spoil and become undrinkable — not a good thing!

Important Note: Historically wine has been made without filtration. Today some winemakers choose not to filter their wines because filtering also removes some of the wine’s flavors.

SIGHT: COLOR

The next thing to look at in a glass of wine is the color, or the “hue” as it is sometimes called. Color is the most important criteria in assessing the appearance of a wine.

A wine’s color can provide clues to its age and/or storage conditions. That is because there is a definite relationship between the age of a wine and its color.

The general rules for color and wine are:

•White and blush wines get darker as they age•Red wines get lighter as they age

COLOR SCALES

Color scales are a range of colors that correspond to the age or style of a given white, blush, or red wine.

A young white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc is very pale in color and usually has a trace of green to it (we’ll get to that in a moment).

An older white wine will be much deeper in color and will usually have lost the green highlights.

The opposite is true for red wines: a young red wine may display a deep, saturated red-purple color while an older vintage of the same wine might be reddish-brown in color. Again, red wines not only get lighter in color as they age, they actually change color as well.

COLOR SCALES

Here are the color scales for white, blush, and red wines:

White WinesWatery Straw Yellow Gold Brown

Rosé and Blush WinesPink Salmon Brown

Red WinesPurple Ruby red Garnet (reddish brown) Brown

Note that all three scales end with the color brown that is commonly found in a wine with a great deal of age — a sure sign that the wine has oxidized and may be undrinkable.

Important Note: We can also describe the color of a wine more accurately by qualifying it as pale, medium, or deep — as in pale straw, deep ruby etc.

SECONDARY COLORS

• Is there more to color in wine, you ask? Indeed there is! Every wine will also display secondary colors.

• Young white wines will display a touch of green. This is chlorophyll — the unripe portions of the grape.

• Older red wines lose their youthful ruby red color and will display some shade of orange or brown (or both) — a sign of age.

• Some wines have distinct colors because of the specific grape variety — or the technique used to make the wine.

COLOR & AGE: CHARDONNAY

Two examples of colors in white wine:

Here are two glasses of Chardonnay; one from France, the other from Napa Valley.

Note how the glass of the younger Meursault is very pale in color when compared to the older Napa Valley Chardonnay.

France: Meursault Napa Valley: Chardonnay

COLOR & AGE: RED WINE

Two examples of color in red wine:

Chateauneuf-du-Pape — 3 years

Barolo — 8 years

Note how the Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a Grenache blend from France’s Rhone Valley, is opaque in color, while the Barolo, made from the Nebbiolo grape in the Piedmont region of Italy, is much lighter in color with a considerable gradation of color in the glass.

ASSESSING COLOR & CLARITY

To assess the clarity and color of a wine, tilt your glass away from you at a 45 degree angle against a white background. Is the wine clear? Dull? Hazy? You make the call.

Next, assess the wine for color. Using the color scales provided in the previous page, assign the wine a color. Remember to qualify if using the terms, pale, medium or deep.

A glass of Sauvignon Blanc might be described as pale-to-medium straw in color, while a older cabernet might be described as deep garnet ruby.

Secondary colors: Your glass of wine may also display secondary colors. Chances are it does. Look for a touch of green in the color in a young white wine while an older red might have browning at the edge of the glass.

SIGHT: PARTICLES

Particles in wine usually take the form of sediment in older red wines; or tartrates in white and red wines that have not been overly processed.

TARTRATES

Tartrates: are excess tartaric acid that exists naturally in all wines. Tartrates are usually removed by either filtering the wine or putting it through a process called “cold stabilization,” where the wine is quick chilled to removed the tartrates before bottling.

The glass on the right, an older dessert wine from Riesling, was not filtered or put through cold stabilization and the tartaric acid crystals can easily be seen.

Some winemakers choose not to filter or put the wine through cold stabilization and the wine can display tartrates if quickly chilled. Not a problem as the tartrate crystals dissolve back into the wine as it gets a bit warmer.

Rheingau Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese – 10 years

SIGHT: SEDIMENT

Sediment in red wine comes from the pigment and tannins that precipitate out of the wine as it ages.

Sediment can also be found in young unfiltered red wines.

Here is a photo of an older Zinfandel with sediment in the bottom of the glass

Decanting older wines off the sediment is usually necessary

Sonoma Old Vines Zinfandel – 15 years

SIGHT CHECK

Check your wine for tartrates or sediment in the glass.

If there are no signs of either, the wine was probably filtered and/or cold stabilized.

SIGHT: VISCOSITY

Viscosity is a clue to the amount of alcohol or presence of residual sugar in a wine. One can assess the viscosity of a wine by looking at the legs or tears in the glass.

To look at the legs/tears in your glass, swirl the glass carefully by placing it on a hard surface and slowly drawing small circles.

After swirling your glass, watch the wine as it drips down the side of the glass. You are looking to see how quickly or slowly the wine drips down the sides of the glass; and how thick or thin the tears/legs are.

VISCOSITY KEYS

Here are some keys to assessing the viscosity of the wine:

Thin and quickly moving tear/legs or fast sheeting in the glass usually mean the wine has low alcohol and little or no residual sugar

Thick and slowly moving tears/legs usually mean the wine has higher alcohol or the presence of residual sugar

Staining in the tears in red wines mean the wine has considerable extract, richness, and concentration — and usually higher alcohol.

Look at the photo of the glass of old vines Zinfandel and note how thick the legs/tears are, and also how they have some color signifying the concentration and extract of the wine.

VISCOSITY ASSESSMENT

To assess the viscosity of wine, swirl a glass of wine and watch how the legs/tears drip down the side of the glass.

•Do the tears move slowly? Quickly?

•Are they thick? Thin?

•How would you describe the viscosity of the wine?

•Low? Medium? High?

DEDUCTIVE TASTING: NOSE

Now we move on to the nose of the wine. Many believe smelling the wine is the most critical aspect of tasting.

Why? Because smell accounts for some 85% of the sense of taste. Want proof? Just think back to the last head cold you had and how you could not taste anything.

Experts say that while we can only taste five different things (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami), we can smell over 10,000 different things.

NOSE: SWIRLING THE WINE

Why do we swirl the glass before smelling the wine?

Because all the flavor elements (called esters) are attached to the alcohol molecules in the wine. Swirling the wine helps to release the esters and makes them easier for us to identify.

HOW TO SMELL

So if smelling wine is so important, what is the best way to smell, or nose, a glass of wine?

There are two basic techniques for smelling wine.

•One long sniff •Several short sniffs

Try both techniques to see what works best for you.

NOSE: THE CHECKLIST

Now the fun begins. Here is a checklist of things to look for when smelling a glass of wine:

•Fault factor

•Fruit

•Earth

•Wood

NOSE: FAULT FACTOR

Fault factor: here we are checking the wine for flaws to see if anything is wrong. Here is a short list of the most common wine flaws:

•TCA (trichloranisole) or corkiness: from tainted corks – smells like wet moldy cardboard and mustiness

•Oxidation: from age or poor storage conditions – smells and tastes like dull fruit, with earthy, leathery notes and a dull, flat finish

•Volatile Acidity or VA: smells like vinegar aromas or varnish/fingernail polish

•Excess sulfur dioxide – SO2: sulfur dioxide is a valuable preservative added during the winemaking process. However, a little goes a long way and too much SO2 smells like a matchstick or wet wool

•Hydrogen sulfide – H2S: smells like rotten eggs or sewer gas. Yum!

CHECK FOR FLAWS

Smell your glass of wine and check for flaws. Hopefully the wine smells clean, fresh and fruity. If not, use the previous page to identify the problem.

ASSESING THE NOSE FOR FRUIT

Check your glass of wine for fruit aromas. Swirl the glass and smell focusing on fruit aromas.

Be patient! Let the aromas of the wine have time to find their way to you. Spend at least 10–15 seconds, if not longer smelling the wine.

What fruit aromas did you smell? You might check the wine again to get a better impression of the fruit.

NOSE: EARTHINESS

• Earthiness, you ask? Yes, it is true. Wines from European countries, or the old world, have a definitive stamp of the vineyard in which the grapes were grown.

• In fact, European wines tend to have more earthy characteristics than fruit — often making them easy to identify. New world wines, or wines from countries such as the U.S., Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, tend to have less of a sense of earthiness/minerality and much more fruit.

• Earthiness in wine takes the form of minerality in white wines and aromas of damp earth or mushroom in red wines.

• Earthiness in wines is often called “terroir” (tare-woir).

ASSESSING THE NOSE FOR EARTHINESS

Check your glass of wine for earthiness. Swirl it and spend some time smelling it to see if there is any sense of minerality or earthiness.

If you have trouble finding a sense of earthiness, it may not be there.

NOSE: WOOD

Wood is the last item on the checklist for the aromas of the wine. You have probably seen many photographs of oak barrels neatly stacked in a winery.

Fine wine is often aged in small, 55–60 gallon oak barrels. These barrels are often toasted, or carmelized, on the inside which add a unique set of flavors to the finished wine. Oak-aging also adds structure to the wine in the form of tannins (or tannic acid) and added complexity.

New barrels impart the most influence on wine. As the barrels are reused with each new vintage they impart less and less influence and flavor.

Generally, a winery will use barrels for 4-6 years and then sell them off.

COMMON OAK AROMAS

Common aromas of oak in wine are:

•Vanilla: from the vanillin in the wood

•Baking spices: such as clove cinamon and allspice from toasting and carmelizing the barrels

•Wood: the aromas of a freshly sawed plank are often a sign that a wine has spent too much time in wood

ASSESSING THE WINE FOR OAK

Check your glass of wine for oak. Swirl it and spend some time smelling it to see if there is any sense of oak.

If you smell vanilla, sweet baking spices, the wine has probably spent some time aging in oak. If not, it may have been in older oak that is neutral or the winemaker may chose not to age the wine in oak.

Important Note: Certain grape varieties such as Riesling are rarely aged in oak. Others, such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon are almost always aged in oak. More often than not, oak aging is a stylistic and winemaking decision.

DEDUCTIVE TASTING: PALATE

Finally, after looking at and smelling the wine, the next step is to taste the wine. If you have thoroughly smelled the wine, tasting it will bring few, if any, surprises. In fact, tasting the wine will only confirm what you have already smelled.

Here are some tips on tasting:

•Take a SIP of the wine — no hoovering!

•After sipping, move the wine around in the inside your mouth. You can gargle or swish or whatever — and you may have to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you.

•Expectorate! Remember that you do have to spit when tasting. It’s part of learning to be a wine professional and you’ll have a much better idea of what the wine is all about.

PALATE CHECKLIST

Here is a checklist of what to look for when tasting the wine:

•Sweetness/dryness

•Body

•Confirming the fruit, earth, and wood

•Alcohol

•Acidity

•Tannin

•Complexity

•Finish

PALATE: SWEETNESS/DRYNESS

Sip of the wine — then spit it out into a spit cup.

Notice how dry or sweet the wine is — not only in your first impression but in the after taste, called the finish, as well.

A wine’s sense of sweetness or dryness is determined by how much, or little, residual sugar the winemaker left in the wine after fermentation.

SWEETNESS/DRYNESS SCALE

Scale:

Now that you have tasted the wine, where does it fit in with the scale above. Is your wine dry? Slightly sweet? Or a very sweet dessert wine? You make the call.

Bone dry

Dry Off-dry Slightly sweet

Medium sweet

Dessert

PALATE: BODY

The body of a wine can be described as weight or richness. It is determined by the amount of alcohol, glycerin, and grape solids in the wine.

Think of dairy products as a comparison. A light-bodied wine is like non-fat milk; a medium-bodied wine is like half-and-half; and a full-bodied wine is like heavy cream.

Taste your wine again and try to fit it into one of the categories above. Here is a scale for body:

•Light-bodied; medium-bodied; full-bodied. •Where does your wine fit on this scale?

PALATE: CONFIRM THE FRUIT, EARTH & WOOD

Take another sip and try to confirm all the aromas of fruit, earth, and wood that you detected when smelling the wine.

Fruit: do you taste the same fruit flavors? Anything new?

Earthiness: do you taste a sense of minerality or earthiness in the wine? Anything new? Some tasters say that minerality or earth on the palate is more of a sensation versus an actual flavor.

Wood: do you taste the same vanilla/spice/wood flavors? Anything new?

ALCOHOL

Alcohol in wine is sensed as a feeling of heat in the nose, or the throat and chest. A light-bodied wine with lower alcohol will leave little, if any, impression of heat in , while a richer wine with a higher alcohol content, such as a port or sherry, will leave a warming sensation.

The scale for alcohol: Low Medium High

Taste your wine again and see where it fits on this scale.

PALATE: ACIDITY

Acidity is one of the vital components of wine. Every wine must possess enough acidity to be balanced and to have any potential to age. Tartaric acid is the most important of the four major acids found in every wine.

Acidity on the palate is perceived as tartness in flavors —and by the salivary glands producing saliva.

Take another sip of the wine and note any tart flavors and also see how your salivary glands react to the wine.

Here is a scale for acidity: Low Medium High

Where does the wine fit on this scale?

PALATE: TANNIN

Tannins in wine are derived from two sources: red grapes (white wines are made without any skin contact) and the barrels wine is often aged in.

Tannins taste bitter and feel gritty or aggressive on the back of your tongue. The best way to think of tannins is to imagine a cup of overly-brewed tea. That bitter taste is tannin.

White wines without oak usually have little, if any, tannins. Red wines generally have much more tannin.

Now take a sip of your wine. Do you taste or sense any bitterness or grittiness from tannins?

Here is a scale for tannin: Low Medium High

Where does your wine fit on this scale?

PALATE: COMPLEXITY

Complexity is a term you hear wine geeks toss around a lot. But complexity is very important in terms of a wine’s quality.

In short, complexity means the amount of aromas and flavors in a wine and how they interact. An inexpensive jug wine will have very few flavors and little complexity. A fine, aged bottle will have far more flavors and thus much more complexity.

Taste your wine again and think about how many aromas and flavors it has—and how complex it is.

Here is a scale for complexity: Low Medium High

How complex is your wine?

PALATE: THE FINISH

The finish is the aftertaste of the wine, and all the flavor impressions you are left with once you spit out the wine — or swallowed it.

The general rule concerning the finish of a wine is: the longer the finish the better quality the wine

An inexpensive wine has a very short finish while a fine, aged wine may have a finish that may last for many minutes.

Sip of your wine and pay attention to how long the finish is.

Here is the scale: Short Medium Long

How long is the finish of your wine?

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have made it through the Deductive Tasting Technique. Now it is time to sum up. Think about everything you see, smell, and taste in your glass of wine.

Now you should be able to describe it thoroughly —and hopefully you will never taste a glass of wine the same way again.

Use the following checklist on the next page when describing a glass of wine.

DESCRIPTIVE CHECKLIST

Sight: My glass of wine was clear/not clear and ______ in color, with _____ viscosity.

Nose: The wine smelled like ________ for fruit and had _____ minerals/earthiness and ____ oak.

Palate: The wine tasted like ______, with ____ alcohol, _____ acidity, _____ tannins, and a ______ finish.

The wine has _____ complexity.

There you have it! A very complete description of your wine.

REVIEW

You should now have a good understanding of:

•The basics of the Deductive Tasting Method

•How to examine a white wine and a red wine using the Deductive Tasting Method

•Using the Deductive Tasting Method to expand your wine vocabulary