Food Wine Cook

Wine Tasting

The reason to taste wine is to emphasize its pleasures, or to determine if you like the wine.  Actually, there is no right way or wrong way to taste wine. However, let us look at a method of tasting wine. The wine experts’, today's wine critics’ technique.

The critic’s techniques are observed at wine tasting events. They utilize four senses, sight, smell, taste and touch. Take a good look at the wine to see its color and tones, clarity, and fluidity. Smell wine and its character is revealed. Taste and touch go together, and they detect the basic flavors.

Let us take the connoisseurs approach step by step.

Remove the cork and smell it. The aromas from the cork should say taste me. Hold a tulip shaped glass by the stem. Now, tilt it at a forty-five-- (45) degree angle and poor the wine slowly, down the side of the glass. Fill the glass about one quarter (1/4) of the way. As the wine trickles down the side (don’t laugh) is it red, white, pink sparkling. It must be clear and notice the tones. Slowly twirl the wine around the glass to reevaluate the color. It should say try me.

Now is when we absorb the essences of the wine. Swoosh the wine around inside the glass and put your nose to the rim of the glass. Take a deep breath through the nose. The fragrance should say, "that is good".

Take a second breath. This time open the nasal passage and the brain to the essences in the wine. You may take in and recognize one flavor or a cluster of flavors, and each grape will produce a wine that has its own core of flavors. A few of the savories that may surface in a glass of wine are walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, mushrooms, cherries, berries, apples, peaches, violets, roses, oak, forest air, sea breezes, etc.

Sip a little wine and the essences should be pronounced and new savories surface. As the wine enters the mouth, the body of the wine comes to life. When the wine hits the tip of the tongue sweetness and or dryness is determined. As the wine flows to the back of the mouth the sides of the tongue reveals acidity and bitterness. When the wine touches the pallet its texture, body, wholesomeness comes to life. At the rear of the pallet the taste is finished with an aftertaste and the longer the aftertaste the better the wine. However, to say it like it is, there are times when the wine enters the mouth and the taste is offensive. —No good.