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Whether you are vacationing in California, Australia, South Africa, France or Italy, wine tasting is one of the most rewarding excursions available.
If you long to walk through the vineyards and admire the grapevines and picturesque backdrop, wine glass in hand, you must first learn to appreciate the subtle beauty of wine.
Look at the wine, especially around the edges. Tilting the glass a bit can make it easier to see the way the color changes from the center to the edges. Holding the glass in front of a white background, such as a napkin, tablecloth, or sheet of paper, is another good way to make out the wine's true color. Look for the color of the wine and the clarity.
White wines become darker as they age while time causes red wines to lose their color turning more brownish, often with a small amount of harmless, dark red sediment in the bottom of the bottle or glass. This is also a good time to catch a preliminary sniff of the wine so you can compare its fragrance after swirling. This will also allow you to check for any off odors that might indicate spoiled (corked) wine.
Swirl the wine in your glass. This is to mix oxygen in with the wine, which will soften the tannins of a young wine. It also spreads the liquid over the surface of the glass so that more of the wine can evaporate.
While you're swirling, note the wine's viscosity - how slowly it runs back down the side of the glass. More viscous wines are said to have "legs," and are likely to be more alcoholic.
Sniff the wine. Initially you should hold the glass a few inches from your nose. Then let your nose go into the glass. What do you smell?
Take a sip of wine, but do not swallow yet.
Roll the wine around in your mouth exposing it to all of your taste buds. Do this for at least a few seconds before swallowing, taking time to think about the flavors you are experiencing. Breathe in through your nose while moving the wine throughout your mouth. This increases the flavor of the wine.
Take another sip of the wine, but this time (especially if you are drinking a red wine) introduce air with it. In other words, slurp the wine (without making a loud slurping noise, of course). Note the subtle differences in flavor and texture.
Note the aftertaste when you swallow. How long does the finish last? Do you like the taste?
Write down what you experienced. You can use whatever terminology you feel comfortable with. The most important thing to write down is your impression of the wine and how much you liked it. Many wineries provide booklets and pens so that you can take your own tasting notes. This will force you to pay attention to the subtleties of the wine. Also, you will have a record of what the wine tastes like so that you can pair it with meals or with your mood.
Wines have four basic components: taste, tannins, alcohol and acidity. Most tasters believe that a good wine will have a good balance of all four characteristics. Aging and decanting will soften tannins (see Tips for a more detailed description). Acidity will soften throughout the life of a wine as it breaks down the tannins. Fruit will rise and then fall throughout the life of a wine. Alcohol will stay the same. All of these factors contribute to knowing when to drink/decant a wine.
Here are some commonly found tastes for each of the most common varietals:
Cabernet - black fruits, green spices
Merlot - black fruits, green spices, floral
Zinfandel - black fruits (often jammy), black spices
Syrah (aka Shiraz, depending on vineyard location) - black fruits, black
spices
Pinot Noir - red fruits, floral, herbs
Chardonnay - Apple, pear, peach, apricot
Sauvignon Blanc - Grapefruit, lime, melon
Malolactic fermentation (the natural or artificial introduction of a specific bacteria) will cause white wines to taste creamy or buttery
Aging in oak will cause wines to take on a vanilla or nutty flavor.
Other common taste descriptors are minerality, earthiness and asparagus.
Match the glassware to the wine. Stemware/drinkware comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The more experienced wine drinkers and connoisseurs often enjoy wines out of stemware or bulbs that are tailor-made for a specific varietal. When starting out, there is a basic rule of thumb; larger glasses for reds, and smaller glasses for whites. Austrian glassware company Riedel is the gold standard of drinkware when it comes to wine, but for the beginner, less expensive stemware will do.
Try pairing wines with unusual ingredients and note the how it enhances or diminishes the flavors of the wine.
With red wines try different cheeses, good quality chocolate and berries. With white wines you can try apples, pears and citrus fruits. Pairing wine with food is more complicated than "red with beef and white with fish." Feel free to drink whichever wine you want with whatever food you want, but remember a perfect pairing is a highly enjoyable experience.
Tips
The cardinal rule of wine tasting is to buy and drink what you like.
Don't worry if your tastes are different than people around you. Everyone has their own tastes and the exciting thing about wine tasting is discovering exactly what your tastes are.
"Tannins" is a very common term in wine tasting (usually red wine). It refers to the astringent, bitter compounds found in grape skins, stems and seeds as well as the oak barrels in which the wine is aged. If you want to know what tannins taste like, just bite into a grape stem or eat a cabernet grape off the vine. In young red wines, tannins taste bitter and drying, but with age they taste silky.
If the tannins are too dominant, swirl the glass vigorously. If you are serving a bottle, pour the wine into a decanter or a carafe and let it sit for an hour or two before drinking.
When driving through wine country, make an adventure out of it. Get lost and follow the small signs to the hidden wineries. Big name wineries make great wines, but they seldom offer an intimate tasting experience.
Talk with the people who work at the winery.
They are usually more than happy to impart some of their extensive knowledge of the subject--especially when it comes to their resident product.
If one is around, go to a restaurant or wine bar that offers wine "flights". These are great ways to compare different wines and see how different varietals react to different handling.
These flights are often good values and allow you to try (usually 3) different wines without having to open 3 bottles of wine.(Any good restaurant/wine bar will design flights to have an overall theme that will make the experience more informative than just three random glasses)
Always talk to your wine merchant or bartender about wines.
Try to get a sense of what information they can provide and if it is useful. If they tend to lead you in a good direction, stick with these people. If they are unhelpful or clearly do not know what they are talking about, take your business someplace else.
When introducing air (i.e., slurping), tip your head down slightly. This will help minimize choking.
Warnings
When you go wine tasting, you will encounter "wine snobs." These individuals sniff out newcomers like bloodhounds and mercilessly force their opinions on them. Avoid wine snobs if you can.
Like golf, wine is associated with "status" and the business lifestyle. If you want to be accepted into the connoisseurs' circle, it can get expensive.
When using lead decanters or glasses, there is a remote possibility of lead poisoning proportional to the length of time in which wine has come in contact with lead.
If you use a lead decanter or lead stemware, consume the wine within 48 hours to avoid any risk of lead poisoning.
Most wine, when opened, does not keep for longer than a few days. Eventually the wine will become vinegar. Although this might be nice on salads (provided you know how to prepare it), it makes the wine basically undrinkable.
When going wine tasting, be sure to have a designated driver. Even those tiny sips of wine can sneak up on you!
If you long to walk through the vineyards and admire the grapevines and picturesque backdrop, wine glass in hand, you must first learn to appreciate the subtle beauty of wine.
Look at the wine, especially around the edges. Tilting the glass a bit can make it easier to see the way the color changes from the center to the edges. Holding the glass in front of a white background, such as a napkin, tablecloth, or sheet of paper, is another good way to make out the wine's true color. Look for the color of the wine and the clarity.
White wines become darker as they age while time causes red wines to lose their color turning more brownish, often with a small amount of harmless, dark red sediment in the bottom of the bottle or glass. This is also a good time to catch a preliminary sniff of the wine so you can compare its fragrance after swirling. This will also allow you to check for any off odors that might indicate spoiled (corked) wine.
Swirl the wine in your glass. This is to mix oxygen in with the wine, which will soften the tannins of a young wine. It also spreads the liquid over the surface of the glass so that more of the wine can evaporate.
While you're swirling, note the wine's viscosity - how slowly it runs back down the side of the glass. More viscous wines are said to have "legs," and are likely to be more alcoholic.
Sniff the wine. Initially you should hold the glass a few inches from your nose. Then let your nose go into the glass. What do you smell?
Take a sip of wine, but do not swallow yet.
Roll the wine around in your mouth exposing it to all of your taste buds. Do this for at least a few seconds before swallowing, taking time to think about the flavors you are experiencing. Breathe in through your nose while moving the wine throughout your mouth. This increases the flavor of the wine.
Take another sip of the wine, but this time (especially if you are drinking a red wine) introduce air with it. In other words, slurp the wine (without making a loud slurping noise, of course). Note the subtle differences in flavor and texture.
Note the aftertaste when you swallow. How long does the finish last? Do you like the taste?
Write down what you experienced. You can use whatever terminology you feel comfortable with. The most important thing to write down is your impression of the wine and how much you liked it. Many wineries provide booklets and pens so that you can take your own tasting notes. This will force you to pay attention to the subtleties of the wine. Also, you will have a record of what the wine tastes like so that you can pair it with meals or with your mood.
Wines have four basic components: taste, tannins, alcohol and acidity. Most tasters believe that a good wine will have a good balance of all four characteristics. Aging and decanting will soften tannins (see Tips for a more detailed description). Acidity will soften throughout the life of a wine as it breaks down the tannins. Fruit will rise and then fall throughout the life of a wine. Alcohol will stay the same. All of these factors contribute to knowing when to drink/decant a wine.
Here are some commonly found tastes for each of the most common varietals:
Cabernet - black fruits, green spices
Merlot - black fruits, green spices, floral
Zinfandel - black fruits (often jammy), black spices
Syrah (aka Shiraz, depending on vineyard location) - black fruits, black
spices
Pinot Noir - red fruits, floral, herbs
Chardonnay - Apple, pear, peach, apricot
Sauvignon Blanc - Grapefruit, lime, melon
Malolactic fermentation (the natural or artificial introduction of a specific bacteria) will cause white wines to taste creamy or buttery
Aging in oak will cause wines to take on a vanilla or nutty flavor.
Other common taste descriptors are minerality, earthiness and asparagus.
Match the glassware to the wine. Stemware/drinkware comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The more experienced wine drinkers and connoisseurs often enjoy wines out of stemware or bulbs that are tailor-made for a specific varietal. When starting out, there is a basic rule of thumb; larger glasses for reds, and smaller glasses for whites. Austrian glassware company Riedel is the gold standard of drinkware when it comes to wine, but for the beginner, less expensive stemware will do.
Try pairing wines with unusual ingredients and note the how it enhances or diminishes the flavors of the wine.
With red wines try different cheeses, good quality chocolate and berries. With white wines you can try apples, pears and citrus fruits. Pairing wine with food is more complicated than "red with beef and white with fish." Feel free to drink whichever wine you want with whatever food you want, but remember a perfect pairing is a highly enjoyable experience.
Tips
The cardinal rule of wine tasting is to buy and drink what you like.
Don't worry if your tastes are different than people around you. Everyone has their own tastes and the exciting thing about wine tasting is discovering exactly what your tastes are.
"Tannins" is a very common term in wine tasting (usually red wine). It refers to the astringent, bitter compounds found in grape skins, stems and seeds as well as the oak barrels in which the wine is aged. If you want to know what tannins taste like, just bite into a grape stem or eat a cabernet grape off the vine. In young red wines, tannins taste bitter and drying, but with age they taste silky.
If the tannins are too dominant, swirl the glass vigorously. If you are serving a bottle, pour the wine into a decanter or a carafe and let it sit for an hour or two before drinking.
When driving through wine country, make an adventure out of it. Get lost and follow the small signs to the hidden wineries. Big name wineries make great wines, but they seldom offer an intimate tasting experience.
Talk with the people who work at the winery.
They are usually more than happy to impart some of their extensive knowledge of the subject--especially when it comes to their resident product.
If one is around, go to a restaurant or wine bar that offers wine "flights". These are great ways to compare different wines and see how different varietals react to different handling.
These flights are often good values and allow you to try (usually 3) different wines without having to open 3 bottles of wine.(Any good restaurant/wine bar will design flights to have an overall theme that will make the experience more informative than just three random glasses)
Always talk to your wine merchant or bartender about wines.
Try to get a sense of what information they can provide and if it is useful. If they tend to lead you in a good direction, stick with these people. If they are unhelpful or clearly do not know what they are talking about, take your business someplace else.
When introducing air (i.e., slurping), tip your head down slightly. This will help minimize choking.
Warnings
When you go wine tasting, you will encounter "wine snobs." These individuals sniff out newcomers like bloodhounds and mercilessly force their opinions on them. Avoid wine snobs if you can.
Like golf, wine is associated with "status" and the business lifestyle. If you want to be accepted into the connoisseurs' circle, it can get expensive.
When using lead decanters or glasses, there is a remote possibility of lead poisoning proportional to the length of time in which wine has come in contact with lead.
If you use a lead decanter or lead stemware, consume the wine within 48 hours to avoid any risk of lead poisoning.
Most wine, when opened, does not keep for longer than a few days. Eventually the wine will become vinegar. Although this might be nice on salads (provided you know how to prepare it), it makes the wine basically undrinkable.
When going wine tasting, be sure to have a designated driver. Even those tiny sips of wine can sneak up on you!
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