You have probably heard from both friends and experts many
times that any wine you like is a good wine. This is true if simply enjoying
wine is your goal. You don’t have to do more than take a sip, give it a swallow
and let your inner geek decide “yes” or “no.” The end.
It’s true that figuring out what you like is an important
component of wine tasting, but it’s not the only component. Quickly passing
judgment about a wine is not the same as truly understanding and evaluating it.
If you’re tasting properly, you will be able to identify the main flavor and
scent components in every wine you try; you will know the basic characteristics
for all of the most important varietal grapes, and beyond that, for the blended
wines from the world’s best wine-producing regions. You will also be able to
quickly point out specific flaws in bad wines.
Finding Wine Flaws
Rest assured, there are some truly bad wines out there, and
not all of them are inexpensive. Some flaws are the result of bad winemaking,
while others are caused by bad corks or poor storage. If you are ordering a
bottle of wine in a restaurant, you want to be certain that the wine you
receive tastes the way it was intended to taste. You can’t always rely on
servers in restaurants to notice and replace a wine that is corked. You are
ultimately the one who will be asked to approve the bottle. Being able to sniff
out common faults, such as a damp, musty smell from a tainted cork called TCA,
will certainly make it easier for you to send a wine back.
Wine is made in virtually every country in the world. These
countries are often referred to as “Old World” or “New World.” “Old World”
consists of regions with long histories of wine production, such as Europe and
parts of the Mediterranean. Some of the most well-known “Old World” wine
regions include France, Italy and Germany, and these regions focus greatly on
terroir—the unique characteristics of the soil and climate, which give their
wine a sense of
place. “New World” (as the name suggestions) is used to
describe newer wine-producing regions, such as U.S., Australia and Chile. These
regions tend to have hotter climates and generally use different labeling
methods; they tend to use grapes rather than region on labels for recognition.
While learning how to choose wine, it’s helpful to know some
of the major wine regions and the grapes they are best known for:
Learning to taste wine is no different than learning to
really appreciate music or art in that the pleasure you receive is
proportionate to the effort you make. The more you fine-tune your sensory
abilities, the better you’re able to understand and enjoy the nuances and
details that great wines express. The time and effort invested in palate
training is rewarding—and very, very fun.
Tasting wineHow to Taste Wine
The ability to sniff out and untangle the subtle threads that
weave into complex wine aromas is essential for tasting. Try holding your nose
while you swallow a mouthful of wine; you will find that most of the flavor is
muted. Your nose is the key to your palate. Once you learn how to give wine a
good sniff, you’ll begin to develop the ability to isolate flavors—to notice
the way they unfold and interact—and, to some degree, assign language to
describe them.
This is exactly what wine professionals—those who make, sell,
buy, and write about wine—are able to do. For any wine enthusiast, it’s the
pay-off for all the effort.
While there is no one right or wrong way to learn how to
taste, some “rules” do apply.
First and foremost, you need to be methodical and focused.
Find your own approach and consistently follow it. Not every single glass or
bottle of wine must be analyzed in this way, of course. But if you really want
to learn about wine, a certain amount of dedication is required. Whenever you
have a glass of wine in your hand, make it a habit to take a minute to stop all
conversation, shut out all distraction and focus your attention on the wine’s
appearance, scents, flavors and finish.
You can run through this mental checklist in a minute or
less, and it will quickly help you to plot out the compass points of your
palate. Of course, sipping a chilled rosé from a paper cup at a garden party
doesn’t require the same effort as diving into a well-aged Bordeaux served from
a Riedel Sommelier Series glass. But those are the extreme ends of the
spectrum. Just about everything you are likely to encounter falls somewhere in
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