Ever been to a wine tasting? If not, you should definitely give it a try! If you have been to one before though, you will understand the need for a wine tasting survival guide!
Think back to the first meeting you attended as a stagiaire: Was everybody speaking a strange language full of acronyms, weird pronunciation and familiar words in unfamiliar contexts? Did you feel lost and hopeless? I certainly did and so I resorted to keeping my mouth shut and nodding politely. At a wine tasting this is not an option; you will be drinking wine and after a few glasses you won't be able to stop yourself from babbling about your views to everybody around you!
But how exactly does a wine tasting work?
Bottle & Glass
Someone knowledgeable will open the bottle and smell the cork, which should smell like wine; if you smell cork instead, the wine may be 'corked' and so not drinkable. Wine is poured into your glass but don't expect it to be filled up – getting drunk is not the aim, just a potential risk! Handling your glass correctly is important: hold the stem in order to see the wine's colour clearly and avoid warming it – wine should be served at the right temperature. You might think that finally you can drink… but of course this is not the case! Wine tasting involves three main steps: look, smell and taste.
Look
Tilt the glass away from you and check the colour from the rim to the centre of the glass (preferably against a white background). Wine is not only white, red or rosé; your red wine can be ruby or garnet red, white wine can be straw yellow or yellow brown. But of course there is much more than just the colour: swirl your glass and raise it to the light to check if your wine has 'legs', the streaks which form on the side of the glass. They usually tell you about the 'strength' of a wine, how robust it is, if it is aged, etc. As wine jargon would have it, the legs tell you about the body of the wine!
Smell
No! Stop! Don't smell your wine straight away! First, 'air' the wine by swirling it briefly in your glass. This allows some of the wine's alcohol to evaporate and releases more natural aromas. A quick whiff of the wine should give you a first impression of what to expect. If the wine is gone off or corked you should be able to smell it. Next, stick your nose deep into the glass (it may not seem appropriately posh, but now that you know wine has legs you shouldn't be surprised by anything) and try to detect familiar aromas. You can smell virtually anything but the main aromas found in wine include grape, lemon, grass, peach, raspberry, blackcurrant, flowers, apple, vanilla, oak, smoke, coffee and plum.
Taste
Finally the fun begins! Take a sip of your wine and swirl it around inside your mouth. Make sure it makes contact with your tongue, gums and soft palate as each area of the mouth is able to detect different types of flavour (sweet, bitter, etc.). After the first sip, which will give you a broad idea of the alcohol content, tannins and acidity, have a second sip and search for some of the flavours mentioned above. If tasting red wine, you may notice spices or cinnamon, while in white wines you are more likely to taste peach, citrus or even cat's pee, one of the most distinctive aromas of my beloved Sauvignon Blanc!
Now the most important part of a wine tasting comes: talk to people around you, compare impressions, make fun of the sommelier's outfit and have a great time in the company of a great wine!
Enrica Brancaleoni,
DG AGRI
Notes
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