Wine Tasting, oh yes, we all have been there once or at least plan to do it once in a lifetime. Despite many sensory evaluations happening daily, wine tasting is one such analysis that catches our eyes. For many wine enthusiasts it is not a routine analysis, but an art – ‘the art of swirling, smelling and tasting’.
Sommeliers aka wine professionals have practiced and refined several techniques to recall wines and the most suitable one boils down to look, smell, taste, and think. Following which one can broaden their wine palate. Although the steps look minimal, each step tells a story.
Look: The viscosity, opacity, and color identified from the visual inspection may give you hints on the age, grape varieties used, the production climate as well as some insight into the alcohol, acidity, and sugar content. For instance, with receding time, white wine becomes more yellow or brown while red wine starts lightening in color. Another instance is the wine legs. The thicker they are, the more is the alcohol or residual sugar content in the wine.
Smell: Aromas of the wine is everything. It brings with it the origin story of the wine. Before dwelling further, at this point it is essential to know the origin of these aromas. Aromas can be classified into three categories: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. Primary Aromas originate from the grape itself and the climate in which it grows. Secondary aromas from the fermentation process. The aging process is an active contributor to aroma development characterizing from the oxidation process and oak or bottle in which the wine is aged. The aroma developed here is referred to as the tertiary aroma.
Taste: This aspect of wine tasting comes with experience. If you have trained enough, you can identify the basic origin of the wine. One needs to pay key attention to sweetness, tannin, body, alcohol, and acidity. Every wine is a composite of sweetness, sourness, and bitterness. A perfect wine is an optimum mix of those three functions.
Think: In here, you need to self-assess and formulate your opinion on the wine. You need to activate your brain and match the wine with your wine palate. Think about whether you liked it or not.
Photograph by www.winefolly.com
The visual inspection of wine not only means directly looking at it but includes some further steps and views. You need to follow a straight angle view, side view and tilted view to form an unbiased opinion. Coming to one of the most popular tasks- The swirling, it’s better to keep it on a flat surface to swirl. Of course, you can do an open-air ‘freestyle’ if you are a professional, but if you are an amateur no need to embarrass yourself by spilling the contents. Also, as mentioned above about the wine legs or tears, during the process of swirling, some wine might run by the side of the glasses. These are known as the wine legs, interesting, isn’t it?
Not only the process, but the glassware plays a key role in the tasting. It should have a clear bowl (proper visual inspection), long stem (the warmth of your hand shouldn’t heat the wine), thin rim (easy sipping), and enough capacity (facilitate swirling). Similar to food, wine tasting is also greatly affected by serving temperatures. A low temperature focuses on acidity and tannins, whereas a high temperature focuses on aromatics. It is essential to strike a balance between the two. Each wine now has a specific serving temperature, generally observed to be < 55 degrees for white wines and > 55 degrees for red wines.
If you do embark on a wine tasting expedition, do not get confused if you hear terms such as vertical and horizontal tasting. It has nothing to do with your position while tasting the wine (Hopefully, you are going to be vertical let’s say). The terms suggest the kind of comparison going to take place. For a horizontal tasting, all that would vary is the producer, apart from that the year, varietal and region would remain the same. A vertical tasting is going to tell you about the influence of climate on that bottle of wine. For the same varietal, producer, and land you will taste wines from different vintages.
Also, if you have read the article above and can’t wait to try it out for yourself you can try one of the really good wine tasting tours in India such as Sula Vineyards (Nashik), Chateau d’Ori, Dindori (Madhya Pradesh), Grover Vineyards, Nandi hills (Karnataka) and a few more. Definitely, after the pandemic is gone for good.
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