2 Classical Approaches to Wine Tasting

Here are  2 classical approaches. 

Horizontal Wine Tasting: 

The horizontal tasting is conducted by focusing on a wine varietal (type of grape) from a single year, but from multiple producers. Basically you grab a 2005 Cab from 4-6 unique wineries and give them a go side by side. 

For example, you may want to pick a Cabernet Sauvignon as your varietal and compare Napa Valley Cabs from 2005. So you might try the 2005 Clos Du Val Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2005 75 Wine Company Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2005 Carpe Diem Cabernet Sauvignon and so on.

Vertical Wine Tasting : Same winery and grape varietal from different vintages ie SAME Vineyard's Cabernet Sauvignon from 2002,2003,2004,2005 vintages.(year)

A vertical wine tasting is surveying a series of wines based on vintage years and is a nifty way of experiencing just how unique every year can be in the world of wine.

A vertical tasting is conducted by tasting one wine  varietal (type of grape)  from the same producer from several vintages (years).

For example, you may set up a tasting to feature Clos Du Val’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from 2003, 2004 and 2005. Tasting the same varietal of wines from the same maker and the same vineyard and leaving the production year as the “single” variable allows the party to see how dramatic or subtle a wine changes from year to year.

You will get a better feel for a particular winery’s varietal style and composition with this type of tasting. You can also see how unique weather patterns may affect the grapes from one year to the next and develop an better understanding of what they mean by a great year for wine.

Swirling Wine and Tasting It

Swirling also has a learning curve......the most important thing to learn is - go slow and only fill the wine glass to it's widest part.

For those new to swirling, start out with the wine glass on the table.  Swirling in a counter-clockwise motion is a little slower for most of us.  If you are really uncomfortable, start out practicing with water.

HOLDING THE WINE GLASS

Oh yes, there certainly is a right way and a wrong way to hold a wine glass, and it does make a difference. Never hold the glass by its bowl. A wine glass should always be held by its stem since the heat of your hand will quickly warm the wine.

If you are tasting several wines, begin with the lightest white wines first and progress to the heaviest red wines. This will help keep your taste buds more sensitive so you can better appreciate each wine in the series. A sip of water between wines can also help cleanse your palate.

Swirling the wine is all about capturing the aroma or "bouquet" of the wine and it helps to have a good sense of smell.

The reason wine lovers do the swirl before the sniff is to oxygenate the wine in the glass, thus bringing out its full smelling potential, otherwise known as the wine's "bouquet." The sniff is an important step in igniting the senses as to what they are about to experience as well as evoking familiar aromas that can be identified and tasted in the wine. Proper wine tasting therefore begins with a gentle swirl.

SIP and SWISH AGAIN - only differently. Our tongue has over 10,000 taste buds; by simply swallowing the wine without first swishing it around gently in your mouth first deprives you of the complete ability to taste the wine since the taste buds located on the back and sides of the tongue will most likely be left out of the whole wine tasting experience. So after you swirl and sniff you do a very delicate, almost undetectable swish of the wine in your mouth, covering the entire tongue. Then you savor it!

Here is a video that might be helpful to you to show you how to swirl.


Drinks:
How To Swirl Wine

Proper Serving Temperature

Before beginning, determine the ideal serving temperature for the wine you will be tasting. For the serving temperature of a specific wine, ask your wine dealer.

As a rule, whites are chilled, reds are not, they are served at room temperature.  With reds, you need to watch the temperature when the weather is warm so the wine is not "cooked".

People have different preferences when the weather is warm. In the summer,light refreshing white and rosé wines and reds such as Beaujolais, which are suitable for chilling, are more suitable for hot weather than the big heavy reds. For a summer dessert wine, a cool sweet white wine, such as Sauternes, can be a better choice for after the meal than a Port or dessert Sherry which are usually enjoyed in "their season", the colder months.


Sweet White Wine     45º F


Dry White Wine        48º-55º F  The better the quality, the less they need to be chilled.

Very Light Red Wine (i.e. Beaujolais) 52º F

Young Red Wine     46º-58º F - tend to be softer and sweeter. Some red varieties yield wines that have
 little of the bitter tannic element. While these wines are usually served at cool room temperature, they can be served chilled to 60 degrees or less; this is also a good way to serve picnic wines on a hot summer day.

Mature Red Wine   60º-64º F

Dry Red Wines       65-70 degrees. Any cooler and the bitter aspects of red wines tend to become too dominant.

Softer or Sweeter Red Wines  55-60 degrees or less.  Some red varieties yield wines that have little of  the  bitter tannic element. While these wines are usually served at cool room temperature, they can be served chilled - this is also a good way to serve picnic wines on a hot summer day.

Rose Wines   about 50 degrees - Serve cooler than reds


Sparkling Wines    45-55 degrees for best taste. These are typically chilled the most--not because they taste better, but because they are easier to open at 45 degrees or lower. The lower the temperature, the less they tend to foam over when the cork is removed.

Fruit Wines           45-55 degrees.

Fortified Wines  - Depends. Dryer sherries are usually treated as white wines; sweeter styles and ports are treated as red wines. However, fortified fruit wines can be served chilled.

Eau De Vie     Chilled - even from the freezer for these dry fruit brandies

Drop-In Wine Tastings

"Drop-In Wine Tastings" are common - especially in my area of Ohio - no reservations are required and you pay a nominal fee for each wine you sample. Many people do "the full flight" - meaning they try all of them, starting with the whites and ending with the heavier wines and/or dessert wines.

Often the wine bars have food you can buy to enjoy while sitting and sipping the samples - things like cheese and crackers, salami, dips, etc. that they will prepare for you.

I am happy to put links on here for establishments offering "drop-in tastings"...please leave your comments and include the link to your favorite drop-in tasting.

Wine Tasting has a Learning Curve

Wine Tasting has a learning curve - so if you are new to wine and interesting in learning how to taste and enjoy wine, I will share with you what I've learned.

It's best if you have a friend(s) who are already "in the know" but if not, your favorite wine store is a good place to start.

Glassware - it does make a difference but I don't think you need to run out and buy Reidel glassware - wine festivals  and most wine stores that do tastings don't provide them so what you have on hand is just fine for starters.

Filling your Glass - No matter how much you love wine, this is not the time to "fill 'er up"!  Wine glasses should be filled only to the widest part of the glass to give the wine enough room to breathe and to allow you to SWIRL your wine to "open it up" to release the bouquet and aroma. (more about this in another entry).

The 5 S's  You Should Know 

As you watch wine drinkers, you will see that they often evaluate a wine by the "5 S's"

I highly suggest you buy a small notebook to keep track of what you taste using the "5 S's".....you will see improvement as you go. Note how wine experts describe wines you've tasted, think about their reviews differ from yours then go back and do another tasting. The notebook doesn't have to be expensive, just something you won't be embarrassed to pass around.

Sight (note the color) and I don't mean just red, white, pink.  To do this properly you will need to tilt the glass against a white surface, this will give you an unbiased look at the color.


Really look at the color and try to describe it as the same color as something found naturally in nature - (raw cranberries, pale rose, golden white etc) the more you get used to seeing colors in your head the more descriptive your wine reviews will be. 
What is the color of the wine? For red, is it cherry, maroon, ruby, or brownish?
For white, is it light-green, pale-yellow, buttercup, golden, or amber?
Is the wine cloudy or clear?

What can color tell you?

The color of the wine indicates its age.

Red wines lose color as they age, while white wines gain color as they age. For example, an older red will be clearer and have brownish tints.

A very old white (or an oxidated one) will have a bronze-gold color or even amberish.

When considering color, it is important to consider grape variety when judging color intensity. Syrah, for instance, is darker in color and more opaque than Gamay.

Wine’s legs – the “tears” that flow down on wine glass when you swirl – are no indication of quality. It can however imply the full-bodiness of the wine. Fuller-bodied wines generally have slower dripping legs.

Swirl - to open the bouquet and release the aroma  (See entry on swirling)

Sniff - Because our nose can pick up thousands of scents, the aroma of the wine is the most important contributing element to wine tasting.

After swirling to open the bouquet, you will want to take a good first sniff... then pause and take a deep sniff.

Inhale - note the aroma - you may already anticipate the taste just by the scent  - put wine aside for a minute and think of the scents you encounter every day....."chemical"  "fruity"  "smokey", earthy.....etc  try to sniff a wine and single out scents.  With each sniff try to detect a new aroma.

• Is it fruity – like blackberries, plums, grapefruits, and melons?
• Is it floral – perfumes of violets, lily, rose?
• Is it herbal – hints of mint, hay, tarragon, and rosemary?
• Is it earthy – reminds you of mushrooms and dry leaves?
• Is it spicy – sharp like clove, cinnamon, pepper, spices? 
• Is it nutty - smells of oak, hazelnut, almond, pistachio?
  

Grape variety provides a general attribute for the wine’s aroma. The additional layers of aromas come from its fermentation and aging process. For example, a wine that has been long aged in a barrel will have a rich oaky or vanilla-like aroma.

“Bouquet” and “nose” are often used to describe wine’s aromas. Bouquet is used to indicate rich and complex aromas.

Don't smell the cork. It does not reveal much about the wine... and it is not that pleasant. Focus on the wine itself!

Sip -  Take a sip and  move it around in your mouth so it coats your tongue - each area of the tongue picks up different flavors - sweet, sour, bitter, salty

Body: the volume and weight of the wine. Milk is generally used as a hyperbole. For example, cream is full-bodied; regular milk is medium bodied; and skim-milk is light-bodied.

Flavor: Is it sweet or acidic? Is it spicy or tasteless? Is it tannic – dry and bitter?

Finish:  Does it have a long aftertaste?

How to Sip: Take a solid sip of wine, let it flow through your tongue. Note if it is sweet, acidic, or tannic. Take a second solid sip of wine, suck in some air to feel how the wine opens up in your mouth. Spitting out the wine is unnecessory; though some people do that to stay sober.

"DRY" WINE  - is not sweet

"OFF-DRY" Wine  - is sweet.

CRISP WINE -  A wine is “crisp” when it is acidic and not overly sweet.

BALANCE - There is “balance” in the wine when all the components work together (acidity, sweetness, tannin, fruitiness). For example, balancing sweetness, fruitiness, and acidity will ensure the wine is not cloying, flabby, or sour.

COMPLEX -The taste in a wine can be “complex” – multi-layers of flavors and changes with aeration time.

PALATE is often referred to the taste and feel of the wine in the mouth.

TANNIC  is used to describe red wines - Tannic is the taste of a highly concentrated tea – bitter and puckering.   TANNIN is the wine’s natural preservative and complexity cultivator. Wines shred tannins as they age, becoming softer in texture and more complex in flavor. This is why a highly tannic bottle of Bordeaux tastes better with aging.

ACIDIC -  is the salivating taste that comes from a sour lemon.

ASTRINGENT  is generally used to describe white wines.
A GREAT WINE -  is balanced, complex, and offers a long aftertaste.

Spit -  Ok, this is acceptable in wine culture but my advice is to only spit if you have to......  when you find the wine to be really distasteful.

          What's left in your glass may be dumped into a large urn to collect wine you aren't going to drink  

           - or - if you are attending a wine festival outside, it is often dumped on the grass  - please don't do

            that unless you absolutely have to - it's easy to forget that someone may be standing by you and 

            your discarded wine could easily stain someone's clothing or shoes.

       ENJOY!  - and keep good notes about what wines you tasted and enjoyed. If you are 
           eating when you enjoyed a certain wine, note what you were eating as food does have an impact 
          on how we perceive taste.

The best advise I can give you to taste a lot of different wines and buy what you like, not what a wine magazine or expert picks as a great wine!