What Do Wine Tasters Look For When Assessing Wines?
Wine tasting is an overall sensory evaluation of the wine being tasted. Tasters evaluate the aroma, the look, the taste, and feel inside the mouth. Experienced wine tasters can detect the maturity, quality, as well as faults that it might have as well as aromas and colors. This evaluation is often done in three steps; look, smell and taste.
What Are They Looking For When They Look At The Wine?
The taster, in visually examining the wine, looks for clarity as well as integration, expressiveness, complexity, connectedness and varietal character. It is preferable to against a white background, to better judge the color of the wine. The wine's color is a good indicator if the wine is aged in wood or metal barrels. The color also gives the taster clues as to which variety of grape is used in the wine.
Most wines are red or white, however there are also variations within those colors as well. In white wines, the colors range from a green color to a yellow then to a brown color. The colors of red wines can range from a pale red to a deep brown red. While most white wines don't necessarily improve with age, many red wines do. When a taster tilts a glass of red wine, they are looking for the "rim" color at the edge of the wine. A purple tint to the edge, indicates a young wine. An orange to brown color signifies a more mature wine. A wine taster will also swirl the wine, in order to observe the body of the wine. When they refer to a wine having "good legs", that can mean a higher sweetness level, alcohol content or thicker body.
What Is The Wine's Bouquet?
After visually evaluating the wine, tasters then evaluate the wine's aroma, which is also known as the bouquet or nose. To do this, the wine taster will swirl the glass which releases molecules that enable them to smell the aroma. Some wine tasters take two whiffs; one quick one to formulate an initial impression and a second deeper whiff of the wine. Other tasters take only one deep whiff. The aroma is then contemplated for awhile before the wine is actually tasted. An experienced wine taster can pick out several different smells in that glass of wine even if there is one very strong aroma with other underlying ones. Tasters also remember aromas by naming them as well.
How Is Taste Evaluated?
Tasters take a small amount of wine and move it over their entire tongues so that all taste buds come in contact with it. Some also take a sip of wine, and while holding it on the tounge, inhale through the mouth. The aim is to allow the aroma of the wine to enter the nasal passageway at the back of your throat which will increase the experience of the wine. Both the body and the texture of the wine are examined and can be judged as smooth or harsh, or light or rich. Tasters also judge the aftertaste by how long the taste last and how pleasant the taste is.
Do People Get Drunk At A Wine Tasting? If Not, How Do They Stay Sober?
Wine tasting events provide guests with food and water, which slow the release of alcohol into the bloodstream. They also provide spittoons just in case water is not provided, as well as serving very small amounts of wine for each tasting. So the risk of getting drunk is lowered considerably.
Wine Tasting ' A Preference For Red Or White
For many of us wine is something of a mystery and when we are buying wine it comes down to a simple choice between red and white and what our local supermarket has available in its "special offer" bin. But wine really isn't such a mystery at all and, in this area at least, a little knowledge can get you a very long way.
The starting point is to understand the different types of wine available and here we can divide wines into five main groups.
Red Wine
Red wine is fermented from what many people would refer to as red grapes but which are in fact more correctly named black grapes. In the case of red wine the grapes are used whole for fermentation, that is to say complete with skin and pips, and it is the skin which gives the wine its red color.
There are a wide variety of black grapes available each with its own distinctive flavor which is derived principally from the soil and climate in the region where the grapes are grown. This, together with the winemaker's art of mixing, allows us to enjoy a range of red wines from the deep blackcurrant color of the full-bodied and intensely flavored wines produced from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape to the lighter cherry and raspberry taste gained from the Pinot Noir grape.
Rosé wine
Rosé wines are again produced from black grapes but, in this case, the juice is separated off part way through the fermentation process and at the point at which the winemaker determines that the juice contains sufficient color to give the finished wine the pink color that he is looking for.
Once again the flavor of the finished wine depends very much on the grape used for fermentation and some of the finest rosé wines are produced from the Grenache grape. Often thought of as a French grape, Grenache noir is the world's most widely planted grape and probably originates from Spain. As well as often being used to produce rosé wines, it is also commonly used as a base for many blended wines including such well known names as Chateauneuf du Pape and Cotes du Rhône.
Blush wine
Blush wine is sometimes referred to as California's version of rosé wine and is produced in much the same way as rosé wine. In this case however the grape most often used is the Zinfandal grape which produces a slightly sweet pink wine which also shows a somewhat blue color. The Zinfandal grape originates in Croatia but has been grown widely in the US for more than 150 years now and is considered indigenous to California.
White wine
Believe it or not white wine can be made from either white or black grapes, as the juice from either grape is colorless and it is only the skin of the black grape that gives red wine its color.
The flavors available across the range of white wines vary tremendously according to the grape used, the winemaker's art and the degree to which different juices are blended to create the finished wine.
Dry white wines often come from grapes such as Muscadet or Sauvignon Blanc while richer fruit-flavored wines are more likely to be based upon the Chardonnay grape.
Sparkling wines
Sparkling wines, of which Champagne is clearly the best known example, are based upon a dry white wine. Here the wine is bottled and a solution of sugar and yeast is added before the bottle is sealed. The sugar and yeast solution causes a secondary fermentation and sealing the bottles at the start of this process traps the gas produced by this fermentation within the wine to give it its sparkle when the bottle is opened.
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