BASI CS OF TASTI NG

I NTRODUCTI ON
Tasting can be the most intimidating aspect of wine.
When tasting in a crowd it is easy for one to feel
nervous when trying to identify the various flavors
in a wine, much less knowing the wines identity.
Dont panic! You already have a well-developed
innate sense of smell and taste in terms of strong
preferences in the food and beverages you like
and those you strongly dislike. In other words, youre
already halfway there. We just need to bring your
nose and palate up to speed with the language, the
aromas, and the taste sensations of wine. Onward.
MODULE OBJ ECTI VES
In this module you will learn:
An introduction to the Deductive
Tasting Method
How to examine a white wine and a red
wine using the Deductive Tasting Method
Using the Deductive Tasting Method to
expand your wine vocabulary
TASTI NG PREAMBLE
Before we get started, a few words of vinous wisdom:
Everyone is gifted with a unique sense of smell and
taste. In wine we call this ones organoleptic set-up.
Organoleptics is the combined senses of smell and taste.
Everyone also has different tolerances and sensitivities to
the various components that make up wine. Thus one person
may be sensitive to tannin in red wines while another taster
may be sensitive to wines with high acidity.
It is no mystery that ones tolerances and sensitivities have a
lot to do with the specific kinds of wines one likes
and dislikes.
CATCH AND RELEASE:
EXPECTORATE
You mean I have to spit? Yes, you do!
Spitting, when tasting, is mandatory for two
reasons:
Youll stay more focused and sober
The brain does much better analyzing a wine
when you are not drinking it. That is because
there are strong associations to drinking and
quenching ones thirst as in survival.
THE DEDUCTI VE
TASTI NG METHOD
Why use a tasting method?
Although it is perfectly acceptable to blithely sip a
glass of wine, you will get a lot more out of wine if you
learn to taste using a consistent method. Here is why:
You will improve your palate and ability to taste
You will increase your focus when tasting
You will form valuable future taste references
You will increase your overall wine knowledge
You will increase your overall love of and
appreciation for wine and food
THE DEDUCTI VE
TASTI NG METHOD
Deductive Tasting is just such a method and
breaks down into four criteria:
Sight Palate
Nose Conclusion
The Conclusion is used in blind tastings (no
prior knowledge of the wine) to determine the
wine variety and age. Since we are not blind
tasting we will not cover the conlusion aspect
of the method.
DEDUCTI VE TASTI NG: SI GHT
The appearance of a wine can provide valuable
information about its age and/or storage conditions.
Key: To assess the appearance of a wine, take the
glass in hand and tilt it away from you against a
white background.
You are looking for:
Clarity
Color and secondary colors
Particles/sediment
Legs/tears
SI GHT: CLARI TY
The first thing to look at when assessing the appearance of a
wine is clarity. Most wines we enjoy here in the U.S. are clear
and thats because they have been filtered put through a
series of filter pads like swimming pool water or filtered with
another kind of filtering agent.
Wine is filtered for two reasons:
To remove yeast that could cause the wine to re-ferment
in the bottle.
To remove microbes which could cause the wine to spoil
and become undrinkable not a good thing!
Important Note: Historically wine has been made
without filtration. Today some winemakers choose not to
filter their wines because filtering also removes some of
the wines flavors.
SI GHT: COLOR
The next thing to look at in a glass of wine is the color,
or the hue as it is sometimes called. Color is the
most important criteria in assessing the appearance
of a wine.
A wines color can provide clues to its age and/or
storage conditions. That is because there is a definite
relationship between the age of a wine and its color.
The general rules for color and wine are:
White and blush wines get darker as they age
Red wines get lighter as they age
COLOR SCALES
Color scales are a range of colors that correspond to the
age or style of a given white, blush, or red wine.
A young white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc is very pale
in color and usually has a trace of green to it (well get to
that in a moment).
An older white wine will be much deeper in color and will
usually have lost the green highlights.
The opposite is true for red wines: a young red wine may
display a deep, saturated red-purple color while an older
vintage of the same wine might be reddish-brown in color.
Again, red wines not only get lighter in color as they age,
they actually change color as well.
COLOR SCALES
Here are the color scales for white, blush, and red wines:
White Wines
Watery Straw Yellow Gold Brown
Ros and Blush Wines
Pink Salmon Brown
Red Wines
Purple Ruby red Garnet (reddish brown) Brown
Note that all three scales end with the color brown that is
commonly found in a wine with a great deal of age a sure
sign that the wine has oxidized and may be undrinkable.
Important Note: We can also describe the color of a wine
more accurately by qualifying it as pale, medium, or deep
as in pale straw, deep ruby etc.
SECONDARY COLORS
Is there more to color in wine, you ask? Indeed there is!
Every wine will also display secondary colors.
Young white wines will display a touch of green. This is
chlorophyll the unripe portions of the grape.
Older red wines lose their youthful ruby red color and
will display some shade of orange or brown (or both)
a sign of age.
Some wines have distinct colors because of the
specific grape variety or the technique used to
make the wine.
COLOR & AGE: CHARDONNAY
Two examples of colors in white wine:
Here are two glasses
of Chardonnay; one
from France, the other
from Napa Valley.
Note how the glass of
the younger Meursault
is very pale in color
when compared to the
older Napa Valley
Chardonnay.
France: Meursault Napa Valley: Chardonnay
COLOR & AGE: RED WI NE
Two examples of color in red wine:
Chateauneuf-du-Pape
3 years
Barolo 8 years
Note how the
Chateauneuf-du-Pape,
a Grenache blend from
Frances Rhone Valley,
is opaque in color,
while the Barolo, made
from the Nebbiolo
grape in the Piedmont
region of Italy, is much
lighter in color with a
considerable gradation
of color in the glass.
ASSESSI NG COLOR & CLARI TY
To assess the clarity and color of a wine, tilt your glass away
from you at a 45 degree angle against a white background.
Is the wine clear? Dull? Hazy? You make the call.
Next, assess the wine for color. Using the color scales provided
in the previous page, assign the wine a color. Remember to
qualify if using the terms, pale, medium or deep.
A glass of Sauvignon Blanc might be described as pale-to-
medium straw in color, while a older cabernet might be
described as deep garnet ruby.
Secondary colors: Your glass of wine may also display
secondary colors. Chances are it does. Look for a touch of
green in the color in a young white wine while an older red
might have browning at the edge of the glass.
SI GHT: PARTI CLES
Particles in wine usually take the form of
sediment in older red wines; or tartrates
in white and red wines that have not been
overly processed.
TARTRATES
Tartrates: are excess tartaric acid that exists
naturally in all wines. Tartrates are usually
removed by either filtering the wine or putting
it through a process called cold stabilization,
where the wine is quick chilled to removed
the tartrates before bottling.
The glass on the right, an older dessert wine
from Riesling, was not filtered or put through
cold stabilization and the tartaric acid crystals
can easily be seen.
Some winemakers choose not to filter or put
the wine through cold stabilization and the
wine can display tartrates if quickly chilled.
Not a problem as the tartrate crystals dissolve
back into the wine as it gets a bit warmer.
Rheingau Riesling
Trockenbeerenauslese
10 years
SI GHT: SEDI MENT
Sediment in red wine comes
from the pigment and tannins
that precipitate out of the wine
as it ages.
Sediment can also be found
in young unfiltered red wines.
Here is a photo of an older
Zinfandel with sediment in
the bottom of the glass
Decanting older wines off the
sediment is usually necessary
Sonoma Old Vines
Zinfandel 15 years
SI GHT CHECK
Check your wine for tartrates or sediment in
the glass.
If there are no signs of either, the wine was
probably filtered and/or cold stabilized.
SI GHT: VI SCOSI TY
Viscosity is a clue to the amount of alcohol or
presence of residual sugar in a wine. One can
assess the viscosity of a wine by looking at the
legs or tears in the glass.
To look at the legs/tears in your glass, swirl the glass
carefully by placing it on a hard surface and slowly
drawing small circles.
After swirling your glass, watch the wine as it drips
down the side of the glass. You are looking to see
how quickly or slowly the wine drips down the sides
of the glass; and how thick or thin the tears/legs are.
VI SCOSI TY KEYS
Here are some keys to assessing the
viscosity of the wine:
Thin and quickly moving tear/legs or fast
sheeting in the glass usually mean the wine
has low alcohol and little or no residual sugar
Thick and slowly moving tears/legs usually
mean the wine has higher alcohol or the
presence of residual sugar
Staining in the tears in red wines mean the
wine has considerable extract, richness, and concentration and
usually higher alcohol.
Look at the photo of the glass of old vines Zinfandel and note how
thick the legs/tears are, and also how they have some color signifying
the concentration and extract of the wine.
VI SCOSI TY ASSESSMENT
To assess the viscosity of wine, swirl a glass of wine
and watch how the legs/tears drip down the side of
the glass.
Do the tears move slowly? Quickly?
Are they thick? Thin?
How would you describe the viscosity of the wine?
Low? Medium? High?
DEDUCTI VE TASTI NG: NOSE
Now we move on to the nose of the wine. Many
believe smelling the wine is the most critical aspect
of tasting.
Why? Because smell accounts for some 85% of
the sense of taste. Want proof? J ust think back to
the last head cold you had and how you could not
taste anything.
Experts say that while we can only taste five different
things (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami), we can
smell over 10,000 different things.
NOSE: SWI RLI NG THE WI NE
Why do we swirl the glass before smelling
the wine?
Because all the flavor elements (called esters)
are attached to the alcohol molecules in the wine.
Swirling the wine helps to release the esters and
makes them easier for us to identify.
HOW TO SMELL
So if smelling wine is so important, what is the best
way to smell, or nose, a glass of wine?
There are two basic techniques for smelling wine.
One long sniff
Several short sniffs
Try both techniques to see what works best for you.
NOSE: THE CHECKLI ST
Now the fun begins. Here is a checklist of things
to look for when smelling a glass of wine:
Fault factor
Fruit
Earth
Wood
NOSE: FAULT FACTOR
Fault factor: here we are checking the wine for flaws to see if anything
is wrong. Here is a short list of the most common wine flaws:
TCA (trichloranisole) or corkiness: from tainted corks smells like
wet moldy cardboard and mustiness
Oxidation: from age or poor storage conditions smells and tastes
like dull fruit, with earthy, leathery notes and a dull, flat finish
Volatile Acidity or VA: smells like vinegar aromas or
varnish/fingernail polish
Excess sulfur dioxide SO
2
: sulfur dioxide is a valuable
preservative added during the winemaking process. However, a little
goes a long way and too much SO
2
smells like a matchstick
or wet wool
Hydrogen sulfide H
2
S: smells like rotten eggs or sewer gas. Yum!
CHECK FOR FLAWS
Smell your glass of wine
and check for flaws.
Hopefully the wine smells
clean, fresh and fruity. If
not, use the previous page
to identify the problem.
ASSESI NG THE NOSE
FOR FRUI T
Check your glass of wine for fruit aromas. Swirl the
glass and smell focusing on fruit aromas.
Be patient! Let the aromas of the wine have time to
find their way to you. Spend at least 1015 seconds,
if not longer smelling the wine.
What fruit aromas did you smell? You might check
the wine again to get a better impression of the fruit.
NOSE: EARTHI NESS
Earthiness, you ask? Yes, it is true. Wines from
European countries, or the old world, have a definitive
stamp of the vineyard in which the grapes were grown.
In fact, European wines tend to have more earthy
characteristics than fruit often making them easy to
identify. New world wines, or wines from countries such
as the U.S., Australia, New Zealand or South Africa,
tend to have less of a sense of earthiness/minerality
and much more fruit.
Earthiness in wine takes the form of minerality in
white wines and aromas of damp earth or mushroom
in red wines.
Earthiness in wines is often called terroir(tare-woir).
ASSESSI NG THE NOSE
FOR EARTHI NESS
Check your glass of wine for earthiness. Swirl it
and spend some time smelling it to see if there is
any sense of minerality or earthiness.
If you have trouble finding a sense of earthiness,
it may not be there.
NOSE: WOOD
Wood is the last item on the checklist for the aromas of
the wine. You have probably seen many photographs
of oak barrels neatly stacked in a winery.
Fine wine is often aged in small, 5560 gallon oak barrels.
These barrels are often toasted, or carmelized, on the
inside which add a unique set of flavors to the finished
wine. Oak-aging also adds structure to the wine in the
form of tannins (or tannic acid) and added complexity.
New barrels impart the most influence on wine. As the
barrels are reused with each new vintage they impart less
and less influence and flavor.
Generally, a winery will use barrels for 4-6 years and then
sell them off.
COMMON OAK AROMAS
Common aromas of oak in wine are:
Vanilla: from the vanillin in the wood
Baking spices: such as clove cinamon and
allspice from toasting and carmelizing the barrels
Wood: the aromas of a freshly sawed plank are
often a sign that a wine has spent too much time
in wood
ASSESSI NG THE WI NE FOR OAK
Check your glass of wine for oak. Swirl it and spend some
time smelling it to see if there is any sense of oak.
If you smell vanilla, sweet baking spices, the wine has
probably spent some time aging in oak. If not, it may have
been in older oak that is neutral or the winemaker may
chose not to age the wine in oak.
Important Note: Certain grape varieties such as Riesling
are rarely aged in oak. Others, such as Chardonnay or
Cabernet Sauvignon are almost always aged in oak. More
often than not, oak aging is a stylistic and winemaking
decision.
DEDUCTI VE TASTI NG: PALATE
Finally, after looking at and smelling the wine, the next step
is to taste the wine. If you have thoroughly smelled the wine,
tasting it will bring few, if any, surprises. In fact, tasting the
wine will only confirm what you have already smelled.
Here are some tips on tasting:
Take a SIP of the wine no hoovering!
After sipping, move the wine around in the inside your mouth.
You can gargle or swish or whatever and you may have to
experiment a bit to find out what works best for you.
Expectorate! Remember that you do have to spit when
tasting. Its part of learning to be a wine professional and youll
have a much better idea of what the wine is all about.
PALATE CHECKLI ST
Here is a checklist of what to look for when tasting
the wine:
Sweetness/dryness
Body
Confirming the fruit, earth, and wood
Alcohol
Acidity
Tannin
Complexity
Finish
PALATE: SWEETNESS/DRYNESS
Sip of the wine then spit it out into a spit cup.
Notice how dry or sweet the wine is not only in
your first impression but in the after taste, called
the finish, as well.
A wines sense of sweetness or dryness is
determined by how much, or little, residual sugar
the winemaker left in the wine after fermentation.
SWEETNESS/DRYNESS SCALE
Scale:
Now that you have tasted the wine, where does it fit
in with the scale above. Is your wine dry? Slightly
sweet? Or a very sweet dessert wine? You make
the call.
Bone
dry
Dry Off-dry
Slightly
sweet
Medium
sweet
Dessert
PALATE: BODY
The body of a wine can be described as weight or
richness. It is determined by the amount of alcohol,
glycerin, and grape solids in the wine.
Think of dairy products as a comparison. A light-
bodied wine is like non-fat milk; a medium-bodied
wine is like half-and-half; and a full-bodied wine is
like heavy cream.
Taste your wine again and try to fit it into one of
the categories above. Here is a scale for body:
Light-bodied; medium-bodied; full-bodied.
Where does your wine fit on this scale?
PALATE: CONFI RM THE FRUI T,
EARTH & WOOD
Take another sip and try to confirm all the aromas of
fruit, earth, and wood that you detected when smelling
the wine.
Fruit: do you taste the same fruit flavors? Anything new?
Earthiness: do you taste a sense of minerality or
earthiness in the wine? Anything new? Some tasters say
that minerality or earth on the palate is more of a
sensation versus an actual flavor.
Wood: do you taste the same vanilla/spice/wood flavors?
Anything new?
ALCOHOL
Alcohol in wine is sensed as a feeling of heat in the
nose, or the throat and chest. A light-bodied wine
with lower alcohol will leave little, if any, impression
of heat in , while a richer wine with a higher alcohol
content, such as a port or sherry, will leave a
warming sensation.
The scale for alcohol:
Low Medium High
Taste your wine again and see where it fits on
this scale.
PALATE: ACI DI TY
Acidity is one of the vital components of wine. Every wine
must possess enough acidity to be balanced and to have
any potential to age. Tartaric acid is the most important of
the four major acids found in every wine.
Acidity on the palate is perceived as tartness in flavors
and by the salivary glands producing saliva.
Take another sip of the wine and note any tart flavors and
also see how your salivary glands react to the wine.
Here is a scale for acidity:
Low Medium High
Where does the wine fit on this scale?
PALATE: TANNI N
Tannins in wine are derived from two sources: red grapes
(white wines are made without any skin contact) and the
barrels wine is often aged in.
Tannins taste bitter and feel gritty or aggressive on the back
of your tongue. The best way to think of tannins is to imagine
a cup of overly-brewed tea. That bitter taste is tannin.
White wines without oak usually have little, if any, tannins.
Red wines generally have much more tannin.
Now take a sip of your wine. Do you taste or sense any
bitterness or grittiness from tannins?
Here is a scale for tannin:
Low Medium High
Where does your wine fit on this scale?
PALATE: COMPLEXI TY
Complexity is a term you hear wine geeks toss around a lot.
But complexity is very important in terms of a wines quality.
In short, complexity means the amount of aromas and flavors
in a wine and how they interact. An inexpensive jug wine will
have very few flavors and little complexity. A fine, aged bottle
will have far more flavors and thus much more complexity.
Taste your wine again and think about how many aromas and
flavors it hasand how complex it is.
Here is a scale for complexity:
Low Medium High
How complex is your wine?
PALATE: THE FI NI SH
The finish is the aftertaste of the wine, and all the flavor
impressions you are left with once you spit out the wine
or swallowed it.
The general rule concerning the finish of a wine is:
the longer the finish the better quality the wine
An inexpensive wine has a very short finish while a fine, aged
wine may have a finish that may last for many minutes.
Sip of your wine and pay attention to how long the finish is.
Here is the scale:
Short Medium Long
How long is the finish of your wine?
CONGRATULATI ONS!
You have made it through the Deductive Tasting
Technique. Now it is time to sum up. Think about
everything you see, smell, and taste in your glass
of wine.
Now you should be able to describe it thoroughly
and hopefully you will never taste a glass of wine the
same way again.
Use the following checklist on the next page when
describing a glass of wine.
DESCRI PTI VE CHECKLI ST
Sight:
My glass of wine was clear/not clear and ______ in color,
with _____ viscosity.
Nose:
The wine smelled like ________ for fruit and had _____
minerals/earthiness and ____ oak.
Palate:
The wine tasted like ______, with ____ alcohol, _____
acidity, _____ tannins, and a ______ finish.
The wine has _____ complexity.
There you have it! A very complete description of your wine.
REVI EW
You should now have a good understanding of:
The basics of the Deductive Tasting Method
How to examine a white wine and a red wine using
the Deductive Tasting Method
Using the Deductive Tasting Method to expand
your wine vocabulary