All About Wine And Its Goodness!

There are a few simple steps to tasting wine; following them can make your enjoyment so much more pleasurable. Sure, wine is there to be enjoyed and drinking it shouldn’t be a task or a challenge, but should provide simple satisfaction. However, there a few steps you can take to help increase that satisfaction and help to release the flavours of the wine.

Color can play a large part in recognising a good wine. The wine should always be served in a clear glass so that you receive a true picture. Being able to clearly see the rim and central color of the wine can give an indication of its age. The way the wine sticks to the side of the glass when swirled around will give and indication as to the alcoholic strength of the wine. While swirling the wine around, take a few short sniffs, your first impression will be the strongest.

As you drink the wine, you should try to roll it around your mouth so that it reaches all the sensory areas. Sucking in a little air at the same time will help to aerate the wine and release more flavor. If the wine lingers on the palette after being swallowed, it suggests a fine mature wine. Younger wines will give an immediate, satisfying taste but will not linger.

The palette is the term used to describe the tasting faculties of the mouth. A wine will make an impression on three areas of the mouth, the front, the middle and the back, although at the time they probably won’t seem that separate. The front will receive the first impression, as the middle perceives the texture and fruitiness, while the back of the palette will pick up the after taste.

It is helpful when beginning to learn about wine, to note down any impressions you may have, no matter how silly they may seem. Write down the very first thing that strikes you about the wine, is it blackcurrant, chocolatey, or just nasty! Just a few simple words will lodge the wine in your mind and help you build up a memory bank for wines you may taste in the future.

The barrels the wine is aged in can play a large part in the flavor of the wine. Wine aged in oak barrels leaches out tannin and flavor from the wood, this mixes with the tannin from the grapes. American Oak has wider pores than French oak, so more oxygen can get to the wine, therefore the wine ages quicker and the fruit begins to develop secondary flavours. American Oak also tends to give out a vanilla flavor. How a barrel is made and how much toasting it is given will also have a big effect on the flavours imported to the wine.

Remember, in a restaurant, you will only need to look at and smell a wine before accepting it or rejecting it. An overbearing wine waiter will find it less easy to talk around a customer who refuses a wine based on its smell rather than its taste.

To discover more about wine, please visit the Beginners Wine Guide