Tasting

When?

The best moment for tasting wines is shortly before mealtimes, around 11 am or 6 pm, when your senses are wide awake.

Where?

In any place where you feel at ease (living-room, garden, cellar…) and avoid parasitic odours (flowers, smoke, cooking, etc) and ensure that the place has decent lighting.

With whom?

The best tasting companions are usually your friends, or at least those who share your interest in wine. Although, they should have the same level of interest as you, as far as possible. The idea is to learn more about the tastes of each participant, and about wine and the impressions it gives; through sharing and exchanging points of view.

With what?

To keep hunger at bay, one can prepare a plate of bread and maybe a little charcuterie of cheese. Although, it should be said that not all cheeses are perfect companions for wines, particularly reds. Stick to the most neutral ones. If you need to rinse your palate between wines, a glass of water is sufficient. During or just before tasting wines, avoid strong flavours such as coffee, spices, mint or vinegar and don’t forget a spittoon, if you are tasting several wines!

How?

Oxygenate all your wines, to please the eye and the taste buds!

What oxygenation does is bring the wine in contact with the air.
The virtue of the oxygenation is that it speeds up and intensifies the release of the wine’s aromas: not something to deprive yourself of.

Method:
1. Fetch the wine from your cellar approximately one or two hours before the meal to bring it gradually to room temperature.
2. Select a simple and attractive carafe or decanter.
3. Pour the wine slowly into the carafe or decanter, if possible allowing it to run down the inner surface.
Young wines should be poured into a carafe at least an hour before the meal, as this helps to soften the wine, make it less sharp and let it express its full body.

Older wines should be decanted very gently, just before the meal, as this allows the sediment and lees to be removed.

Visual inspection is the first step to tasting: it may enable one to identify certain characteristics, or defects, in a wine such as: type, age and condition.

Wine can be red, rosé (pink) or white, but there are many nuances within these categories to describe the precise tone.
Colour in wine derives from pigmentation in grape skins, and, to a lesser extent, from the pulp. It is affected also by climate and wine-making techniques. In a glass it will have many shades on account of variable thickness and reflections.

The intensity of colour may give one an idea as to:

• The grape variety involved: cabernet sauvignon, syrah or mourvèdre are usually very dark, for instance
• The ripeness of the grapes: usually a hot year produces dark coloured skins, and so deeper colour in the wine. Inversely, cool weather just before harvest can lighten the colour.
• The length and temperature of vating: colour can be deepened more or less during this phase according to techniques used. An almost inky colour usually indicates long vatting times and grapes with dark skins.
• The age of the wine: the colour of wines will change through time, red wines becoming paler and white wines deeper in colour.

To make the most of the aromas of a wine you need to concentrate hard. It may even be easier if you close your eyes.

Identifying smell is not just about conscious knowledge; it is also about your hidden memories of smells: a wine may remind you of the jams that your grandmother made, and another one brings back the image of a summer's day on the beach.

Use all your souvenirs and experiences to help you identify different aromas.
Through regular practice, your collection of recognizable smells will gradually expand.


Smells of wine are known as aromas. Recognizing them will not only enhance your pleasure, it will help you identify the origin and the age of a wine.
But do no expect all smells, including those mentioned below, to correspond exactly! This is an exercise in analogy.

Aromas can be usefully grouped into various families and related to different stages in a wine’s evolution.

Primary aromas derive from the grape. Each variety of grapes tends to have its own range of aromas, modified by climatic factors.

Examples in the Case of Red Grapes
Carmenere: dark plum, blackcurrant, green pepper, intense spices, red fruits, blackberry, cherry, chocolate, hints of coffee, leather, butterscotch, American oak, vanilla, smoke aromas.
Pinot Noir: cassis, cherry, violets, truffles
Cabernet(s): green pepper, (when unripe) red and black berry fruit, cigars (when older)
Merlot: truffles, red fruit, leather, (when older)
Syrah: liquorice, pepper and other spices, violets, black fruit, leather (when older)
Mourvèdre: resin, black fruit, liquorice, pepper
Gamay: red berry fruit


Examples in the case of white grapes Chardonnay: white fruit, citrus fruit, tropical fruit, butter, pastry, almonds, honey, amber.
Sauvignon: white fruit, citrus fruit, mineral
Riesling: grapefruit, white fruit, mineral
Gewürztraminer: honey, roses, lychees
Chenin blanc: nuts, honeysuckle, mineral


Secondary aromas are derived from the wine-making process.
Vanilla: from ageing in new oak barrels
Tea: some white wines of a certain age
Lemon or exotic fruit: ripe or over-ripe grapes at harvest


Tertiary aromas are derived from the wine’s ageing.
Mushroom: some red after a few years’ cellaring
Tobacco: certain red wines, particularly from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, that have been cellared for several years.
Chocolate or strawberry: can indicate a red wine at its best
Quince: same for a white wine from ripe fruit
Fig: very ripe grapes


The Main Families of Aromas
Floral aromas: Rose, violet, honeysuckle, honey, linden, verbena, beeswax, orange flower, elderflower.
Vegetable aromas: pine, leaves, grass, mushrooms, hay, tobacco, green pepper, box-leaf, green wood, damp wood, wood shavings, pencil.
Animal aromas: sweat, leather, amber/musk, dam fur, dry meat, fresh meat, game, cat urine.
Mineral aromas: quartz, flint, chalk, steel.
Burnt aromas (reminiscent of smoke, burning or cooking): pastry, toast, caramel, tea, coffee, chocolate, gunsmoke.
Fruit aromas: cassis (blackcurrant), blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, apricot, peach, grapefruit, orange, lemon, banana, lychee, quince, pear, apple, plum, prune, fig, tropical fruit (mango, papaya, guava, passion fruits, etc), hazelnut, almond, walnut.
Herbs and spices: pepper, liquorice, vanilla, cinnamon, mint, thyme, rosemary, basil, bay-leaf.
Defects in wine: bad cork, mould, sulphur, detergent, paraffin, strong animal aromas.

Taste Prompter

Taste can provide many indications as to the quality and the age of a wine.
In tasting, one starts by analyzing one’s impressions as the wine enters the mouth (the attack, or first impression), following on through all stages until one can no longer feel the wine on the palate. The last phase enables one to judge the length of the wine on the palate.

Take a small mouthful of wine and pass it around inside the mouth to ensure that it reaches all parts of the tongue and cheeks.
Each sensation should be analyzed, in order. One should pay particular attention to the balance (or lack of it) between the various taste impressions (acidity, sweetness, bitterness, etc.).

Taste can be broken down to four main impressions, although this is a simplified schema:

• Sweetness: mainly perceived on the tip of the tongue. This can give one an idea of the ripeness of the grapes in a particular year, or, more basically, of the type of the wine (dry, semi-sweet or sweet). In a rainy year, for example, the acidity is usually higher. Such impressions are always relative, to other wines of a similar type and within the same category.
• Saltiness: although rare in an obviously salty form, there are many types of salt to be found in wines. These often give a mineral-like impression, and can be particularly noticeable in some dry white wines from cooler climates. Salt is perceived mainly on the sides and back of the tongue and cheeks.
• Acidity: to be felt principally on the sides of the tongue. Has the effect of making one’s mouth water. Can make a wine appear fresh and crisp or harsh and aggressive, depending on its intensity and the balance with other ingredients.
A wine lacking in acidity on the other hand will usually appear flabby. A wine with too much acidity will appear green and unripe.
• Bitterness: perceived clearly at the back of the tongue. Can be unpleasant when excessive or out our balance. More often found in red wines than in whites.

One should add to these basic flavours a series of feelings linked to touch, such as: temperature of the wine or a warm feeling produced by the level of alcohol. Then, of course, there are the directly tactile sensations that provide whit is sometimes called “mouth-feel”

• Astringency: this can involve a relative roughness, in the case of some youngish red wines, and which is known as astringency. Some tannic young red wines can also appear overly “dry”, as if a vacuum cleaner has been at work in your mouth. Tannins are one of the ingredients that help a wine to cellar well, but, if they are unbalanced, they will appear unpleasant, particularly when the wine is young.
• Sweetness will be perceived close to the tip of the tongue. It will also thicken saliva, giving additional information on the viscosity of the wine.
• Consistency: meaning the structure of a wine, or the way its components come together.
• The presence or absence of gas.

Finally, the aromatic persistence, or length, can be measured. The after taste should be clean and peasant, but a lingering after-taste (more than 6-7 seconds) can provide an added dimension and is often the sign of a superior wine.

Exceptional wines have aftertastes that continue for more than 10 seconds.
On the other hand, an aftertaste that lasts less than 3 seconds in the sign of a minor wine.