WINE TASTING
Wine tasting, even wholly by the tongue, nose, and palate, is strongly influenced by the expectations of taste. Add to that a label from a prestigious winery, a high rating from a wine reviewer, and the visual characteristics of the wine in the glass, and the process becomes one in which the mind predominates over the sensory organs. I’m not saying that this is bad, and it certainly works in comparisons when choosing which vintage or style to take home from a winery. To achieve full objectivity, however, one must wear sunglasses in a darkened cellar and have the wine served in black wine glasses.
Older wines may need to be decanted before tasting to eliminate sediment. Carefully turn the bottle upright from its horizontal cellar position and allow it to stand for several hours. Then, while light shines through the bottle to reveal any sediment, slowly pour the wine into a decanter. Stop pouring when a finger of sediment nears the neck of the bottle.
This sediment, which includes products formed after the lees in the fermentation tank were removed by racking, consists of tartaric acid and coloring agents (anthocyanins) that bottle aging has combined with tannic acid. The tartaric acid, which contributes desirably to wine tartness, may precipitate out as loose hard grains or as brilliant crystals attached to the cork. Chilling of the wine during storage is the likely cause, and some winemakers stabilize white wine at close to freezing to precipitate the tartaric crystals out in advance.
Tartaric acid is the source of cream of tartar, which makes baking powder when it is combined with sodium bicarbonate. The crystals were originally considered to be minerals, but in the 1800s, the term mineral was restricted to crystalline materials formed by geologic processes, hence excluding this artificial product.
Pour the wine into a stemmed wine glass until the bowl is half full. Any remaining turbidity is clearly a flaw in the winemaking. It usually consists of neutrally buoyant yeast products that were not properly removed by the decanting of the racking.
Vertical legs that run slowly downward after swirling the wine are indicative of strong alcohol content and also of the thick and desirable glycerol that constitutes about 1 percent of well-made wine. The legs move downward through the wetted part of the glass, and they draw in fluid from between. Alcohol evaporates from the legs, and this increases the surface tension of the mixture and its attraction to the glass. The legs then form into beads, which gravity accelerates downward. On a tilted glass, gravity and surface tension may balance. There, when the beads approach the surface of the wine, they retreat back upward. They do it because they add alcohol to the lower side of the bead, which reduces the surface tension there, and the greater attraction between the upper side of the bead and the glass draws it upward.
The rim of the thin meniscus between the top edge of the wine and the glass can indicate the wine’s maturity. Purple in a red wine’s rim indicates youthfulness, and brown indicates that bottle aging has produced a mature reaction between the tannic acid and the wine’s coloring agents.
Grasp the glass by the stem to prevent the hand’s heat from warming it. Swirl the glass, keeping the base in contact with the table. Then lightly sniff the wine. This first sniff is all-important, as the sense of smell loses its acuteness with continued use. What we usually consider to be taste is mostly smell, because the nose has a far greater sensitivity than the tongue.
Take a half mouthful into the front of the mouth. The tip of the tongue detects sweetness and saltiness. Although in table wines the fermentation has consumed the original grape sugar, both alcohol and glycerol impart some sweetness. They also give body to the wine.
Gently pump the tongue or “chew” the wine. It gradually flows to the sides of the tongue, sensitive to tartness, and to the tang of tartaric acid. Then the wine flows to the back of the tongue, sensitive to bitterness and to the piquancy of tannin. The tannin adds a puckering astringency throughout the mouth, and in red wine, that along with its bitterness melds well with fatty foods such as beefsteak and cheese.
Now is the time to swallow the wine. Vapors rise up through the nose, and the wine’s taste acquires its full complement of aromatic overtones. (Some tasters enhance this effect by first drawing air through a slightly opened mouth and over the top of the wine.) The flavors from the tongue and the nose linger on together. As the wine moves on beyond the palate and into the throat, the final effect is the warmth from the alcohol.
Taste is largely an individual matter. And winemakers’ styles change. A few years ago, the use of oakiness peaked, but since then many wineries have strived for more of a balance between the oak and fruit flavors. Comparative tasting at a winery that is open to the public or by appointment can be rewarding. You may be lucky and discover that your taste prefers a featured wine over the more costly reserves. Then you can take home a case at a bargain, and it will give pleasure and memories of the verdant vines for months or years into the future.