Improve your Wine Tasting
The tasting of wine is a very pleasurable pastime. One does not have to go to the extremes that are sometimes shown on the TV screen. A little concentration and thought will bring to mind the flavours that make wine tasting enjoyable so much better that just knocking back a few glasses at home or with friends. All that is required to taste wine is sight, smell and taste and a reasonable memory and of course a bottle of wine.
There are four things to consider.
Colour, smell, taste and after taste.
Colour will tell us somthing bout the age fo the wine. Red wines tend to brown with age and white wines gain colour going from pale straw to a deep gold. If the glass is tilted (do not spill the wine) the graduations of colour are seen at the rim. This is a much better indication of the age rather than looking into the centre of the glass.
Swirling the glass will give you some idea whether the wine is light or heavy and also to the alcohol content. Well pronounced tears indicate fuller and heavier wines and also a highr alcohol content,
Your sense of smell is very imprtant and is linked to the sense of taste. The nose picks up the actual flavours while the palate picks up the impression of body and whether the wine is sweet or acid. Hold the glass by the stem and give a slight swil, then take a good deep smell. Does it smell fresh, clean or stale. Try to keep a note book to write down your first imprssions and then see if the flavour lives up to the promise. Taking notes is important
for we need to remember the way a wine smells and tastes for the future. Our memories need a jog occasionally. The notes you make are for yourself only.
The taste is next, Take a small mouthfull and roll it around the mouth. Try to notice the first impression and then the after taste. The better quality the wine the longer the taste will last. For the brave, with a mouth partly full of wine try to draw in a little air through the mouth this will confirm the alcohol strength and will improve the taste you get. Try not to choke yourself or spray your neighbour.
Chenin Blanc The white grape of the Loire valley and from the grape is produced a range of wines, from the 'bone dry' to the wine with a honey like sweetness when very ripe. The grapes always produces a wine witha high acidity. The acidity can preseve the wine for decades and wines witha good blance are always produced. The finest range of wines come from Vouvray and the Coteaux du Layon.
The Chenin Blanc grape is often called 'Pineau de la Loire'.
This grape is also successful in many other parts of the world. Chile and California have some excellant wines to choose from.
Tastes: Fresh pineaple, lemons and grapefruit but above all the wines are appley.
Sauvignon Blanc he cheif white grape of Bordeaux and also the other principal grape of Loire. The grape will blend well with Semillon for both sweet and dry wines. Very characteristic of wines from Sancerre.
It produces the great dry, gold wines of California in the Santa Clara valley. Also very good wines come from Chile.
In the rest of the New World the grape produces both light and aromatic wines or heavier in the style of a Chardonnay.
Tastes: Ultra crisp wine with a grassy or gooseberry flavour, perhaps a gentle touch of nettles occasionally a hint of blackcurrent leaves and often a slight smell of gun smoke or flint.
Reisling This the classic grape of Germany in now grown throughout the world, it vies with Chardonnay for the title of the worlds best white grape. It will roduce a full range of wines from the dry to a luscious sweet. In Germany the wines go from a pale green sharp wine of the Mosel to deep goldenn sweet winesof Rheinpfalz. Remakable wines come from the warmer climates of New World. Australia, California and New Zealand.
Taste and bouquet: Apples, lemons, a hint of elderflower and petrol.
Chardonnay The grape of white Burgundy more winey and potent thatn the Reisling but when young it is less aromatic. It is also the grape of Chablis, Meursault and champagne. The wine is firm, full and strong with a good scent. When aged it becomes rich luscious but not over sweet.
Grows well in the Napa Valley California, New Zealand, Australia, Bulgaria and Northern Italy. The grape does well on chalky soils.
Tastes: Tinned peaches, melon, butter and mixed spice.
Sometimes a hint of smoke.
Carbernet Sauvignon The most versatile of red grapes and the king of the Medoc. A small dark late ripening berry which gives an intense colour and much tannin sot eh wine takes a long time to mature and part of this maturation should be in oak and then a few years in the bottle. It is excellent when blended, as in a Bordeaux, with Merlot. The wines of Australia are tough and black until they reach a great age, yet from Chile the wines are like a light Bordeaux. The range of wines from South Africa and California go from dull to very fine.
Tastes: Blackcurrant, herby, green peppers and wood shavings and a hint of oak.
Merlot The famous grape of Sain Emilion and Pomerol. The grape has less tannin so it matures much sooner than its cousin the Cabernet. Often blended with other grapes to produce some excellent wines. Good wines come front the cooler parts of California.
Tastes: Plums and prunes, rich fruit cake and toffees.
Pinot Noir The red Burgundy and Champagne grape. It is sweeter and has less tannin than the Cabrenet but it still has a good texture and body.
Pressed and seperated before fermentation it produces a white wine which is the main part of the finest Champagnes. It is never blended except in Champagne. It is very adaptable outside Europe and Germany and the Eastern European sines are lighter. The wines of California are at present not very exciting.
Tastes: Black cherries, peppers and red jams.
Gamay The wine of Beaujolias and best grown on the granite hills in light soils. At its best it is a light fruity and quafable wine. Some do tend to have a little more tannin and with a higher acid content a superior wine may be had. California produces a very good rose'.
Tastes: Boiled sweets, Raspberries and Raspberry jam.
Cabernet Franc A quality red grape from Loire, a cousin of Cabernet Sauvignin. The wine is at its best in Chinon, Bourgueil and in St. Nicholas de Bourgueil. The wines are deliciously soft and fruity wih less tannin and depth, due to the tinness of the grape skin. The wines clear quickly and some are ready for drinking young, others mature well like Bordeaux. The grapes also are used for the many of the regions rose' wines.
Tastes: Raspberries, violets, blackcurrants and strawberries.
Shiraz One of the grapes frown in Australia. In France it is the Syrah and it is one ot the oldest grapes in the world. The grape produces the Rhone Valley wine Hermitage. A grape that is concentrated withfruit and tannin such that the custom in France is to add between 2 and 20 per cent of white grapes. The Austrialian wines are bold, fruity flavoured when reasonably young but develop a great complexity with age with often a peppery fruity taste.
Tastes: Freshly ground pepper, leather and blackberries.
Muscat Another of the worlds old grape varieties. The finest is the small grape used for Asti Spumante and the dry Muscats of Alsace a very distinctive taste when un-blended. When dry and well chiled it is an excellent aperitif.
Tastes: Fresh grapes, elderflower orange blossom.
Zinfandel The most common grape in California. It has grown in popularity as it produces an easy drinking wine. What is sold as White Zinfandel is really a rose'. The wines seen to make better drinking in the states than in the UK. The grape is possibly of Italian origin and is thought to be linked to the Primitivo grape from Southern Italy. The grape can produce full boddied reds that will age well, some seem to mature for ever. The winesfrom a Prt type down to a Beaujolais.
Tastes: Spicy and fruity with a generous hint of Raspberries and Strawberries. Very light and thin wines to full bodied and sticky.
Wine appreciation takes a little practice and once the nose and the palate are working together the wines of the wourld are there for the tasting, and drinking. Dohave a good time.
Other white and red grapes for trying
White
Muller-Thurgau
Pinot-Blanc Semillion
Red
Grenache
Sangiovese
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