BOOM! Daily Guarantee Easy Wine Recipes - More Musings on Wine Tasting
The first in the process of wine tasting, the five S's, as mentioned in a previous article, is Sight. The visual sense is the first sense one should use in assessing and determining the origin of the wine. Seeing the wine can provide clues on its age, its variety and style, even the winemaker. It can also indicate the alcoholic content. All of these are found from factors such as clarity, color, and viscosity.
Clarity is the term used when one views the wine against a white background and will show any residue or cloudiness. Some wines will be cloudy because they are bad. With modern techniques this is rare unless air has entered through a faulty seal on the bottle. Residue or sediment is most likely caused by age or by lack of filtration. In either case, the wine is probably fine and requires decanting in some fashion. Generally the wine is bright and reflects the light to give brilliance and sparkle.
Typically wines are thought of as Red, White or Rose if one ignores dessert or fortified wines such as port, sherry and sparkling wines such as champagne. Tilt the glass against a white background to judge the color at the interface of the glass and wine. The entire spectrum of colors can now be displayed from pale or lemon yellow to brick red to almost black. The color provides a great clue as to the variety of grape used. Chardonnays will usually be golden yellow whereas a Riesling will be lemon colored. Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots will be a garnet color while a Burgundy such as Pinot Noir will show brick red. Rose wines such as White Zinfandel can be almost raspberry in color. In general, red wines lose a little intensity as they age, whereas white wines tend to get deeper. One notices these differences as one explores wine tasting.
Seeing the wine can also help detect different levels of the alcohol content of the wine, shown by its viscosity. As wine is poured into the bottle, a phenomenon known as "legs" can appear. Simply put, it is caused by the differences in surface tensions between the alcohol and water contents of the wine causing the alcohol to separate, rise up the glass, and then fall down causing the "legs", also known as "tears of wine". Normally this is more prevalent in wines of higher alcohol content, but is not an indicator of the quality of the wine. For instance, a German Riesling or White Zinfandel are low in alcohol, around 12.0%, French reds Bordeaux or Burgundy are higher, up to 13.5%. Californian whites and Shiraz can reach 14.5%. All of these are good to great wines, yet the "legs" will show stronger in the higher alcohol wines.
Use this sense of Sight to give you a preliminary idea of the type of wine being tasted.
N.B. Usually when drinking wine it is preferable to use some crystal stemware designed for the specific variety. As tastings are often done blind, a standard red or white wine glass is acceptable.
Michael S. Evans was born in England, worked as Brewer for Guinness. Moved to U.S.A. in 197. Since then has been in sales and distribution of imported and domestic beers and wine.
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Clarity is the term used when one views the wine against a white background and will show any residue or cloudiness. Some wines will be cloudy because they are bad. With modern techniques this is rare unless air has entered through a faulty seal on the bottle. Residue or sediment is most likely caused by age or by lack of filtration. In either case, the wine is probably fine and requires decanting in some fashion. Generally the wine is bright and reflects the light to give brilliance and sparkle.
Typically wines are thought of as Red, White or Rose if one ignores dessert or fortified wines such as port, sherry and sparkling wines such as champagne. Tilt the glass against a white background to judge the color at the interface of the glass and wine. The entire spectrum of colors can now be displayed from pale or lemon yellow to brick red to almost black. The color provides a great clue as to the variety of grape used. Chardonnays will usually be golden yellow whereas a Riesling will be lemon colored. Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots will be a garnet color while a Burgundy such as Pinot Noir will show brick red. Rose wines such as White Zinfandel can be almost raspberry in color. In general, red wines lose a little intensity as they age, whereas white wines tend to get deeper. One notices these differences as one explores wine tasting.
Seeing the wine can also help detect different levels of the alcohol content of the wine, shown by its viscosity. As wine is poured into the bottle, a phenomenon known as "legs" can appear. Simply put, it is caused by the differences in surface tensions between the alcohol and water contents of the wine causing the alcohol to separate, rise up the glass, and then fall down causing the "legs", also known as "tears of wine". Normally this is more prevalent in wines of higher alcohol content, but is not an indicator of the quality of the wine. For instance, a German Riesling or White Zinfandel are low in alcohol, around 12.0%, French reds Bordeaux or Burgundy are higher, up to 13.5%. Californian whites and Shiraz can reach 14.5%. All of these are good to great wines, yet the "legs" will show stronger in the higher alcohol wines.
Use this sense of Sight to give you a preliminary idea of the type of wine being tasted.
N.B. Usually when drinking wine it is preferable to use some crystal stemware designed for the specific variety. As tastings are often done blind, a standard red or white wine glass is acceptable.
Michael S. Evans was born in England, worked as Brewer for Guinness. Moved to U.S.A. in 197. Since then has been in sales and distribution of imported and domestic beers and wine.
To continue please CLICK HERE
