How To Taste Wine
The basics of wine appreciation are simple. First, develop an easy, quick system for thoughtfully tasting before you drink wine. Tasting with a plan and method will increase the sensory experience and hopefully the amount of pleasure you derive. You will also begin to understand what you like and do not like in wine, developing an educated knowledge based on experience. Involve all of your senses to when tasting wine. Here are a few basic steps to follow:
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Cleanse your palate with a neutral cracker or water prior to tasting. Flavors left in the mouth, especially toothpaste influences how a wine tastes.
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Eyeball the color of the wine by tilting the glass backward against a white background. If a wine is brown-tinged it may be older. A rich deep hue in a red may indicate an intense, bolder flavor profile. Red colors range from pale tawny to deep garnet or purple. Whites range from pale straw yellow to deep gold. Mass-produced, treated wines can look dull; quality wines have a shimmer or sheen-like character to them.
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Swirl and Sniff - key step in wine appreciation. Rotate or swirl your glass to gather up the aromas onto the surface of the wine. Put your nose into the glass and sniff away. Try to identify what aromas come out by associating from your memory what you smell. Anything from a barnyard to a ripe cherry tree is within the realm of a wine aroma. Your tongue is limited to 4-5 taste profiles: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and little known taste called umami. The olfactory sense can discern all the subtle components that are present in flavors. Notice what the aromas remind you of, how clean or pleasing (or maybe not) the aromas are, and how intense the smell is to you. Swirl and sniff before you slurp to discover the essences of what is happening in your glass of wine.
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