ENJOY
TASTING WINE
Squiz
The first thing to do is look at the wine. Tilt the glass and hold against a white background if you can so it becomes easier to see how the colour changes around the edges.Things to look for are the clarity of the wine and the colour of the wine. There isn’t a firm link between the visual characteristics – such as the colour intensity – of a wine and its quality. Generally speaking, white wines become darker as they age. Red wines, on the other hand, tend to lose some of their colour and maybe become a little brownish. You may even see a bit of sediment in older reds. These lees are the remains of the yeast used in the fermentation process – they’re harmless, but best left in the bottle because they’ll turn any toothy white smile into a trainwreck.
Swirl
Swirl, or Swish, the wine around your glass. This expands the surface area of the wine by spreading it around the inside of the glass. It also infuses some oxygen into the wine which helps to release the aromas. As you’re sloshing it around the glass, you’ll also notice the way the wine runs back down the glass. More viscous wines take longer to run back down the glass. And these streaks of wine are known as "legs." No doubt you’ve all heard someone refer to a wine as having great legs. Again, there’s no link between a wine’s quality and its legs, although the leggier it is, the more alcohol it has.
Sniff
Next up, we smell the wine. Stick your snout in and sniff up the aroma. What you’re smelling is known as the wine’s bouquet. This is your first interaction with the wine’s flavour. The characteristics you notice will, in time, allow you to pick the variety of the grape on scent alone. It will also give you the first chance to notice if the wine is corked. As an interesting aside, the reason why restaurant waiters pour a small amount of wine in one glass before pouring every glass at the table is to allow only one person to see if it’s corked. The whole procedure is chivalrous in its origins. It was believed that a gentleman ought to shield his female guests from the displeasure of drinking corked wine.
Sip
Take a sip of wine, but do not swallow yet. Swish it around your mouth so it covers all your taste buds. Also, pay attention to the texture and other tactile sensations such as an apparent sense of weight or body.
Snuff
Well. It’s actually called aspirate. But it’s the province of wine snuffs. So that’s what we’ve called it. This step is for serious aficionados. It’s not the sort of thing to do at a mate’s barbie because you may not get invited back. But there is a way of doing it subtlety so you can be sure you enjoy the wine.Purse your lips as if you’re about to whistle in, suck air into your mouth and exhale through your nose. This liberates the aromas for the wine and allows them to reach your nose where they can be detected. The nose is the only place where you can detect a wine's aromas. In fact, your nose is responsible for about 80% of what you perceive as “taste”. However, the enzymes and other compounds in your mouth and saliva alter some of a wine's aromatic compounds. By aspirating through the wine, you are looking for any new aromas liberated by the wine's interaction with the environment of your mouth.
Slurp
Take another sip of the wine, but this time (especially if you are drinking a red wine) introduce air with it. In other words, slurp the wine (without making a loud slurping noise, of course). Note the subtle differences in flavour and texture.
Think
Stop and think about the wine. Did you enjoy it? Does it go well with the food you’re eating? As already noted, the most important thing about wine, and the only hard and fast rule when it comes to wine, is buy and drink wine you enjoy. It doesn’t matter a hoot what any one else has to say.
And this is why we’re here. We make the sort of wine that you can’t help but enjoy. So why don’t you buy some? Simple really.
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