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Tasting wine, the basics for beginners.

Your tongue is covered with over 10,000 individual taste buds.

These receptors enable us to detect the presence of certain

compounds in our food and drink. Yet for all the adjectives we

have to describe flavors, there are only 4 basic flavors the

tongue can detect, with a fifth having been described in Asian

cultures and only recently being accepted in the west. The four

we commonly think of are sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. The

fifth flavor perception has been named by the Japanese as umami,

or the savory sensation, associated with protein or meats.





So if the tongue has such a limited role to play in how we

perceive wine, then where does all that wonderful experience

come from when we sip and enjoy a glass? The answer is in front

of your nose; or rather it is your nose. The sense of smell is

more important to taste than the tongue itself. So what better

place to start tasting wine than with the aroma? Well, actually

before you ever taste or smell the wine your eyes will see it,

so let us start with a look at the wine.





Color and Clarity





The first thing you should do is hold your
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lass at half an arms length, and against a while or light

colored background. Look at how the light comes through the

wine. A good quality wine should be bright, with no cloudy haze

or particles floating around. If it is a sparkling wine the

bubbles should be fine and leave a delicate mist bursting at the

surface. If the wine appears brownish, like is has been tinted,

it may very well be oxidized. The color of white wine is often

very telling of the flavors they contain. Lighter, pale straw

colored wines are likely to taste lighter and crisp with very

fresh citrus or herbal notes, whereas darker whites will have

more bold oak or vanilla components. The color of red wines will

be very indicative of the grapes used, ranging from pale

burgundy to a purple crimson.





Aroma





Gently swirl the wine in the glass for a moment, and before you

even get the glass to your nose you will start to smell it. The

first aromas to get to your nose will be the highly volatile

esters responsible for the fruity smells, as well as alcohol.

Now bring the glass up to your nose, but don't put your nose in

the glass, after all you are going to drink from it in a moment.

Give a nice gentle but lingering sniff. This will be the most

complex part of the wine as there are literally hundreds of

components contributing to the wines aroma. If there is any sign

of spoilage, stop now before you ruin your nose and taste buds

for the night. There are many words used to describe wine aroma,

from fresh fruit, dried fruit, herbal, grassy, oaky, vanilla,

citrus, floral, to less desirable like chemical, sulphur, or

madeirised (oxidized). Wines that have been aging for a while

may even develop some aromas that are earthy and almost like

truffles. Don't be too concerned with the exact description,

just use other flavors you are already familiar with and can

remember for future comparisons.





Tasting





Finally take a sip of wine into your mouth but do not swallow.

Don't worry, we wont' ask you to spit it out, after all the

vintner made the wine to be consumed. But do hold the wine in

your mouth a moment. Now you will quickly perceive acidity

(sour), on the sides of your tongue, and sweet on the tip. And

soon after if there are any tannins on the wine they will make

themselves known as the sensation of drying, or almost

"sticking" to your tongue. Breathe out into your nose a little

and you unleash the full potential of the wine. By now the wine

has change dramatically as you progress from the fore palate

through the mid to the end palate. Finally swallow and any

bitterness will be perceived on the back of your tongue, and you

can really enjoy the lingering affects.





As you proceed through these steps you may be amazed at how

different the perception of the wine is. Many wines excel at a

single point or two along this tasting path, but only those

wines that are exceptional improve with each phase of tasting

and culminate with a lingering end palate that leaves you

begging for another sip. While these are just the basics, it can

many years and literally hundreds of wine samples to become

expertly tuned into tasting wine.





About the author:



Michael Briggs is a wine fanatic and a frequent contributor to

Winery-Mall

where you can learn all about
href="http://www.winery-mall.com/enjoyment/enjoyment.html">wine

enjoyment.

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