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Wine Tasting Made Easy
By Reuel Fish, Principal, Bishop Creek Cellars/Urban Wineworks, and
International Sommelier Guild graduate
If the goal of your wine tasting experience is to formulate 16 adjectives and identify a ‘nuance of fluttering violets on a summer breeze’ or a ‘suggestion of saddle leather from an Arabian mare,’ READ NO FURTHER! Go buy a Thesaurus.
However, if your goal is to appreciate what components need to be in balance to produce a good, pleasing wine, let me suggest the following basic approach to wine tasting.
There are 4 main building blocks of any wine: fruit flavors, acid, alcohol and, if the wine is red, tannin. (I have omitted sweetness from the list since most wines these days are “dry” wines, meaning they contain less than 1% residual sugar).
Fruit Flavors: Here’s where the wine critics wax eloquent and poetic, sometimes ad nauseam. My basic wine tasting approach suggests that the most important thing is not what the fruit flavors are, but the level of their intensity and whether they are pleasing and in balance with the other components of a wine. If a dry wine tastes sweet, it is probably the intensity of the fruit flavors that gives the perception, rather than the amount of sugar. My acknowledgement of the fruit in a wine tends toward broad categories: the berry flavors that you find in a Pinot noir; the cooked fruit flavor found in wines that are older or from hotter climates like Chianti, or apples and pears found in a Chardonnay from Chablis, or the lychee fruit of a Gerwurztraminer.
Acid: The acidity in a wine is its tartness, often experienced as a mouth-watering sensation felt at the back of the jaw. Think of how your mouth reacts to the citric acid after biting on a lemon. The right amount of acid in a wine is important. Too much and I get heartburn, but in the right amount, acid serves to add structure to a wine and helps balance the other components. Wine made from grape varieties that do well in warmer climates, (Chardonnays and Cabernets from
California
, Syrahs from
Australia
), have less acid because the grapes get riper before harvest. Varieties such as Pinot noir and Pinot gris, grown in cooler climates, tend to have higher acid levels. In a good wine, the acid should not overwhelm the fruit nor should the fruit overshadow the acid, lest the wine be perceived as cloying or too fruity or syrupy. A bit of acidity in wine matches well with richer foods.
Alcohol: The presence of alcohol is signaled by the warmth of a sip, often the last sensation noted after the sip is swallowed; in other words, as part of the “finish.” More alcohol will generally be perceived as warmer, or “hot,” in the same way your mouth and throat react to a shot of distilled spirit. Again, the winegrower and winemaker should strive to keep the level of alcohol in balance with the other components. As grapes ripen, sugars rise and acids tend to fall. More sugars give rise to greater levels of alcohol in the finished wine. If you have a big fruit wine like a good red Zinfandel or an Italian Amarone, your palate can handle alcohol levels above 14% without the heat becoming too overbearing. Light German Rieslings or sparkling Moscato d’Asti wines from
Italy
have such delicate fruit flavors that 5-8% alcohol levels suffice.
Tannin: Tannins in wine cause dryness in the mouth similar to that experienced when drinking tea. Tannins, along with the wine color, come from the skins of the grapes. If the grape juice is not allowed much contact with the skin prior to fermentation, you get white wine and no tannin. With more contact between the juice and the skins, more color and more tannins result. Heavier red wines such as Cabernet, Syrah, and Nebbiolo tend to have more tannin. Lighter reds like Pinot noir have less. Just like all the other components, too much is bad. High tannins can quickly envelope the other aspects. When in balance, tannins, like acid and alcohol, add structure and complexity to a wine, and helps prolong its aging.
Now have someone pour you a taste of wine without telling you what it is. With no preconceived notions of what the wine is supposed to taste like, you can easily begin to focus on each of the components. Is the wine fruity or not? Is it highly acidic? Do the tannins stand out? Are the components in harmony, and most importantly, do you like it?
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