Learning About Wine: Part 1
ON TASTING:
I’ve been asked several times to share how I assess wine. While my experience is based solely on WSET criteria, I’ve created a quick guide for my wine lowers.
It starts with sight:
Take a good look at the wine, its color, rim variation (the color from the center to the rim of your glass), viscosity, and the wine's clarity.
Color is a great indicator for the wine in your glass – it can help you narrow down grape type, winemaking techniques, the age of the wine and more.
Next is the nose:
If you’re drinking an excellent wine, a lot of what you taste in the wine, you should also be able to smell. Our olfactory receptors are one of the most important sensors when it comes to how we experience taste.
Put your nose in the glass and breathe deeply. Are the aromas fruity or savory? Do they remind you of anything? Does it smell sweet (like ripe fruit), floral, earthy, herbaceous? Does it smell rich or fresh?
Swirl, Sniff, Think. Are the same notes still there?
Categories: Fruits, Flowers, Herbs, Spices, Oak (vanilla, baking spices, etc.) or winemaking characteristics from lees ageing or malolactic fermentation (cream, dough, butter, etc).
Tip: if the wine is feeling muted or not giving you a lot to smell, give it a swirl. This introduces more oxygen into the wine which can help release aromatic compounds. The temperature of wine can also affect how it expresses its aromas.
Finally, the good part, palate: begin with a moderate amount of wine to avoid overwhelming your palate. Swish (don’t gargle), let it come into contact with all parts of your mouth, and breathe in some air.
Do you taste a wide range of flavors, are they lingering after the wine is gone?
Most (and best) of all, did you enjoy it? If so, why, or why not?
We’re looking for texture, flavor, tannin, alcohol, length, complexity, balance texture
It took me a long time to find the exact words to describe the wine but the point is, think about the wine and try to describe it the best you can.
Wine Structure:
The structure of a wine can be overshadowed by talk of aromas and flavors but is still super important in assessing wine. It is the framework that sets the stage for assessing the quality of the wine, how it will age, how it will best pair with foods, and can indicate things like the origin of the wine, grape type, and vintage. The five main structural elements are sweetness, acidity, tannin, body, and alcohol. These can only be assessed on the palate.
SWEETNESS
The amount of sugar in a wine after fermentation.
Sweetness in a wine tastes... well, sweet. But not all wines that "taste" sweet are sweet. I tend to have trouble explaining to people that very ripe fruit flavors in a wine can make the wine seem sweet even if the wine is dry (aka not sweet).
Sweetness in wine is simply how many grams of sugar remains in the wine after the fermentation (aka residual sugar or "RS").
A great indicator to determine if a wine is sweet vs. ripe fruit flavors is stickiness or sweetness lingering on the lips. Sweetness can be detected and measured on a scale: Dry, Off-Dry, Medium-Dry, Medium Sweet, and Sweet with the g/L of residual sugar increasing. You can deep dive here.
Acidity
The tangy, sour taste that makes wine feel fresh.
A wine that has high acidity feels crisper, tart and refreshing. A wine with low acidity will feel softer and rounder on the palate. You can determine the level of acidity in a wine by how much the sides of your mouth water after a sip of wine. The more saliva your mouth generates, the higher the acidity!
TIP: Often the best food and wine pairings are wines that contain high levels of acidity. Acidity compliments both rich and fresh foods.
Tannins
Compounds that give wine astringency and texture.
Tannins in wine are compounds from the skins, seeds and stems of the grapes. They contribute bitter and astringent flavors but also add textural components to wine.
You can detect tannins by a slight bitter flavor and how drying a wine feels on the palate. You’ll feel the most impact on your gums. Drink black tea or eat dark chocolate - they have a similar feeling.
Tannins are important for red wines as it improves their ability to age. Highly tannic wines are perfect to pair with foods higher in fat and/or protein.
ALCohol
The % of booze a wine has in it.
At lower levels, it’s hard to notice the ‘flavor’ of alcohol, but once you have a wine of at least 13%, you will feel a warming sensation toward the back of your throat. Tilt your head back, hold some wine like you’re about to gargle: the hotter it feels, the higher the level of alcohol it is.
Tip: do not pair high alcohol wines with spicy food. The alcohol amplifies the spice/heat in the food.
Climate and varietal can have an impact on the alcohol potential of a wine.
Body
How rich or round a wine feels on the palate
The body of a wine is generally a combination of the alcohol level and winemaking techniques such as oak barrel ageing and malolactic fermentation. Wine that is full-bodied will hold more weight on the palate, they are powerful wines with lots of impact. Whereas light-bodied wines on the other hand will be quite delicate and often fresher. I think about the palate weight difference between skim milk (light body) to whole milk (medium body) to full cream (full body).
Wine Flavors:
Sometimes my tasting notes are wild and over the top. I hear myself say freshly picked chives… overripe peaches…. corpse flower (a favorite of mine from my tasting group)… and I laugh. I get it. I am hyper aware of how absurd I sound but there is a method to my madness.
While the descriptions can feel superfluous, it actually helps me commit the wine to memory, so I have a frame for reference when trying similar styles. I’ve highlighted some categories that help you imagine where the flavors of any given wine might lie.
Fruit Flavors: various fruit families such as citrus fruit, stone fruit, tropical fruit, etc.
Spice: pepper, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg
Vegetal: grass, green or red pepper, tobacco leaf, tomato leaf
Farmyard: cheesecloth, sweaty horse
Floral: roses, violet, cherry blossom, orange blossom
Mineral: rainwater, river stones, crushed gravel, flint, salt
Dairy: sour cream, yogurt, butter
Oak: vanilla, coconut, nuts, toast, spice
Earth: soil, clay pot, forest floor, mushroom
Herbs: thyme, oregano, tarragon, rosemary
WTF DO THE Flavors MEAn?
Once you understand the different flavors, it’s useful to understand where and why these flavors exist. Why does Cab Sauv taste different in Bordeaux than in Australia? What about the stylistic difference between Pinot Noir from California vs Burgundy? Most of the time the answers are related to winemaking traditions of the region, climate, and local laws. As you start to taste more wine, it’ll be easier to identify these details.
Climate: is the easiest place to start to identify why a wine may have a certain flavor or structural components. A large number of growing countries have relatively cool climates (Germany, Austria, France, some parts of Italy) especially compared to Australia, California, etc. The cool growing season leads to a slower accumulation of sugar and retention of acidity which leads to wines that are less rich.
There are a few technical factors here but the main point when assessing a wine is having an understanding of the climate (maritime, continental, Mediterranean), temperature (hot, cool and in between) to help you answer the questions above. A quick note is that each region will have climactic influences like unique wind patterns, rain shadow, forests, mountains, proximity to oceans/rivers, etc. which impact the final style of wine as well.
The Grape: wine grape varietals produce different flavors just like a red delicious apple vs a granny smith would. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon typically has notes of black fruit (blackberry, black plum), violet, and green pepper or mint. Nearly all Cab Sauv’s will taste similar across countries but the intensity of certain characteristics also depends on winemaking techniques.
Winemaking Techniques: techniques vary country to country based on local laws, winemaking tradition, etc. but the key is the amount of oak used, the age and toast level of an oak barrel, time spent in, etc.
That’s my story. Feel free to drop some questions.