Tasting Method

You like Wine but you never know how to say what you like or dislike in it ?

This Week we want to give you the words to describe what you see, what you smell and what you taste. 

Color                  Smell                Taste            So What ? 

There are different steps in wine tasting and it is important to respect each one of them.

Color

The first step for wine tasting, is to check the color of the wine in your glass. Tilt up your glass and try to say what you see.
NB : As the wine mature, the color change in a natural progression from light to dark shade.

► Red Wine  

Thanks to the grape skins, you have the wine tannin. This is the most important taste difference with the white wine.
There are different shade you can discern. 

Purple-Red is a common color for young, often immature wines. 
If the wine has a Ruby dye, it means this is a wine in the way of maturity. 
The Garnet color indicates a wine at peak of their maturity
Mahogany color means that the wine has a considerable age but it also can be too old sometimes. 

► White Wine 

A white wine with pales yellow/green shade is a young wine.
The Light yellow color is typical of dry wine. 
When a wine is older it will develop a shade of gold. It means that the wine is richer and more complex. 

Smell

Second step: examine the smell of the wine. 

Take your glass and put your nose into the glass to make a full sniff. Think about what you smell.

Then make your wine slowly move and make a second full sniff. In the second nose, you will smell more things. 

Try to put words in what you feel. If you notice fruity smells like Citrus or Raspberry it probably means that this is a young wine. 

Conversely, if you smell something more complex like oak or bushmeat this is an older one.

When do you actually drink the wine? That's next…

Taste

At least you will taste the wine. You will pick up flavor from wine if you swish it around in your mouth. You have to pay attention to the sensation you feel. Try to express what you feel with words.  

You can find four tastes in wine tasting : Sugar, Acidity, Salted and bitter.  There's a typical character in each wine from every specific terroir.

Degustation in the mouth is made by three steps. The first one is named "attaque". Wine express itself at the begin. Then this is the "milieu de bouche". At the end you will feel tannins astringent or not. 

Words for Wine Tasting

Flabby : Without structure, too soft.

Corky : defective cork in the bottle, unplaisant smell
Insipid : Lack of character and acidity

Body : The weight and substance of the wine in the mouth. 
Fruity : The aroma and flavour of fresh grapes found in fine young wines. It will be lower with age.

Woody : Flavour of oak resulting to long storage in barrels. We can found it in Spanish and Australian wines.