Bride and wine tasting: how to recognize them?

 

During a blind tasting, whether for an oenology or just to have fun, it is always difficult to Determine the grape variety of a wine. To help you distinguish a riesling from a Chardonnay, or a Cinsault of a Grenache, discover the techniques to recognize the different grape varieties during a wine tasting.

 

Recognize the grape variety of a white wine

First of all, it is important to know that white wines and red wines are not made with the same grape varieties. Learning to distinguish the different grape varieties is one of the tasting techniques which then break down into two parts. Let's start with white wine.

Acidity is a major index on theOrigin of a wine grape variety and the wine regions from which it comes. Indeed, white wines are more or less acidic, we can thus classify them in 3 categories, which determine the Type of grape variety :

• Very acidic wines are generally made with riesling, Chenin or Sauvignon;
• Moderately acidic wines are often designed with Chardonnay;
• Little acid wines are made with a gewurztraminer or a viognier.

You may be wondering how we assess the degree of acidity of a wine ? First of all, be aware that acidity is a particular feeling in the mouth, which is essentially felt on the sides of the tongue. Acidity is salivating, like the juice of a lemon. To fully assess it, just take the wine in the mouth, then chew it. The passage of wine in the mouth will arouse different sensations, a length in the mouth and a more or less strong salivation.

The most experienced will realize that theAcidity of wine depends a lot on the level of fat of the wine. This is explained by the fact that fat reduces acidic sensations on the palate.

 

Recognize the grape variety of a red wine

As with white wine, the grape variety of red depends on the balance between acidity and fat, but this time we add the tannins. It’s also theTanins intensity that will allow Recognize the red grape variety. Let us recall that the tannin of red wine is a plant substance obtained during the maceration of grape skins, and that it provides a drying of the mouth.

To assess the tannins of red wine, and therefore determine the grape variety, it is necessary to proceed as with white wine, and chew the wine. It's up to you to recognize the sensations of drying in the mouth, as if your tongue hung on your palate.

If the feeling of grip is strong, it supposes that the tannins are very powerful. We then talk about tannic wine, or astringent. These wines are often produced from different grape varieties, such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Syrah, or Malbec.

If the grip is weak, the wine contains few tannins, then we talk about flexible wine, or silky. This is particularly the case with Pinot Noir or Grenache wines.

Again, the perception of tannins will depend a lot on Wine fat level red.

 

Identify the dominant aromas of the various grape varieties

If the grape varieties can be determined thanks to the tannins for red wine, and thanks to the acidity for white wine, it is a criterion common to the two colors to recognize a grape: the Dominant aromas.

More or less easy to recognize according to wine, and according to experience, aromas are the different tastes that are distinguished in the mouth during the Wine tasting. Thus, we can easily determine the 6 dominant grape varieties in white :

• Riesling: aromas of grapefruit, lemon and flint;
• The Viognier: apricot aromas and white fishing;
• Gewürztraminer: aromas of rose, spice and lychee;
• The Chenin: aromas of quince, apple, linden and apricot;
• Chardonnay: aromas of apple, lemon, toast, acacias, and sometimes butter, almond, vanilla;
• Sauvignon: aromas of cut grass, lemon, blackcurrant.

On the side of red wines, we distinguish 6 dominant grape varieties in red, which each release special aromas:

• Cabernet-Sauvignon: aromas of green pepper, blackberry, blackcurrant and liquorice;
• The Cabernet-Franc: aromas of blackberry, blackcurrant and green pepper;
• Pinot Noir: aromas of pepper, cherry and blackcurrant;
• Merlot: aromas of spice, blackberry and plum;
• Syrah: aromas of pepper, blackcurrant and violet;
• Grenache: aromas of pepper, spices, garrigue and liquorice.

 

You now know how recognize grape varieties dominant wine, you just have to train at the wine tasting of quality, like the Vins de Provence from the Domaine de Bern.