The wine tasting calls on all the senses. Knowing how to recognize and appreciate a wine then requires time and exercise. This will allow you to refine your olfactory capacities And to be able to put a name on a color, an aroma, or a perfume.
Recognize the aromas of wine: olfactory memory
Who has never felt a smell or heard music that reminded him of his childhood, a specific moment, a significant event? This feeling comes from your olfactory memory, in other words, your ability to remember a smell and recognize it among all. If for many, this olfactory memory is almost instinctively, it can also work. By exercising Recognize the smells, colors and aromas of a wine, you will then learn to refine your ability to determine a grape variety, a terroir, and to appreciate all the flavors.
How to learn to recognize a wine ? The best is to trainolfactory analysis daily. For this, several techniques are possible.
The Wine smells are present every day in your environment. By breathing in full lungs, you can discern a smell of leather, undergrowth, red fruits, mushrooms, citrus ... Learn to spot it, to put a name on each odor, and to dissociate them from others .
A second tip to train to recognize the aromas of a wine is called the jam method. The preponderant flavors of red, white or rosy wines are often fruity. We recognize, for example, a Pinot Noir in its cherry aroma, or a viognier to its apricot taste. Then train yourself to recognize the different tastes of fruit by tasting several jams. It will be enough to boil one or two spoons of jam in a little spring water, then let cool. The tasting will reveal all the aromas of the fruit, which you can memorize. Then have fun complicating the game, mixing several fruits, or adding spices.
Wine tasting: recognize it at first glance
In a process of wine tasting, experts always start by spinning the wine in the glass, then observing it. This visual examination is as important as taste or smell, since sight allows you to appreciate the shine, the color of the wine, the reflections, or the limpidity of a wine. These elements will give you valuable information on the wine that you will taste, such as age, dominant grape, or the method of vinification of the wine to be enjoyed.
Served in a fine and elegant glass, run by the foot, the wine is observed on a white background to create a contrast. It will then be necessary to examine above the glass, and more particularly the disc, this circumference that the liquid forms on the edges. Then you can look through the glass, to Discover the Wine Dress.
Wine tasting: Note the smell of wine
The smell intervenes at two very precise moments of a tasting: directly by the nose, that is to say by the back-glod, after the appetizer (retro-olfaction). It is therefore essential for savor a wine And detect all the subtleties of aromas.
The approach of a wine by smell will be done in two stages:
- the first nose consists in feeling wine at rest, with motionless glass without waving the liquid, to discover the most discreet aromas;
- the second nose consists in turning the wine in the glass to clear the aromas and concentrate them at the level of the glass collar. It will then be necessary to immerse the nose on the edge to feel the whole power of the aromas.
Smell, we can detect two types of aromas: primary aromas, coming from the grapes, and the secondary aromas, from fermentation and the vinification method.
Wine tasting: set the taste buds
After having observed and felt the wine, place at thegustatory examination. No need to take large amounts of wine, a small sip turned in the mouth is enough to reveal the flavors that emerge successively. The taste is closely linked to smell, and retro-olfaction will have a direct impact on the appreciation of flavors.
Taste a wine supposes to go through 3 essential steps:
- L'offensive must allow, as soon as the arrival in the mouth, to determine if the wine is nervous, lively, balanced, powerful ... bringing air into the mouth during a second sip will ventilate the wine, while doing it Turn in the mouth will line all the taste buds.
- the mid -mouth aims to assess, after spitting the sip, the sensations felt on the tongue, then by retro-olfaction. This makes it possible to determine the quality of aromas, tannins and acidity.
- The final Determine the length in the mouth Wine, that is to say its persistence after spitting it. The length of a wine on the palate is measured in caudalia (1 caudalie = 1 second). It is estimated that a long wine on the palate counts between 5 and 10 caudalia.
The wine tasting requires a certain technique that is acquired over time and experience. Do not hesitate to train by tasting different white, red or rosé wines, or to take tasting.
