How to Taste Wine
Wine tasting can be intimidating! Here are 4 simple steps to help you taste. So grab a glass, fill it with something delicious and give this a try:
Swirl. Get some oxygen to the juice to release its aromas.
Sniff. Get your nose inside the glass, like really in the glass—you’ll experience the aromas more intensely.
Taste. Swish it around your mouth. Don’t be afraid to coat your mouth with a large sip of wine.
Remember. So, what do you think? Develop a profile of a wine that can be stored to memory. Dan Petroski of Massican Winery calls this “palette memory.”
Let’s go into a bit more detail on these. A big caveat here across the board is that wine tasting is highly subjective. There is no wrong answer. Thom might taste black cherry, while I taste red cherry. We’re both right, and drinking wine together which is what it’s all about!
Swirl
Swirl and really look at the wine. Color and opacity can give you hints as to the age, the grape varieties, acidity, alcohol, sugar, and even the climate where the wine was grown. Check out those delightful colors in the light!
Sniff
Smell, swirl, smell. The Aroma Wheel has been gaining recent following. Fun fact: the wheel was first published in 1984 by a scientist at the University of California, Davis. Incredibly, it has 119 scent descriptors. Though I’m not sure I’ll ever taste musty cardboard, or want to!
There are three main types of aromas: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary aromas come from the type of the grape and the climate where it grows. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon will often smell of black cherry. Secondary aromas come from the fermentation process. A great example of this is Brut Champagne and delicious bakery aromas (“bready” or “yeasty”). Mmmm. Tertiary comes from aging wine, whether aging in oak, and/or aging in bottle.
Taste
And now, the fun part! Pretend you’re a sommelier in training and take a sip. Fun fact: top sommeliers can blind taste a wine down to the style, region and even vintage. Thom, we have some work to do!
You’ve likely heard of acidity and wine. Acidity is often perceived as that mouth watering sensation. Most wines range between 3 and 4 pH. For example, my favorite Red Car Estate Pinot Noir is 3.57 pH (Red Car puts all of these details transparently on their labels which is very cool and unique).
We’ll cover brix (a fancy word for sugar), alcohol, body and some other topics in a future post. It all impacts the taste.
Though like I said, tasting notes are highly subjective! On purple cork tastings, we run interactive polls to see what the group thinks about primary flavors.
What our tasters identify in Littorai’s Pinot Noir…cherry, rose, and something else!
Remember
So, what do you think? Commit the wine to memory. And take notes! It’s always encouraged to jot it down to help you remember.
On a purple cork tasting, you’ll also hear tasting notes from the winemaker, including nuances about the area, the varietal, the vintage, and how the wine was made. For example, a Cabernet Sauvignon from cooler Alexander Valley will often have more green pepper notes than a Cab from Napa. Both are delicious, just different.
If you’re looking to stock your cellar, or jazz up your weekend, these are two of my California Cabernet Sauvignon favorites from two amazing small production boutique wineries:
Sonoma: Blue Rock Best Barrels
Napa: Azur Classic
I’ll leave you with two other tasting tips:
Use the right glassware! Elan Fayard from Azur Wines drinks her famous Dry Rose out of a red wine glass to air it out. And in France, you’re almost always served Champagne in a white wine glass. Fun experiment: taste your next glass of Champagne out of the largest red wine glass you have. Then try it out of a flute. Wild, right?
Using the right glass improves the taste of wine. We prefer thin walled, larger glasses for most wines, even sparkling. Zalto is our house favorite.
Compare different wines and varietals side-by-side. It’s fun to practice and amazing how fast your senses start to pick up the differences. A purple cork virtual wine tasting is a great way to do this! Browse our upcoming tastings to get inspired and order your wines to taste along with the winemaker.
