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Your first Wine TastingJun 11 '00 Write an essay on this topic.If you have accepted an invitation to a wine tasting event, there are some things that are useful to know. If the event is a simple gathering or a grand one, it will matter not in the least-- if you actually study the wines. You could do yourself a favor, though, and not speak something on the order of, "I like what I like". The study of wine is immediate and all of the faculties for perceiving that immediacy are in the human body. If you speak truly, it is not so easy at first, you can convey your assessment without fear of ridicule. After all, it is a "party" to which you have been invited and, unless the hosts are trying to show off, your responses are as valid as anyone else's. So called "snobbery" is an extremely important element of wine tasting-- at a much more sophisticated level than we are apt to run into, though. Your body has the equipment at its command. A bit of wine is poured, I look at it, just look at it, its colour. I swirl it in my glass. Two things happen, the "nose" (aroma) comes up, and maybe I see a trace of lines running down the glass, the "legs"--it gives me a clue about the "body". I sniff the wine. Winesmen use the term "nose", but , how does it smell? Is it free and light, is something fishy, is it clean? There is no reason to consult with an outside authority... good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant... all these things are understood in the human body. If you cannot distinguish this on your own, you will never be able to taste a wine and may as well go take a course someplace or rely on sommeliers for the rest of your life. Now I taste the pour-- not drink it as water, not guzzle it like booze, taste it. How does it taste? (Here it is important now to go to "I like" ,"I don't like"). What element of the wine attracts me, what element of the wine turns me back? When the wine enters the mouth, there is an immediate sensation at the lips and the gums. How would you identify that sensation? As the wine is being swallowed, there is a particular sensation in the cheeks and over the tongue. As the wine is ingested there is a definite sensation of its going down, its "tail"--how does it "finish"? Of course this is very abbreviated, but if one actually studies the wine instead of studying "rules of wine tasting" one begins an honest enquiry, and that is what its all about because honest enquiry leads to useful exchange. A friend of mine once noticed a subtlety in a rather common Chateu Neuf du Pape that we each had in our cellars and remarked that the tail went down backwards. Damned if he wasn't right-- and I never noticed. Taste and trust your body, the words will come.  |
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