Background information
Recognising and classifying the taste of wine
by Tanja Lehmann
Wine tasting: using your sensory organs correctly
31.1.2018
Translation: machine translated
The wine connoisseur looks at the wine, tilts the glass, smells it and takes a sip. When the glass is empty, he uses his nose again. This isn't a film - this whole procedure is necessary to perceive all the facets of the wine. Let me explain what the connoisseur gets out of it.
For the uninitiated, wine tasting is something of a ritual. The professionals all follow the same pattern. But the tasting process has a purpose. No other beverage offers the same variety of impressions as wine. It is only with your eyes, nose and palate that you perceive it in all its aspects.
Sight
To observe the wine's colour, hold the wine in front of a light background. The table is often covered with a white tablecloth, provided for this purpose. The wine should have a clear, brilliant colour. If it is cloudy, milky or lumpy, something is wrong. If it looks very watery, this may be a sign that the wine is too old. Colour is influenced by a number of factors. By the way, the famous 'tears' or 'legs' that appear when the wine is swirled are no guarantee of quality. The "heavier" the wine, due to a high alcohol content or a high proportion of natural sugar, the more numerous these "tears" will be and the longer they will take to form.
The nose
First of all, you need to swirl the glass. If you're not used to it, or are, like me, clumsy, you can put it on the table and make circles with the stem. This movement releases certain aromas and oxygenates the wine. Then it's time to smell. Dip your nose into the glass and inhale the bouquet. Whether it's one big breath or several small ones, it doesn't matter.
The mouth
As soon as you put wine in your mouth, you can smell it. Is it fleshy, silky, soft, supple, dry or even sharp? Swirl the wine in your mouth while sucking in (we call toasting the wine) air to create a kind of swirl. This releases all the aromas.
Learn more about aromas:
The length of the wine
You can choose to swallow the wine or not. Although they often spit it out after tasting, professionals can also recognise the length of wine very well. In a private setting you can absolutely swallow the wine, as all the aromas and facets of the wine are only revealed once it has been swallowed. When the glass is empty, you can put your nose in the glass again to rediscover the basic aromas.
Can anyone evaluate a wine?
Tasting a wine using this method is not enough to assess its quality. Admittedly, an amateur can say subjectively whether they like this wine or not. However, to judge the structure of the wine objectively, you need more knowledge and, above all, a lot of experience. If you don't know what flavour the wine in question should have, you can't compare it. By making comparisons, true professionals can better determine a wine's typicality. This means that they taste other wines from the region, from the same year and from the same grape. Even the length of the wine can be better judged when you know the estate. It's also important never to judge a wine by memory, but always to make direct comparisons. A novice might think that the wine he drank one summer evening was better than the same wine drunk one evening at home.
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Tanja Lehmann
Senior Category Business Manager
tanja.lehmann@digitecgalaxus.chFriends, family, cats and good wine are my lifeblood.
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