Professional Wine Tasters, Also Known As Sommeliers, Use Several Key Criteria To Judge Different Wines
Believe it or not, there’s a lot to learn about the art of evaluating the popular alcoholic beverage of wine. Connoisseurs and true experts like Denis Mackenzie can agree to the complexities involved in enjoying a not so simple glass of wine. Here, we’ll outline the most useful tips on wine tasting, doing it like a master and enjoying every single second.
Conditions and Environment
Contrary to popular belief, the conditions during wine evaluation is important and increases or withdraws from the experience. A noisy or crowded environment makes it difficult to concentrate. Smells like food, body oils, perfumes or animals are distracting when attempting to determine aromas. Neutralizing the conditions of your mouth to rid of flavors from previous meals will help you truly taste the wine without influences. Rid of previous smells from the glass with a swish of wine around the bowl and warm up extra cold wine by using your hands to cup the bowl. Finding an area of air that is neutral and free of contamination will help with the aroma portion of the evaluation.
Physical Appearance
The physical appearance of wine includes the color, its intensity and its overall clarity, which are used to determine the quality. Wines that seem cloudy or murky in appearance aren’t acceptable for consumption for various reasons. Typically, variations in depth and intensity are directly linked to the age and tell of a very specific type of wine. Angles at which the wine is viewed make a difference as well.
- Straight: Holding the glass to light with a white background will expose its range in color and depth for aspects like age.
- Side view: Tilting glass to the side in front of light helps to see the clarity and murky wine should not be consumed, unless it is unfiltered.
- Swirl: A slight swirl in the glass will leave “legs” or “tears” and ones with good tears typically have higher alcohol or glycerin content.
Smells and Aromas
After evaluating the physical appearance, you’re ready to move on to sniffing or checking the aroma. Upon giving the glass of wine a slight swirl, hover your nose over the glass to get a slight sniff and determine whether or not you like the smell. You’re sniffing to check for the following:
- Flaws: Pay attention to your preferences in smells like the smell of a musty attic which comes from corked wine. One that’s similar to the smell of burnt matches has a lot of SO2, if like nail polish, it could have ethyl acetate.
- Fruity Aroma: Although wines are made of grapes, certain fruit smells are signs of various climates that range from moderate, cool or warm climates of the vineyard.
- Herbs and Vegetation: Depending on the various aromas from the wine, it also outlines specific origins of the grapes. Depending on the type of wine, the aromas can range from flowers, to earthy, herbs, leather or even minerals.
- Wine Barrel: If your wine smells of vanilla, smoke, roasted nuts, caramel or even toast, it is likely linked to wine barrel aging.
- Secondary: Smell similar to beer indicates a wine that is young while dessert wines typically smell of sweet honey.
Tasting
A small sip should validate what the smell and aroma indicated. Whether it radiates fruit, herbs, leather, or flower, it should follow right behind where the smells and aromas indicated. Whether it be origin or added ingredients, tasting it should be a confirmation through the palate.
- Balanced: The ideal balanced wine will encompass the basic components of flavors that include sweet, salty, bitter and sour.
- Harmonious: Does a great job of combining equal amounts of each flavor but each is still distinguishable.
- Complex: Complex wines tend to have various different flavors that continuously change as you drink.
- Complete: Does a great job of combining ideal complex, balanced and harmonious flavors all in one for a feeling that is enjoyable even long after.
Wine evaluation and the true art of appreciating wine is an ongoing experience that lasts a lifetime. Denis Mackenzie, COO and marketing specialist of an insurance company, is a wine expert who also operates his successful winery. Wine lovers and experts enjoy, but Mackenzie understands intricate processes of achieving the tastes, aromas and experiences necessary for a complete wine evaluation experience.
This guide is meant to present a starting point when it comes to wine tasting and proper evaluation. Be sure to practice each step with various wine to improve each time and maybe you’ll be on your way to expertise like Denis Mackenzie. This is the best way to truly learn all you can about evaluation of wine.