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Winery etiquette
Visiting a winery? Make the most of the trip with this how-to guide.
By Tony Aspler
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Three steps to tasting
Wine appeals to all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. But it's mainly the first three you use when judging the quality of a wine, and in that order as well. The first sensory response you have is to the colour of the wine, then to the smell as you lift the glass to your nose, and, finally, to the taste.
Step 1: Sight
Hold the glass against a white background or a good source of light. The wine should look clean and bright. Study the colour and tilt the glass so you can see the rim where the wine touches the glass. Young wines hold their colour to the rim; older wines begin to fade at the edge. White wines start life as white as water and gain a golden colour with age. Red wines begin as a deep purple and lose colour over time. Browning edges in a red wine are a warning sign and suggest age or oxidation. A browning of the yellow of white wine suggests maderization (oxidation that gives a sherry-like flavour to the wine).
Swirl the glass and watch the transparent wet residue on the sides form into tears, or legs, and slide down the glass. This residue is the alcohol in suspension on the side of the glass. The thicker and more slow-moving these legs, the higher the alcohol content.
Step 2: Smell
Swirl the wine in the glass. This action causes the esters that carry the wine's aromatics to evaporate and rise, and you'll get a more concentrated bouquet. You can tell 75 percent about a wine on your nose. The bouquet will tell you what the wine will taste like; the only thing it won't tell you is how long the wine will linger on your palate.
Look for faults first. Are there any off-odours, such as the smell of vinegar (volatile acidity) or prunes (oxidation) or damp basements (corkiness)? The wine, depending on the variety or blend, should generally smell of fruits, flowers, sometimes vegetables (especially Sauvignon Blanc), and it will have the scent of vanilla or coconut, toast, and smoke if aged in oak.
Step 3: Taste
Take a sip and let the wine wash over your entire palate. The first sensation you'll notice is the wine's sweetness. (The taste buds that register sweetness are on the tip of the tongue.) As the wine works its way to the back of the mouth you'll experience acidity (a lemon-like flavour) and, in red wines, a slight bitterness caused by tannin, a natural compound found in the skins, pits, and stalks of grapes. Tannin is a preservative that allows red wines to age. Astringent when young, the tannins soften with the years and, eventually, in old wines, will precipitate out as sediment.
Feel the weight of the wine in your mouth. High-alcohol wines, whether red, white, or rosé, will be full bodies and mouth filling. Low-alcohol wines will feel lighter.
Ask yourself if the wine is balanced. A great wine will be seamless: the fruit, acidity, alcohol, oak, and tannin will be in harmony. If the wine is over-acidic, over-oaked, highly tannic, or shy on fruit, it will be unbalanced. You should not be able to pick out one particular element of its composition if the wine is well balanced.
A taster's secret: suck in air when the wine is in your mouth. You'll extract more flavour, just as you get more of the wine's bouquet by swirling it.
Page 2 of 2
 | Excerpted from The Wine Atlas of Canada by Tony Aspler. Copyright 2006 by Tony Aspler. Excerpted by permission of Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. |
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