Systematic Approach to Tasting

One of the things I learned in wine school was something called the Systematic Approach to Tasting.  It's a very descriptive and systematic way of evaluating and tasting wines.  While I do not write formal tasting notes for every wine I drink nowadays, I still do use the systematic approach in my mind.

Yesterday I wrote about some components to be aware of when tasting a wine -- sugar, acid, body, tannins.  Let's look at some other things.

Appearance
Yes, I know.  It's red or white or pink.  Not exactly.  The best way to 'evaluate' an appearance is to NOT look at a wine up to a light.  I see that all the time.  It's so retarded.  Be cool and tilt your wine glass against a white background, like a tablecloth or white piece of paper (the menu will do if it's written on white paper).  Is the wine star bright or cloudy?  Are there bubbles?  If yes, note the size of the beads (large like Coca Cola bubbles or fine and small and steady?).  Are there legs -- when you swirl the glass and all these streaks of wine start falling on the inside wall of the glass???

Color
What's the intensity of the color?  Is the color the same from the core (the middle of the glass) to the rim?  Or is the rim something much lighter?

Odor
Smell the glass, swirl the glass.  Check for off odors.  Is it clean or unclean?  I was at the beach the other day and was tasting a wine.  I smelled the glass with the wine in it and it wreaked of Cascade dishwashing detergent.  I had to rinse out the glass completely with my wine, pour it out and have new wine repoured.  Lest I digress...Bouquet.  What do you smell??

Taste
The tongue can sense sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  Move around your tongue with the wine inside your mouth so all taste buds can come into contact with the wine and its receptors.  Allow the wine to warm in your mouth so volatile compounds can escape.  Draw some air to extract the volatile compounds and force them up the olfactory epithelium through the opening in the back of your mouth (this sounds so technical!).  You know how some wine geeks (like me) make this look of inhaling air and slurping noise??  Yes, that's it.  Spit.  What flavors do you taste?  I have found that the aroma wheel is a really useful tool to enhance one's wine vocabulary.  For example, in tasting a red wine, there are typically berry flavors, but what kind of berries?  Strawberries?  Blackberries?  Cherries -- red or black??? Raspberries??  Or citrus: lemons, lemon curd, citrus skins.  Nutty?  Tropical fruits of pineapples or stone fruits, stone fruit pits, caramels, etc.  You get the picture. 

Record impressions -- acid, sweet, what's the body, are the alcohol levels high (heat), balance (tart and sweet) 

Conclusion
What do you think?  Do you like it?  Do you think it's worth what you paid for??  Is there something off balance (too alcoholic and not really all that acidic)??


I hope that this has been helpful.

Jennifer


Link:
www.winearomawheel.com