Casa Garden

It is a common misconception amongst non wine connoisseurs that wine tasting amounts to merely sipping, swishing, and swallowing wine; this could not be further from the truth for the avid connoisseur. There is a definite art to wine tasting that takes years of studied practice to master.

Wine tasting notes abound and can get your started. However, the only true way to begin to distinguish a fine wine amidst a variety of fine wines is a skill. Picking them reliably requires a trained palate, which takes years to develop. Wine tasting involves ascertaining whether the wine has been stored properly in a wine cellar designed to produce a beverage that is both pleasing to the eye and an exquisite experience for the palette.

The foundation of wine tasting is actually rooted in our sense of smell. In fact, over 75% of our taste is actually due to our sense of smell and has a major impact on the taste of the food and drink we consume. Moreover, this is also why when we have a cold our sense of taste is so distorted. Most wine experts will agree that wine has more to do with smell than taste, but that is often where the agreement stops and personal preference takes center stage.

Napa Valley wine tasting is one of the places that was at the forefront of initiating proper wine tasting. Wine growers realized that with the all too familiar swishing came with a purpose. Its purpose is to circulate the taste of the wine by moving it from the front of the mouth to the rear in order to hit all of the taste buds on the tongue.

Taste buds do not necessarily have a noted taste factor, but they are capable of properly identifying food and beverages that are sweet, salty, and bitter with no problems at all. Therefore, the process of swishing is more about giving the senses an opportunity to extract the aromatic flavors in the wine being tested.

When you attain a basic understanding of the swishing technique and its purpose with a true wine connoisseur, there are three more elementary techniques that need to be taken into consideration when judging the quality of a fine wine – observation, smell, and taste.

When the wine is poured, it should be ideally poured into a crystal, clear glass so that the first step – observation – can take place. With the sample in hand, this step should not be rushed and instead, it should be slow, deliberate and the moment, appreciated. White wines, in spite of their name, are actually not completely white ranging in color from golden, pale brown to a slightly tinged shade of green. Red wine, on the other hand, is usually darker with a pink hue that leans toward a darker brown color.

The second step is observation. It is all about the nose and what the wine smells like. This is accomplished through two steps: taking a brief whiff of the wine to get a general idea and then taking a deep, extended inhalation in order to get the full aroma of the beverage.

Experts will generally pause at this point to take in and process what they have learned so far about the wine. They will want to reflect on the total experience with the wine.

After letting it come fully into their consciousness, a wine taster will then take a sip, swish it around to activate all of the taste buds to ascertain the wine and savor it fully prior to swallowing. This method allows all senses to be engaged in the process of taking in the wine, figuring the quality of it. This allows wine growers to figure out if their grapes, distillation process, and procedures used to store it in a wine cellar or storage unit was sufficient to produce a fine quality wine.

Having completed the steps of observing, smelling, and finally tasting the wine, you will then be able to discern the quality of the wine from a connoisseur’s standpoint. This is the most comprehensive way to determine the aging, storage, and overall fitness of the wine for consumption. In addition, as with any skill, the more practiced you become, the more adept you will be at evaluating the unique and exciting flavors of this special beverage.

Related posts:

1. The Secrets to Playing the Wine Auction Game