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Tasting Techniques
Tasting Wine
How should you taste a wine? How can you describe the wine?
The most important quality of a wine is its balance between sweetness and acidity. While our sense of taste would seem to be the most important in exploring a wine, the sense of smell largely determines what we taste. There are aroma receptors on the back of the tongue which help clarify the taste of the wine, and this is why it is important to slosh the wine to all parts of the mouth and draw in some air.
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1. |
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Initial taste - (Or first impression) This is where the wine awakens your senses (your taste buds respond to sensations). |
| 2. |
Taste - Slosh the wine around and draw in some air (even if you do look funny in front of your dinner guests). Examine the body and texture of the wine. Is it light or rich? Smooth or harsh? |
| 3. |
After taste - The taste that remains in your mouth after you have swallowed the wine. How long did the taste last? Was it pleasant? |
After tasting the wine, take a moment to value its overall flavour and balance. Is the taste appropriate for that type of wine? If the wine is very dry, is it supposed to be? Some serious wine connoisseurs assign a point score to a wine to determine its quality. While this method can be useful, it is in no way necessary to determine a quality wine. The more different wines you try, and the more attention you pay to each wine, the better you will become at ascertaining and describing each wine's characteristics.
| COMMON WINE CHARACTERISTICS: |
| Taste |
Dry to sweet |
| Body |
Light to full |
| Acidity |
Low to high (crisp) |
| Tannins |
Weak to strong |
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Corked wine refers to a wine that has gone bad because the cork has become mouldy. It usually smells musty, like wet socks or clothes and has an extremely unpleasant taste. This can occur through contamination by another mouldy cork or by improper sterilisation (either too much or too little). If you receive a bottle of corked wine, send it back without a fuss.
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