A Tour of Your Taste Buds: How To Taste Wine
This is a complicated subject because I know what you're thinking, wine is subjective. Yes it is, but that is up for you to decide. Keep reading. At DLM, we know what we like (all 40-ish wines we make) but what wines do you like? A typical day for us is simple, we pour you wine and you decide whether you like it or not. One of the biggest takeaways to develop your palate is by practicing these 4 significant tasting steps:
#1: In plain SIGHT
Just looking at wine, you gain a sense of what to expect. We encourage you to read the label. But, what else can sight tell us? Can you see-through the wine in your glass or is it so dark you can't make out any object past its deep color. Actively, this prepares your brain on what to expect. I know this may seem cliché, but sight comes into play especially with those tasting blind. Color, opacity, and viscosity. Now for all you wine leg aficionados, this means "viscosity" and it is the alcohol or sugar content in the wine. The higher the alcohol, the more wine legs you see. Less alcohol, less legs. More sugar or sweeter wines, the legs run slower down the sides of the glass. Look at them legs! Or don't!
#2: SMELL through your nose to your taste buds.
These two are interrelated. You can't taste efficiently without smelling through your nose first. We like to "swirl" the wine. Take your glass and give it a circular spin and release those aromas! These aromas will allow you to identify scents: fruity, citrus, vegetable, floral, earthy, and familiar scents to you. It will even allow notes of fermentation or aging during the aromatic stage in tasting. I always like to smell wine for quite some time and think about what I am smelling before I taste. This also can turn you on or turn you off. For example, if you hate liquorish you might hate Priorat. Lucky for you, we don't make that grape.
#3: TASTE the flavor and structure.
Always the most fun step in the chain and definitely our favorite step. Flavor is going back to step #2, but from your mouth's perspective. What are you tasting? Fruit, citrus, earthy, floral, vegetable, or familiar flavors to you? Use this technique when tasting. Then move on to structure. You don't get tasting through flavor alone, it also must involve structure. Structure is acidity levels, tannin levels, and sweetness levels. How does this wine finish? It is an important part when tasting wine and will tell you how well a wine will age or how long it needs to age. High acidity typically means that the wine is young and may need some time in the bottle. Or if it has a long lasting dryness (coats your teeth) on the pallet, tannins must be high and thus this wine should age for sometime. Lucky for you, if you like it sweet, tannin or acidity shouldn't be the predominate structure. Sugar will be!
#4: SAVOR the moment.
Think back to step 1-3 and put those notes somewhere in that brain of yours and enjoy! Are you training or are you developing your palate? Both require a brain conclusion. How did you like that wine?
