We are delighted that our guest blogger this week is the lovely Jane Clare, a superb journalist, a wine tasting expert and friend of the agency. In the blog Jane talks us through wine tasting for beginners.
Let Jane guide you through a tasting and you’ll be a wine connoisseur before you know it.
Grab a glass, pour some wine and prepare to swirl, sniff, swazzle and sip.
If you follow my six easy steps you’ll have a better understanding of the wines you like and why you like them. I promise you’ll enjoy wine much, much more.
Step One: Before you even have a sip #1:
Have patience, my friends. I’ll let you sip your wine in a minute.
If you have a traditional wine glass hold it by the stem. Holding your pinky finger out at an angle in a duchess-y “sipping tea” kind of way is not compulsory.
Clasping the stem allows you to go all Sherlock Holmes in the first two of my six steps. Look at the wine. What’s the colour? A white can be watery through to gold; a red can be ruby, garnet, purple or even tawny. Colours of pinks vary from salmon, or a shy, see-through blush, or even onion skin.
Step Two: Before you even have a sip #2:
Pop your thumb under the bowl of your glass and look down through the wine. If you can clearly see your thumb it’s a light-bodied wine. If you can just about see it, the wine is medium-bodied. But if you can’t see your thumb then it’s a full-bodied wine. Does it matter? Not really, but now you’re starting to learn the characteristics of this guinea pig glass of wine. When you’ve finished these Six Steps you’ll have decided if you like the wine and if you’d buy it again. You’ll then be able to shop for wines, and understand labels, with a bit of insider knowledge.
Step Three: OK I’ll let you’ll sniff it now
Before you pop your nose into the glass, give the glass a swirl. Do it in mid-air if you like, but you might feel safer (no spillages) by swirling the glass on a surface.
Now have a sniff. What do you smell? A tip is to “seek” an aroma. If you think apple, do you find apple? If you think lemon, do you find lemon? Riper fruit aromas gather on the lower lip of the glass; light and floral on the upper. If your nose is all confused, smell your bare forearm and it resets your senses to neutral.
I love wine aromas!! They reveal the characters of grape varieties. For instance you’ll often find gooseberries or grass in a glass of sauvignon blanc, or red fruits (sometimes violets) in a glass of pinot noir. But wine aromas also indicate what has happened to a wine. If you discern vanilla or toast, the wine has seen oak; if you discover aromas such as caramel or fruit cake, it will have aged for a while.
Step Four: Take a sip but don’t get giddy just yet
Take a sip and swazzle the wine around your mouth. Swazzle? What is this word this Northern Girl uses? Can I drink it yet, you ask? Yes – in a few seconds. First though, swirl the wine around your mouth. Different parts of the mouth sense different characteristics of the wine. Sweetness is towards the front; acidity makes the back of your mouth water; alcohol feels like heat at back of your throat; tannin (mainly in red wines) is the dryness around your gums, a bit like cold tea. You’ll be sensing flavours too and often they mirror the same notes as the aromas.
Step Five: Swallow (or spit)
Now you can do what you’ve been waiting for; swallow (or spit, if you must). Think about the sensations you’ve experienced. Has the flavour of the wine disappeared quickly, leaving a watery ice-pop feeling? Or are the flavours still there, long-lasting and enjoyable. That’s called the finish. A wine is good, and in balance, if the flavours, the acidity, the alcohol and the finish all work together, with none overpowering the other. It might be in balance, but whether you enjoy it is down to your personal taste. Don’t feel under pressure if people rave about a wine and you don’t like it.
Step Six: Talk, think, remember
If you’re with chums, talk about the aromas and the flavours. Did the wine make your mouth water and did you enjoy that? Was the tannin too much for you? Was the alcohol too strong? Every time you have a glass of wine, either at home, in a pub or restaurant, take a couple of moments to swirl, sniff, swazzle and sip. You’ll begin to appreciate many styles of wine and discover your own favourites.
Step Seven: Ok I said there were six steps but ..
Have fun. It’s an adventure.
Jane Clare is a journalist and wine writer. You can find Jane as One Foot in the Grapes on social media.
