Tasting wine can be educational and informative but mostly – it should be fun! That’s why so many of us enjoy activities like tasting groups, wine clubs and dinner parties. Aside from drinking a fair amount of wine at these events, there’s a certain vocabulary that centers around descriptors. You can always describe a wine any way you’d like, and as the night goes on, descriptors can become increasingly…unique. However, if you sometimes find yourself at a loss for words, here are four main components of wine and some general descriptors within those categories.
- You can quickly evaluate a wine by looking at it, smelling it, tasting it, and then judging its finish. Visual cues and color are usually straightforward. Is the wine white (from pale to amber/golden), red (purple to brick red), or rose (light to concentrated)?
- Next, how does the wine smell? Is it fruity, floral, oaky, mineral-driven, or musky? Here’s a hint…there is no right or wrong answer. A wine can have all of these components at once. Some can just stand out more than others.
- Next, how does it taste? Wines can range from sweet to dry. A German Auslese-style Riesling will certainly have a good amount of residual sugar and a Left Bank Red Bordeaux will most likely be on the drier side. Acid also plays a key part. While both of these wines are at the opposite end of the sweet/dry scale, both can have a fair (if not equal) amount of acid. You can always tell a wine with a good amount of acid by the way you salivate after tasting it. The more your salivary glands are stimulated, generally, the more acid there is in the wine. Also, let’s not discount body. Is the wine full, viscous, and lush on your palate? Or is it light, bright and clean?
- All of these things lead to the grand finale – the finish. Breaking it down simply, a wine can have a short, medium or long finish. Short is, well, short. Medium generally lasts from 15-30 seconds on the back of the palate. A long finish typically lasts 30-45 seconds, and a very long finish goes even further.
So there you have it. Look at the wine, smell it, taste it and then finish it (or dump it in the bucket if it’s not your thing). But most of all, eat, drink, be merry and start a discussion. It usually leads to a good time.
