The Wine Bottle

To those who love to taste wine, wine tasting is simply referred to as ‘tasting’. Wine tasting involves evaluating and examining wine using one’s senses. It has become very popular today and even has special terminologies and can be termed as a profession. These professionals agree that learning the art of tasting wine makes people have a deeper appreciation for both winemakers and the wines.

Wine tasters limit the art of tasting to four main tastes. They are bitter, sour, salty and sweet. They all agree that wine can be either one of those or a combination of two or more. Wine tasting is defined by not just the effect of tasting, but also the smell of the wine as well.

How Wine Tasting Is Done

Tasting is a fairly easy art and can be done at home or at a wine tasting party. The wine’s color and clarity, taste, and smell are the most critical components of wine tasting. To determine the color and clarity of the wine, simply pour a glass of wine and hold it up in front of a white background and examine the wine. You should primarily be looking at the glass from the top to the middle.

If you are examining red wine, then look for maroon, brown, or purple traces. If it is a white wine, the colors to look for are yellow, green, amber, brown or gold. In addition, professionals check for traces of sediments in this stage by tilting and swirling the wine glass.

During the wine tasting process, smell is very important. The correct way to smell wine is by swirling the glass in order to eradicate some of the alcohol smell. It is important to smell the wine in a whiff in order to get the aroma that first strikes out. After that, the tasters then take a deep breath with their nose a few inches inside the glass in an effort to recognize any distinct aromas like berries, flowers, citrus or vanilla.

The real wine tasting process has to incorporate tasting the wine. Take a sip of the wine and roll it round the tongue, a stage called the attack phase. Here, the first impression of the wine is registered.

The following phase of the process is what’s known a the evolution phase. This involves the discernment of the wine’s flavor profile. The final stage is called the finish and this is calculated by how long the taste of the wine will be retained in the mouth after swallowing. Wine tasting enables a person know whether they want more of the wine or if it was too strong or bitter for their liking.

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