Wine tasting is both an art and a science. It engages all the senses to analyze wine’s complex aromas, flavors, and textures. Wine experts dedicate years to honing their tasting skills to detect subtle details and assess quality. Understanding how wine experts systematically evaluate wines provides wine lovers with valuable insights. Wine experts undergo rigorous training to develop an acute sensory awareness and vocabulary for describing their assessments.
Their refined methodology and vast experience equip them to identify diverse wines, grape varieties, regions, vintage, and winemaking methods. Examining the step-by-step tasting procedure of experts reveals how they uncover a wine’s essence.
Who Are Wine Experts?
Who qualifies as a wine expert? Typical criteria include formal education, industry experience, specific accreditations, published reviews, competition judging, and sensory evaluation skills. Knowledge, discernment, and descriptive ability must be demonstrated. Many experts hold qualifications like the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s Master of Wine or Master Sommelier diplomas. These intensive programs develop sensory evaluation skills grounded in science and human physiology. Continual testing and assessment hone their discerning palate to an expert level.
Sight
A wine’s appearance offers the first impression, so wine experts carefully examine color, clarity, and legs. They assess a white wine’s color intensity to gauge age, as whites darken with time. For reds, they note hue to determine grape variety and age, as red color shifts to brownish tones as the wine matures. Clarity, when tilted, shows if debris or haze is present. Experts also check for legs or wine tears on the glass. More viscous, high-alcohol wines run slowly down the glass. The slower the legs, the fuller-bodied the wine. Sight provides the first clues to variety, age, and body.
Smell
Much of a wine’s character is found in its aroma. Swirling releases volatile compounds that experts discern from memory and experience. They detect scents pointing to grape variety, fermentation methods, oak aging, etc. Experts analyze floral notes like rose, honeysuckle, or jasmine. Fruity aromas range from citrus, apple, and melon in whites to blackberry, cherry, and plum in red. Spice notes like pepper, vanilla, cloves, or herbs provide more clues to blend and aging. The nose reveals most before the first taste.
Taste
Next, experts isolate taste on the palate. Sweetness or dryness on the tip of the tongue indicates residual sugar levels. Puckering acidity along the sides reveals sharpness and citrus notes. Bitterness toward the back of the mouth comes from tannins in reds. Alcohol warmth spreads across the palate. Flavors echo the aromas but also add new layers like minerality. Experts distinguish flavor profiles characteristic to grapes and regions. The mouthfeel showcases the wine’s light, medium, or full body. The balance between fruit, oak, alcohol, and tannins creates complexity. Taste fills in blanks that aroma alone cannot provide.
Mouth Feel
On the palate, experts judge the wine’s body and texture. Light wines feel thin, while full-bodied wines coat the mouth. Tannin creates grippy, astringent sensations. The acidity makes wines taste crisp and tart. Alcohol creates a warming, viscous, “hot” feel. Weight, density, and alcohol should complement the wine style. Experts discern whether mouthfeel elements harmonize or feel out of balance. Smooth, silky textures are desirable, while harshness or bitterness imply poor quality. The sommelier’s standards for structure and balance guide their assessments.
Finish
After swallowing, the wine’s finish or aftertaste lingers. Experts analyze length, persistence, and change as the finish tapers off. A long, sustained finish indicates excellent concentration and aging potential. The finish should echo the wine’s fruits and spices. Harshness can mean imperfect tannin ripeness. The finish synthesizes structural components in a final defining impression. If elements stay integrated without falling apart, the wine shows mastery. Experts ask, “Does the finish reinforce or contradict the aromas and flavors?” This evaluative perspective informs their notes.
Comparisons
To accurately position a wine’s character, experts taste blind but draw from their mental library of benchmark wines. They compare to exemplary wines of that varietal region and producer to gauge quality and typicity. This relative sensory analysis helps articulate a wine’s strengths and weaknesses. Young wines may be assessed for aging potential based on structural components like tannin, acidity, and alcohol. Experts determine if a wine tastes true to variety, region, and vintage conditions. They specifically note any peculiarities or standout qualities in their tasting notes. The completed assessment reflects the wine’s distinguishing attributes.
Conclusion
Understanding how wine experts systematically approach tasting gives wine lovers a window into their knowledge and methodology. Their sensory process deconstructs a wine’s intricacies piece-by-piece through sight, smell, taste, mouthfeel, and finish. Considered comparisons provide context to determine typicity and assess quality. With practice and experience, wine consumers can learn to taste with the insight of a wine expert.
Next time you take a sip, apply techniques experts use to analyze color, aroma, flavor, texture, and more. The wine’s sensory secrets will unfold. Your enjoyment and wine comprehension will grow as your palate becomes more discerning. Swirl, smell, taste – and increase your wine wisdom.
