When you receive wine party invitations, you know you are in for a fun time.  A wine tasting is a stimulating way to share an evening with friends and is lots of fun.  It’s a perfect social activity whether you are hosting a tight knit group of friends or a group of soon to be friends. When the focus is exploring and sharing wine in a relaxed setting, easy conversation flows as easily as the wine. To make the most of your tasting experience and that of your guests, here are 6 tips for tasting like pro!

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1. Seeing is Believing

2. The Nose Knows

3. Taste not Waste

4. Make it to the Finish Line



Kirk Sprenger, wine expert details tips 1 through 4 below:

 CHAPPAQUA WINE & SPIRITS
56 KING STREET, CHAPPAQUA, NY 10514
914-238-3114 (phone)/ 914-238-4397 (fax)

The proper way to assess a wine is essentially by:

1. Sight:  Hold the wine in your glass at about a 45 degree angle against a light surface.  Check not only its color, but its clarity.  For a young wine especially, you want to make sure that it has a more brilliant clarity.  By swirling the wine in the glass and allowing it to drift down the sides you can see the appearance of “legs”.  This is the glycerin in the wine and indicates its depth of body.

2. Smell:  Again, swirl the wine in the glass, and as it is still swirling get your nose into the glass and smell its fragrances.  This is known as the “Nose” or the bouquet.  Take your time doing this.  The more you swirl, the more air you will draw into the glass to release the essences of the wine.  As the air mixes with the wine a chemical reaction occurs, this allows the scents and flavors to emerge.  Close your eyes, if necessary, and mentally identify the components that you smell.  These are the components that you then want to look for when you taste the wine.

3. Taste:  Take in a moderate amount of wine into your mouth and start by gently swishing the wine around to all parts of your mouth.  It is important for the wine to come into contact with all areas, because each part of the mouth picks up different characteristics; such as acidity, sweetness, tannins (the drying acids in the wine), oak and fruit.  Another method of tasting is to hold the wine in your mouth, while slightly tilting your head forward and gently drawing in the air through the wine, somewhat like sucking through a straw.  This allows for more air contact, and, thus, a further release of wine’ essence.  (Admittedly, this procedure does take practice).

4. Aftertaste:  Yes, the sign of a good wine IS the aftertaste.  A wine that falls flat after it has been swallowed shows a lack of fruit.  Fruity (the flavor in a wine) should NOT be confused with sweet (the residual sugar left in the wine).  After all, wine is made from fruit and we DO want to taste the fruit.  A good aftertaste is known as “a long finish”.

 

5. The Glass does matter
The glass you taste wine with, does matter. If a glass is engineered correctly, it will allow you to fully enjoy all of the taste a particular wine has to offer. Riedel is our pick for wine glasses that are perfectly engineered to guide wine over the palate. Each glass is designed so that the wine you sip will hit select spots in your mouth and tongue. Certain wines need to hit the sides of your tongue, others the tip. This impacts how you taste the wine and ultimately your enjoyment.

6. Do your homework
Every bottle of wine has a story. The main elements of the story can be found right on the bottle: the name of the winery, the type of grape(s), where the grapes where grown (on the estate or by a farmer up the road) and the year the grapes were harvested. When you take the time to learn “the story” behind the bottle, you recognize and appreciate all the time, work and passion that went into making your bottle of wine. This extra bit of “leg work” personalizes your tasting experience by allowing you to connect with the roots of your wine.

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