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If you have always wanted to learn how to taste wine like a professional, in this post we tell you all the secrets to become an expert wine taster. Even if you are not a professional winemaker, enjoying and experiencing the sensations that a good wine transmits is within your reach. The only thing you need is to activate your five senses, choose a Familia Martínez Bujanda wine and immerse yourself in the recommendations and tips we offer you below.
Within the wonderful world of wine tourism, wine tasting represents, without any doubt, the final cherry on top. This experience not only allows you to taste, evaluate and compare wines of any type, but also grants you a one-way ticket to the exciting world of sensations.
A well-conducted wine tasting will help you to know more and better the world of wine, to appreciate the nuances and strengths of each wine.
Tasting step by step
During wine tasting, the senses play a major role, as it is necessary to pay special attention to sensations. Through sight, smell and taste, the phases that every wine tasting should have are structured: visual, olfactory and gustatory.
First of all, we come to the visual phase. The purpose of this first step is to evaluate the wine through aspects such as color, intensity or sharpness, as well as other characteristics such as the presence of bubbles or tears. During this first step, we will begin to take notes on the color, age and density of the wine, aspects that can be appreciated visually.
Smell enters the scene as the main protagonist of the second part of the exciting journey through the moments of a tasting. Before moving the wine, you should introduce your nose into the glass and inhale gently to identify its primary aromas, which are those derived from the grape variety from which the wine is made. Next, we aerate the wine, which comes into contact with oxygen and begins to release the secondary aromas, which are those resulting from the alcoholic or malolactic fermentation of the wine. Other aspects such as aromatic persistence or tertiary aromas can also be captured during this phase.
The last part of the tasting will finally consist of tasting the wine.
The best way to do this is through a small sip that we will pass from one side of the mouth to the other to reach all the sensitive parts of the mouth. In this way all the recognizable flavors will be perceived through the tongue, calling round the wine that reaches an adequate balance between them. Just after swallowing or spitting the wine you have just tasted, the air should be expelled slowly through the nose to analyze its retronasal route, identifying the set of sensations that remain in the mouth afterwards. The texture of the wine or the persistence are aspects that can also be identified during this phase.
Good and bad practices during the tasting
Some of the best practices you should know in order to carry out the tasting in the best possible way are listed below:
- The best way to faithfully perceive the colors and tones of the wine will be to contrast it already served in the glass against a white, flat and smooth background.
- It is recommended to have water and pieces of bread on hand to cleanse the palate between one wine and another.
- The proper order is to start with the white wines, followed by the rosés and reds. If it is a tasting of red wines only, start with the youngest and finish with the most aged wines.
On the other side of the scale, there are certain practices that are widespread but do no favor to the tasting and are advisable to avoid. Some of them are:
- In “older” wines, it is recommended not to empty the bottle completely, to prevent possible lees and unwanted remains from falling into the glass. This conditions the taste of the wine and makes it difficult to cultivate a fair opinion, so it will be convenient to always leave a residue in the bottle and even in the glass.
- If you are organizing a tasting at home, do not forget to use a different glass for each wine to prevent the flavors from mixing. In addition, the design of the glass will be a key element that will enhance the perception of aromas or help the wine to open more quickly.
Tasting myths
The world of wine is so wide and deep that there is room for a great number of myths and legends about this beverage. With the evolution of this sector, many of the myths about wine have been hunted down and disproved, thus breaking with false convictions. Below, we analyze some of the most widespread ones.
“Red wine should always be at room temperature and white wines should always be cold.” The truth is that room temperature is not the best reference for determining the correct temperature of wine. As a general rule, for red wines it is recommended to be between 12 and 15 degrees, while for white wines it is lowered to the range between 7 and 12 degrees.
“White wine is for fish and red for good meat.” In general, red wines tend to fit better with dishes with intense flavors, while whites marry better with flavors and aromas of less intensity. However, this mantra leads us to miss out on real delights when it comes to pairing dishes, as you need to know various aspects of the wine in order to determine the right pairing.
As you can see, wine tasting is a not so complex way to get closer to the world of wine, which will also allow you to enjoy the great pleasure of tasting and comparing different wines.
Come and book your wine tour or prepare your next wine tasting with Familia Martínez Bujanda wines!
