Tasting : how to taste a wine ?

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Learning to taste a wine appeals to you ? Easy with Beaux-Vins … Now that you've smelled your wine, you are ready to taste it.

We are almost at the end of our tasting ! You took the time to admire the subtle nuances of the wine's color, then you took pleasure in appreciating its aromas, to guess them, you finally have my permission to taste it.

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It is at this precise moment that the taster, in extreme concentration, starts to make faces that can make neophytes laugh. This ceremony is however intended to bring out all the character of the wine and distracting a taster at this precise moment is a mistake that one makes only once in a lifetime. — especially if the glass only contained a small sip —

This stage of tasting is the most complex and the longest, do not hesitate to spend the time necessary to properly analyze the wine palate. It is important to have a spittoon to perform this step in the best conditions, especially if you have to taste several wines.

The taste mechanism

To start well, it is interesting to understand the taste mechanism, because the flavors are perceived on different areas of the tongue.

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Each flavor is perceived more intensely by a specific area of the tongue. Each individual has their own areas, the image above presents a general view of the taste zones. Sweet notes are felt very intensely on the tip of the tongue. The salty on the front sides of the tongue and the acidity on the back sides of the tongue. Bitter, for his part, is felt intensely on the back of the tongue. Finally, the last flavor that is umami has no specific area since this flavor defines the tasty character of food ; there is therefore no specific area.

As for olfactory analysis, odorous flavours are transmitted back to the nose so that the olfactory bulb can examine them. By circulating the wine in your mouth, you circulate the precious liquid over all regions of the tongue and you give your brain time to analyze them. It is for this peculiarity of the functioning of the tongue that the taster must rotate the wine in his mouth for a few seconds.

How to taste wine ?

You took a sip of wine in your mouth and now you are wondering what to do with it ? We are getting there. As I presented to you in the article " Should we aerate or chew the wine ? ", two great techniques clash and you will have to test both, or even combine them, to know your preference.

aerate wine : hold the wine in your mouth, pinch your lips together and suck in some air over the wine using your tongue.

chew wine : hold the wine in your mouth and gently stir the wine in your mouth as if you were doing a mouthwash.

The balance of the wine

Balance is an essential criterion for judging the quality of a wine. Balance responds to three main components of wine: acidity, sugar and tannins. The balance between these three elements as well as the sensation of alcohol allow us to judge the quality of the wine. The important thing is not to have one parameter dominating the others. The analysis of the balance of a white wine is simpler since it only requires two analysis criteria : acidity and smoothness ; while red wine has a third axis : tannins. To go further on this notion, I invite you to read the post " What is a good wine ? "

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The mouth of wine in three stages

The 1st step : the attack of wine

You have just put a small amount of wine in your mouth. The attack is the first impression the wine gives. As we have seen above, the sweet taste will be felt first on the tip of the tongue for a few seconds. This gives a first idea of the wine and in particular of its structure.. We can distinguish 4 big attacks :

The scattered attack : the wine is unstructured and its different components do not mix with each other.

The aqueous attack : the wine seems to lack substance and fat. We can generally deduce a too high yield.

The predominantly acid attack : wine rather than having a sweet character, reveals a strong acidity. Such an attack may reflect a lack of ripeness of the grapes.. If the acidity is accompanied by astringency, this hypothesis is confirmed.

The clean and balanced attack : the matter, the flavors and aromas of the wine are homogeneous. The wine passed the first test with flying colors.

We can also speak of a short attack, frank or aggressive to complete this analysis.

The 2nd step : mid-palate

You can now apply what you learned above by chewing or aerating the wine. This is the time to pay the most attention, because you will have many things to discover. You will be able to judge the acidity of the wine on the sides of the tongue and the cheeks. You will also have to analyze the body of the wine, the intensity of the aromas. In the case of a red wine, you can feel the effects of tannins.

Distinguish the acidity of tannins

We often tend to confuse the effects of acidity with those of tannins in the case of a red wine, yet there is a simple element to distinguish them. We don't use the first sensations to tell the difference between acidity and tanicity, but what happens after the wine is spat out.

Focus on your saliva. If the saliva comes back quickly and abundantly, we are talking about acidity. If the wine tends to dry out the mouth, leaving a sensation of astringency, this means that the wine is dominated by tannicity.

Analyze alcohol

As a beginner, you have the right during this step to swallow a small amount of wine to facilitate the analysis of alcohol. Indeed, you will feel the power of alcohol in the back of your throat. A wine is said to be high in alcohol if it heats the back of the throat.

The body of the wine

The body of the wine is the impression of weight in the mouth given by the tannins, sugar, fruitiness and alcoholic richness. Some wines will seem thicker to you, heavier in the mouth. The overall feel of the wine will range from light to full bodied.

The intensity of the aromas

The name of this category speaks for itself. Do you feel strong aromas ? Or on the contrary light ? At the same time, you can characterize the aromas and check that they are the same as during the olfactory analysis.

The 3rd step : the final

These are the last aromas perceived in the mouth. We will talk about aftertaste when the final taste is different from that during tasting. Inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose, you will activate the rectro-olfaction a little more to make this step easier.

The length of a wine

It is important to distinguish the finish from the length of a wine. As we have seen, the finish is the search for aromas not previously perceived.

Also called intense aromatic persistence, length is time in seconds - that tasters call caudalies - during which the aroma persists in the mouth after spitting out the wine. A wine with a caudalie ten seconds long is undoubtedly a very great wine. On the contrary, a short finish is often the prerogative of overly exuberant wines. The latter often have a powerful attack, but once arrived at length, they fade very quickly.