Transcripts
1. Let Me Introduce myself. Meet your Sommelier: Hello, everybody. And thanks for joining my little mini course on wine tasting. I live in Rome on the outskirts. Actually, I'm on the boundaries where the place called The cuts study. Romani were famous in this era for producing whites in particular. This is one of my favorites. It's from some friends called Veto, Sir, I'm gonna be tasting this in our lesson. It's called our and over on its a first carted D O. C, which is a nap. Elation. An appellation means that you have certain rules and regulations that you have to stick to if you want to be able to call that why with the denomination or appellation name on, they also make the red here, which is called Searcher Officer. So what's my authority to give you a lesson or mine while I'm qualified? Similiar. I have my tusk van here to prove it. That's a symbol these days. You don't actually use those when you're wine tasting anymore because we have stemmed glasses. I did a course which lasted quite a long time. It spanned over two different years. Admittedly, just once a week, the course costs me quite a lot of money about 2000 euros. But we did taste an awful lot of wines we tasted about 160 different wines on the diploma I got is actually recognized the whole world over. So it was an investment, but it was highly worth it. I would have been a guide in a prestigious local wine re now for eight years. So every time people come to the winery, I give them a lesson on how to taste wines properly, which seems to be highly appreciated. So that's why I decided to do this little course actually wish there had been something like this many years ago for me when I started out. I've been a wine educator now for about eight years. I was also really lucky to learn everything from the winemaker Andre from the agronomist who works at the winery. They were available to answer all of my questions. So I've been learning for a long time now on, I've tried to condense the basics into this course, even though I say the basics, there's quite a lot of information view to become accustomed to how to taste wine. I haven't asked you to buy any particular wines because I think you can use the wines that are available to you because the basic technique is the same for whatever wine you are tasting. So I want you to acquire the knowledge to be able to take a look at all of the wines that you taste Andi See. Firstly, whether you think they're a good quality wine, you find as you gain more practice tasting different wines, preferably taking notes, you'll gain more confidence. When you go into a restaurant, you don't have to feel intimidated by a complex wine list. Wine isn't something stuffy and snobby anymore. Maybe used to be in the past These days, there are some really good value wines around on. You could actually drink wine every single day. I'm very lucky, I know, because I live in Italy. So wine is part of our local culture and heritage, so it's readily available on also great value for money. We have loads of different minds here in Italy jug wines that you can get on top. I have a little vinyard, a swell. I live in the countryside in the Frascati area, so I've only got about 900 different plants which can make up to 500 liters of wine. I don't make my own wine because I don't have the facilities. But an old guy called Beck Pair comes to maintain the Vin yards, and he takes away the grapes that harvests and makes his own wine in his carriage. Andi, sometimes he brings me a Demi john of it again. Everybody, thanks for joining me. I hope you're going to enjoy this course because I'm really excited about this little course that I've developed for you. It's something I really wanted to do. It's something that I really wish had been around when I started out being interested in wine. I wanted something that I could watch and listen to not have to re lots of different books because every book might say something different. Andi might take a long time and might be a bit complex to get through. I want to give you enough information to give you confidence in drinking, enjoying a buying wine, but not too much information that it's all gonna be very overwhelming. I haven't gone into a lot of the complexities are probably develop more lessons for you. Join May on thanks very much for being here. I have painting courses on school. Shaara's well there, my two passions painting on wine, living in Italy. How could it be any different? So thanks everybody on seeing the lesson.
2. Vineyards: How are Grapes grown?: their wine lovers on Dwell Comm to our first lesson in our crash course on wine tasting. Before we get down to tasting, there's a few things we can learn to help us appreciate a little bit more about the work that goes into making a wine. Wine isn't just a commodity, it's a whole culture and way of life, so it's important to know a little bit of the background. We always hear this word toe oir, but what are people talking about? To war is a French word that doesn't just mean the soil earth, but the whole environment. Mara wine is made the earth. The climate, in fact, in Burgundy to Juarez referred to us claim. Our toe includes everything to do with the winemaking, even the people in areas. Micro climate is very important. Some areas could be cold or high altitudes, but because they're exposed to the sun or near a lake or river or sheltered maybe from cold winds, grapes can be cultivated. Latitude is important too, usually between 13 50 degrees in both northern and southern hemispheres. Although climate change is making it possible now to cultivate wine grapes further towards the poles, than was possible, probably 20 or 30 years ago. Probably a good site for vines is one on a slope free Z drainage. After heavy rain, Onda also so frost can roll away with good exposure to light. For photosynthesis, soil is actually a little less important than climate. It's not vigorous green growth we want but good fruits. That is, as long as the right variety for your site is chosen to start with, no matter how nice the variety and how much you like it. If it's not going to adapt, you're not going to get a good wine from it. Not all varieties adapt Andi. Some can require very specific conditions. Plant use for growing wine grapes is called beatus vinifera on the most amount of varieties could be found here in Italy. Actually, opinion on who you talk to up to about 1000 off them winds at the moment in Italy are being made from around 540 are different varieties. France. The next Andi, they have about 220. Then in the rest of the world, each country will be able to grow just a handful of different varieties, some just won't adapt to different places. That's why you'll find many more blends in Europe. A blend is a mixture of different varieties in the wine, usually in the rest of the New World. It's the single variety wines that are commonly found nowadays. Neil, your vines have tohave the find variety grafted onto American roots stock, as this is resistant to a pest called phylloxera. This is a dangerous pests that could eat away at the line routes. This American root stock is resistant because phylloxera originally came from America, so America root stock is immune. Blocks room, by the way, need white out all of European binds at the end of the 19th century, when it arrived in Europe from America. Finds that aren't grafted are quite rare. Now. Binds have one main route that is encouraged to go down as far as possible into the earth. Then they have other roots that spread out deep in the ground up to 50 meters, little bit less a little bit more. Another's yet spread in the topsoil. The main route can be encouraged to go down deeper by leaving weeds or plant in certainly grooms between the rows, especially in very fertile regions where the routes could be lazy because nutrients are plentiful. Already nearer to the topsoil, the plants takes some of the nutrients away from the vines and can replenish with other nutrients. In my area, for example, it's common to see a spring vegetables grown between the rows not just because it's supplements of farmers income, but also because they released micro elements and nitrogen into the earth. Leaving or growing weeds and plants is also useful in areas prone to drought. The binds are forced to go deep down, and that's where they confined more moisture deeper in the soil. Find her a strange plant. It seems that certain amount of stress can actually give better quality fruit, finds Ruffin planted close together to about 18 90 centimeters, or Amita. This might sound as if you're cramming more vines in to get more fruit, but actually vines less productive when planted closer. And yet again the fruit is better. Let's say that dependent on variety, a farmer lame for about a kilo of grapes per vine. Some wines have special regulations which will tell farmers how much they can produce per hectare in Italy. This is the case Indio see in D O. C. G wines in France, in our or sick classifications in Spain, Indio. Each country has its own regulations. I think I can safely claim that Italian why making regulations are probably the strictest anywhere in the world. Finds have to be trained in some way. Usually, they're trained to climb up wires that a poor talks between Poles. The ancient Romans used to get their binds to climb around trees or up bamboo canes a little bit like we trained tomato plants. Today they're climbers, so without support they would just fall to the ground. The training system that is chosen is also important as it helps towards a good ratio of green growth on fruit. Some of the most common forms are Gaudio, Double Gaudio, Katzen on called on spur silver bows on per grow canopy. Remember, it is good quality fruit. We want not rigorous village. We want sugar to go to the fruit, not to the extra leaves. I should tell you why sugar is important in our next lesson on winemaking as they grow their tired to the wires. But some growth will have to be clipped off to stop all the plants energy going to the leaves instead of the grapes. You can think of the leaves as little solar panels that produce energy in the way of sugars , some being yards A planted to enable a lot of the work to be done mechanically. But especially in Europe, where bin yards can be very old things that done by hand, humanize checking what is being done is, of course, going to give a better quality cultivation. Some mines could be productive for up to 100 years. Vineyards can even be older. Finds that the too old will be replaced. Eventually. Buy new ones. Usually some type of a clone of the original is going to be planted. You fines take a least three years before you have a harvest to make wine finds a pruned in the winter. That's usually January or February in the Northern Hemisphere's and cold winters. Help prevent pests later on in March or April, when the weather starts to get warmer, a clear liquid starts to ooze from the wound. This is sometimes known rather romantically as the cry of the vine. That's because it's a clear liquid just like teardrops. Each write immature is at its own pace, but it usually takes about nine months from the beginning of the vegetative cycle. That cry that I mentioned until upto harvest that's the same length of the pregnancy. Each year is different. One year can be hotter when you can be wet are so it's up to the expert form to decide what to do and when. You can't just follow a standardized calendar. If it's the hot season, more leaves will be needed to be left on the binds to keep the grapes protective from the sun. If it's a wetter summer, more lives will have to be clipped off to let air circulate on protect from mold. Every farmer's worst nightmare, though, is hail. A hailstorm can wipe out on entire harvest. Traditional farming divines will be treated to stop pests. I won't go into types of pests, but somewhere insects. Others are molds and rocks. Of course. Nowadays, many farmers are becoming more and more sensitive to sustainable farming methods. So products a really quite gentle to the vines on the earth as both a precious to consciences farmer, many of converting to organic methods where usually copper sulfate is the chosen product to treat the vines. Ironically, some organic wines contain more soul fights, which is the substance that can give you a headache. That's because organic farmers can really only use copper sulfate, so they tend to use the maximum permitted, which can end up in the wines. As I said, each country has its own regulations, so it's important to know what chemicals and other products are or are not permitted in a certain country. This can influence the overall quality of a country's wine, an awful lot in particular in Europe regulations and controls a very, very straight in its lee, actually, even more so, by the way, it's impossible to have wines that do not contain so fights. No extra soul fights, yes, but none impossible. So fights also a natural byproduct of fermentation. That's why biodynamic farming has also being tried out by more and more farms. But it's very costly is without a perfect climate. Every year you can risk not having any crop or winds at all. Biodynamic Kimble's following all sorts of things, including following the cycles of the moon for carrying out certain tasks, burying horns filled with dung in and amongst the vines. Look up. Rudolf Steiner, very interesting to learn about a farmer, ideally will taste his grapes to decide when to harvest. He is looking for the right amount of sugar to give him the alcohol content he needs in his wines. In combination with the maturity of the perfumes, this is known as the polyphony Olic Maturity grapes have to have a balance of both factors . If one predominates, the wine will also be unbalanced. In fact, when some vintages turn out better than others, it's usually due to the climate of that particular year, giving the perfect balance of these two factors also essential for wines. If you want them to age well, an experience grower contested the grape seeds a toasted or still green, whereas it's easy to measure the sugar content in a great with a refract ometer or a high drama term, it's a lot harder to measure the maturity of the perfumes. By the way, sugar is measured in bricks, and we will cover how sugar transforms into alcohol. In the next lesson, any winemaker can make a wine with grapes. He can correct things with all sorts of legal chemistry. But good wines come from good quality grapes, So this should be the winemakers. Aim, corrected or constructed. Wines could be tasted a mile off by trained nose and palate. Justus, you would in a good painting. You wanna wind to be all the original. Not a load of corrections. Thanks for joining me. A Syrian. The next lesson which is going to be about how wine is actually made. Thank you.
3. The Cellar: How is Wine made?: So now we know a little bit more about the Vin yards. I'm sure everybody is wondering. So how is wine made exactly? Well, in this part, I'm going to tell you. So. Once grapes have ripened by ripens, we mean that there is good balance between sugar content, acidity and skin color on if it's going to be a red wine tannins as well. The grapes are harvested in quality sellers that grow their own grapes and don't buy grapes or father producers. The harvest will often be done by hand so that the Bunches could be carefully selected. Remember, every variety ripens at a different pace. We didn't speak about acidity in our first part, but that is also a very important factor that needs to be considered especially and white wines. Too little acidity and too much sugar would lead to overly sweet and flabby wines. This can occur in very hot years or in hot climates. Also, remember that to avoid having to correct a wine, things need to be done right in the vinyard. Most of the winemakers job is done in the vinyard to simplify, we're going to be talking about dry white wine making and dry red wine making, then or touch on dessert, wine, sparkling wines and fortified wines. In another lesson, here's the recipe. Sugar plus tst cause alcohol and carbon dioxide yeasts feast on the sugar. Digested is ethyl alcohol and belch out CEO to until the sugar is finished or until they're overpowered by their own alcohol, or until the temperature gets too cold. The objective of fermentation, as faras fruit is concerned, is to help the seeds stay warm after the fruit has foreign off the plant and to provide nutrients to help a new plant form. The natural outcome of fermentation of grape juice isn't wine but vinegar or acetic acid. It's only the intervention of man on. We've been intervening like this for many millennia that produces wine. Fine, stoke, make wine. They produce grapes and man produces wine. Why making Originated in Syria and George are but was spread throughout Europe, first by the Greeks and then the Etruscans, then by the Romans, who also turned into a very profitable business. The history of Wyness. Fascinating. But maybe we should leave it for another lesson, or you can look for the link to my website in the lesson description. Let's just say that Why making survive throughout the Dark Ages? Because monks considered it as medicine, as do I. So for dry white. Why making briefly when making dry white wines There is no or very little skin. Contact the grapes to do stemmed and then pressed, usually very gently, in a pneumatic press. Only the first press must is used in better quality wines. Skin contact is avoided because it's in the skins that you can find the tannins on other hard components of the grapes, which we don't want in white wines. Any brutal crushing involving the pips would make the wine bitter, too. Sometimes to extract more perfumes from the inside of the grape skins, a crier maceration can be carried out. This just means that the must has kept with the skins for a very short time, even just a few hours, but at very cold temperatures less than 5 C to inhibit fermentation. After this, the process is carried out as normal. The great must will ferment at 15 C, and in white wines, it's best not to let this temperature get much higher. In fact, fatso usually refrigerated to control the temperature on delaet fermentation. Stay slow. This way you obtain a finer perfume Onda Romer in your wine. Controlling contact with the air is also important. Otherwise, you could end up with vinegar or your wines. Oxidizing modern machinery such as temperature controlled closed vats, has revolutionized the quality of wines, which is why some of the new fads, such as orange wines and natural wines, can have totally different aromas or smells. Depending on your point of view, East can be added, but they are also present on the grape skins. Naturally selected years can be safer and more predictable. Results are obtained, but indigenous years can help create the typist city of a well established or well known wine and make it recognizable. This face is called alcoholic fermentation. Some more ambitious winemakers might carry this out in oak barrels. Sometimes the malolactic fermentation might be carried out. This is done if there is a high content of sharp mala casted bacterias used to transform malic acid into lactic acid, which is a softer and more buttery acid. If less pure strains of bacteria used in the smell of dairy can be very obvious, an unpleasant. Sometimes this second fermentation can happen spontaneously. The winds temperature isn't controlled to add complexity to a white wine is often left on its years. This is called on its lease on the French term. For this is suitably after the years disease, nor the sugars it dies and precipitates to the bottom of the tank and could be left with the wine for months. It connectors an antioxidant. Best not to overdo it there. Otherwise, you might get an unpleasant smell rather than more complex. A. Romer's. Some white wines, maybe barrel aged, but they have to be suitable or barrel aging can give bitter astringency or make the wine become resinous. Fracking is carried out, usually to avoid having to filter. This just means that the cleaner wine from above the leaves that have settled to the bottom of the vat is pumped into a new vat on. This could be repeated until the wine is nice and limpid. Sometimes different. Lots of blended together either of different varieties or off the same variety, but maybe from different picking dates. This is a good way of balancing acidity, which is absolutely fundamental in a white wine because a batch from a now earlier harvest will be more acidic. And then you complain. End this with more intense perfumes and higher alcohol obtained from the batch of wines made from a later harvest called stabilization can be carried out to avoid white tar trait crystals. Forming filtration is optional, especially of racking was carried out. Finally, a wine is bottled, most unoaked white wines he usually bottled. Within a few months, bottling constructs a wine, so it's also a good idea to let it de stress in the bottle for a while before drinking. There are three main types of bottle. Burgundy Bordeaux, an Alsatian. Traditionally good quality natural corks are used today. There are some good synthetic corks, but also screw tops. Screw tops, as far as I'm concerned, are only suitable for wines with the short shelf life on. Honestly, how one interesting part of the ceremony of wine his it's uncorking. It's probably harder to make an excellent white than an excellent red, as the absence of tannins makes it more sensitive toe oxidation. Now let's move on to red winemaking, whereas with white wine making the acidity and primary aromas determine along with the sugar content. Of course, when the grapes are harvested in red, wine, making grapes tend to be left to ripen as much as possible because it's important that the skins to have reached the right maturity red wines have fermented with the must in contact with the skins, even macerated at high temperatures up to 30 C. Fermentation, in fact, is carried out on a much higher temperature to extract the turn in and color from the grape skins. Color comes from the anthocyanins contained in the skins. The juices, always colorless or nearly tannins, enabled the red wine to age. The more mature the grape, the larger the molecules under softer the texture of the wine. Hair contact is a little less dangerous in red wines, as the skins are pushed to the top of the massive fermented must by the CEO to gas that it created on forms. A cap on protects the wine. The time of picking can change the style of a wine if they're left too long on the vine, though the wines ca NBI much to alcoholic and smell and taste jammy. That doesn't mean that acidity isn't important to acidity is still important in a red to balance the other components, acidity and wines, in a certain sense, is what keeps it alive. Wines with no acidity off, flabby and flat again. A second malolactic fermentation might take place, either induced or spontaneous. There are many different winemaking techniques, and it will depend on the great variety in the style of the wine that the winemaker is aiming for to decide which to use. Generally, the more color and body he wants, the longer it will mass rate for under higher temperatures. Some varieties have more color. Some have less. Some have more turning. Some have less. There are many variables to concentrate color. Part of the lot might be taken off after a very brief contact with skins, you can carry on fermenting. The must that's taken off is this, By the way, is one way to make Roseau wines. This will concentrate the extraction, even Maura's. There is less liquid to the amount of skins. He might submerge the cap or stir regularly to make sure the musters contact with all of the skin's not just those on the bottom of the cap. On the other hand, if a variety has a tough and harsh character because it's rich in tannins, it might be macerated less, or some of the skins might be taken away. This is called a Dallas Taj extraction. Maceration will also give a red wine its body more about that. When we taste, I suppose a good analogy could be to think about how you would make tea. Let's say that we're making T. The water could represent the wine. Must the tea leaves the grape solids, the less water in the more tea you have. The stronger dark room orbiter, the brew and camomile would be more delicate than English breakfast tea. The winds could be aged in oak, in barrels that have been steam bent or toasted French, American, Canadian. The decision is that of the winemaker again, depending on the style of wine he wants. Each oak type will give a different flavor to the wine, the smaller and newer the barrel. And the longer the wine is in it, the more influence the would will have on the wine would contains mawr turn ins, tannins. Poor um, eyes with proteins. The tenants from the grape skins have already polarized urine. Maceration so the barrel tannins superimposed on those of the wine and add astringency, which will need time to soften in white wines that are aged in oak. It's different because white wines are made without the tannins contained in grape skins. They're able to polarize the barrel turn ins to make light, fruity red wines that can be drunk early without aging, such as abo. Usually a carbonic maceration can be used. This just means that the grapes of fermented whole before their pressed this way with just a soft pressing, very few ton ings, are released. These wines aren't suitable Frey Jing, though, and of course, they will not go into barrels. Racking is carried out in red wines to sometimes filtration but carefully. Or you can end up with some color being taken away. If the wine is going to be a blend, it's blended with other wines from different varieties and then bottled, then aged. For whatever amount of time the winemaker decides, bottle ageing could be just as important as barrel aging. So here's a little quiz. After learning all this, I have a question. Good white wines be made from grapes that have Redskins leave your answer in the discussion area
4. Wine: Sensory Analysis ( Looking and Smelling!): Hello there and welcome back. Now you're here. I'll answer the question asked in the last part on Yes, you can make white wines from Redskin grapes, if you remember from the last part, collides obtained during maceration with the skins. And because you don't macerate white wines on their skins or not, usually anyway. That's why you don't extract hardly any color. Just think of champagne. Two out of three, right is in a champagne are actually dark skinned pinot noir and Muneer so colors extracted during mass oration with the skins. The color is always in the skins. I haven't mentioned labeling it all, but I'll say very brief. It differs from country to country. And to be honest, there isn't that much information apart from the name of the appellation. If there is one the fantasy name of the wine. If the producers chosen to give his wine and name the name of the producer will be on there . Of course, if it's someone a variety, you might find the name of the variety contained in the wine. Then the alcohol content, usually expressed in percent volume or degrees, it means the same thing, then the rest is just the legal stuff, like weights and measures. How much wine is in the bottle on that? The wine contains so fights That's compulsory, at least here in Italy. So our projects our project is going to be to take notes. You'll be taking notes as you taste your wines without reading the details on the label. I want you to try and figure out these few things. If the wines were aged in woods, the approximate alcohol content. What I mean is, is it low in alcohol up to about 12%? Is it medium alcoholic from 12.5? Let's say to 14. Or is it very alcoholic? 14 14.5 and above? Did it come from a call or a warm climate? Once you finish taking notes, look to see what variety or varieties were contained in the wine. If it's not on the label, it's really simple to go look at the producers website, where you'll certainly find all the necessary information that you need. Then look up on the Internet what the typical traits of those varieties should be, and see whether you have those dotted down in your notes. If you like taste the same wines with your evening mill. Aunt tried to figure out if it was a good pairing or whether you think it wasn't such good pairing. If it wasa good pairing, tried to figure out why you think it waas if it didn't taste, really, as if it went well with the food figure out again. Why? And maybe what could have been better to go the particular type of food that you were having? So let's get down to tasting it last. Make sure you have to nice stem glasses playing glasses. We don't want any colored glass. If the white is particularly aromatic, you might want to have to separate glasses as I do on they should. Preferably have a slightly tighter top than the measurement of the bowl. Your open bottle of wines at the recommended serving temperature, which in our dry white wine will be from between eight and 12 C, which is a bit warmer than straight from the fridge. What I mean is, it's not going to steam up your glass. You don't want it to coat. Otherwise you're not going to smell the perfumes as you should on it's gonna taste a little bit different. A swell then for our reds, depending on the type of wine on the age of the wine, you're going to have your right between 14 C on 20 C. Also, make sure you don't have any strong smells in the room. So no freshly brewed coffee. No smells of cooking. Try nuts where any perfume all hand cream on just generally any perfumes that going to interfere with the experience of smelling your wine. I'm sure I don't need to teach you how to open a bottle of wine, but I will be doing a lesson on professional service. But one thing I will say is that a sommelier wont make a noise when he or she opens his bottle. No popping sounds coming from the courts. It's usually tried to be kept. A silent as possible will be starting without dry white wine dry, I mean, as opposed to a dessert wine. Of course, wines are going to be slightly sweeter than others, but hear what I'm referring to is not a dessert wine. Put yourself about 1/4 of a glass enough that you can smell it properly. Not too much that when you start swelling that it's gonna come over the top of your glass. First thing, though, let's learn how to hold our glass properly. We presume that the wine has been served at the correct temperature, so our body temperature, of course, is a lot warmer. So if we start to hold our glass by the bowl, the temperature of the wine is gonna warm up really pretty quickly unless the wine's been served much too cold and you're actually trying to warm it up a little bit are. In that case, you can hold the bowl once you think the wine is at the correct temperature. Hope either by the stem or at cheap by the base. I like to hold mine, so now you know how to hold your glass property. Try and have a look at other people when they're drinking. Why even people that profess to be somewhat knowledgeable about wine they still hold the glass like this. It's a good way of sussing out the novices on the buffers. I find it easier to swell hold in the base. It looks a little bit neater as well, but the real reason is because it's actually easier to swell. You just tip your wrist and it swirls around really nicely on. This looks a lot less clumsy, but before we start swearing our glasses, let's have a look at our wines. That's the first face in any wine. Taste is actually don't have a look at the wine. You can get quite a lot of information just from looking at your wines. Rest your glass on a preferably white surface in preferably natural light and have a look from above. Is it perfectly limpet? Is it cloudy, or have any debris or little flecks of white crystals in the bottom of the glass? Can you see straight through down to the stem? Now take a look at an angle. I tried to see what color it is. Is it Ah, washed out pale yellow color? Is it a lemony yellow color? Maybe it's destroy alot color. Or maybe it's a yellow with a greeny tinge. Or maybe it's a more intense golden yellow. This is actually a straw yellow color with maybe a hint of green but basically a straw yellow color. The paler the color, the call of the climate or the greater the yield. If it was a greater yield, then he must would be a little bit watered down, unless that is characteristic of the variety. Likewise, the more intense color, the warmer, the growing conditions, or maybe the later the harvest. Or it could have been fermented or aged in oak or in woods, is the wine shiny. The shiny nous comes from the acidity in the wine. It's actually an indication of the quality of the wine, because a shiny wine is much more appealing Now. Let's roll the wine around the glass. You could give it a quick swell, but because they're a lighter perfume molecules in the wine, they might. If I prayed on do you would miss some of the perfume, so we just wanted Teoh going to the glass a little bit on, Then bring it back to the vertical position. Of course, the wind's going to run back down into the glass because of force of gravity, but because of the alcohol content, it does so in a certain way. Of course, in sweet wine is going to be viscous because of sugar content, but we already know this is a dry white wine. Alcohol has a soft, clinging consistency, and you'll find that the more the alcohol content, the slower the droplets are. Andi, the closer the droplets will be. Some people call these legs. Some people call them tears. If you want to know the correct term for that is actually called the Marron Goni effect, it doesn't tell you the quality of the wine. What it does tell you is Thea alcohol content on too much alcohol in one without the structure to go with it, it's actually pretty pointless. We don't taste in a sparkling wine, so we won't see any Effervescence. But especially in younger wines, we might see some CEO too bubbles. So, too, is created your own fermentation. So until a wine settles down in the bottle, you could see little bubbles on, especially as you pour. The CO two clings to the bubbles caused by pouring on. They look bigger on become more visible, so let's now smell the perfumes first, as is without swearing hourglass. We have an olfactory bulb at the back of an nasal cavity that picks up the smells. What immediately hits you make a note? Is it floral? Is it fruity, aromatic veg. It'll or her basis? Does it smell like freshly cut grass or straw? Could you smell herbs? Are they more our point? Herbs or Mediterranean herbs? Can you smell Bassel organ? Ismael Sage Does the wine smell like stone or flint? Does Thea alcohol shoot straight up your nose? Could you smell any dairy? Now? Swell the wine so it goes up the side of the glass and then smell in. How deeply Why do we swell the glass? Well, that's because there are some heavier perfume molecules that need a little bit more encouragement to get to the top of the glass and into your nasal cavity where it passes by the olfactory bulb. So that's why we swell again. Make a note of what you can smell the same categories of smells and groups of smells that we just mentioned before we started swirling. What is the group of aromas that you can smell? I mean the predominant ones. Is the wine more fruity? Oh, is it more floral? Does it smell heavily off flint or stone? Is it more mineral? Therefore, we make a note because usually sensations are more passive, and it's not until you start putting those sensations into words that you can concentrate on them. Better sensations. Air captured by vocabulary. On what vocabulary You hear people describing all sorts of weird and wonderful perfumes and smells. But unless you're writing a review or during a sales pitch, you don't have to complicate things. Fruity wasn't more up or or more. Pair Peh, for example, is characteristic of great variety and per cycle. Could you smell more fruits? So was that white flesh fruit or yellow fresh fruit? Was this something not quite right, like overripe fruit? You know that sensation of over ripe kiwi or an overripe banana that almost smells a little bit like a chemical like like a now Polish picture? Smell more herbs? So again, do you think it was more like a Mediterranean thicket? Or was it more like being on a mountain? That type of descriptive word is more than enough. Like how I see lots of different colors. Our nose can pick up a lot of different smells. Chain your memory of aromas. When you go into your kitchen, smell it. All the ingredients that you have in your fridge in your vegetable basket If you have a garden, smell everything that you have in your garden, your spice rack even or even when you go shopping, start smelling different things and try to memorize those particular smells. This will build up your library off memories of aromas, and they will help you taste a lot. I get low to people when I do. Tastings at the winery asked me if these things are actually added to wines. I suppose in their minds, I they have this image of infusions. One lady. When we were tasting a particular read, the winery actually asked me if we added black currents to the wine, so I'll explain where perfumes come from. Each right of grape has its own chemical profile, a big group of chemicals called ter pains. These chemicals around 100 off them each have their own smell and aroma. You know, nowadays perfumes actually made from chemicals. They're not even made from flowers anymore. That type of thing, of course, and winds thes aren't chemicals that are added. Releases shouldn't be. That's why some wines have such characteristic perfumes, like a sauvignon blanc that has that quite strong smell of caps. We or as we would say of tomato leaf, which could be completely different in the Southern Hemisphere. It actually smells more of gooseberry, so a wine's fair share of aromas actually comes from the variety. Then there are secondary aromas that come from fermentation on the types of yeast that a chosen lastly, tertiary aromas come from wood fermentation on wood aging. If a why isn't aged in wood, then you're just not going to smell certain things. Chardonnay is a good example without would aging or would fermentation chardonnays quite lemony and citrusy, whereas a chardonnay that's aged in wood or fermented in would maybe with a malolactic fermentation as well? It's gonna smell buttery. Whites aged inward can smell of honey. They can spell of nuts. They can smell of smoke, but what is the point of smelling a wine anywhere? E. We're actually looking for the faults in a why we want to make sure that the wine is perfectly OK to drink, so we're looking first certain faults, so it's quite a lot before you swallow. You want to know that the wine is good to drink. There's a whole load of possible forts and in fact, the first thing you do when you open a bottle of wine, you smell the cork to make sure it doesn't have cork taint. This comes from a bacteria that can grow in the cork called TC A, and it comes from the cork. The wine was probably bottled perfectly, but something like that in the court can actually ruin your wine, so it's not going to be good to drink. It's easy to recognize it. Smells of musty old cork. A nice has said. It's a bacteria that grows in the court. It can be quite common upto one in 50 bottles. So that's the first thing you look for other faults so you can look for one really obvious . One is vinegar. Wine is made by man. The natural outcome off grape juice fermentation is to become vinegar, so if it smells of vinegar, it is vinegar. It's not. Why is it to veg? It'll what I mean is, does it smell too much like a vegetable that is completely different to be in her basis? Does it smell of rotten fruit of glue of soap? Does it smell of so far? Or rotten egg, even onion, cauliflower horse moldy earth. A lot of these come from bacteria and from unwanted types of yeast, generally found in cellars that don't worry too much about their hydrating. Wine should always be a pleasant experience. It doesn't smell pleasant, then why bother to take the trouble to drink it?
5. Wine: Sensory Analysis cont'd (Tasting!): Let's move on to what we've all been waiting for before the wine warms up Too much tasting . It's one o'clock somewhere in the world on I'm gasping as you sip. Try to take in some air through your mouth. Sip enough wine so that you're able to move it around in your mouth and taste it properly, but not too much that it starts to be clumsy. The air that you breathe in through your mouth as you sip actually helps you to taste it. As you know, your sense of taste is made up mainly from your sense of smell. You know that if you have a cold, you can't taste your food. The air takes all of those perfumes down the back of your throat and up to a nasal cavity, where it comes in contact with your olfactory bulb. When you sit swell around a bit to get the wine to touch the whole of your palate. Some similar is true on their wine might look as if they're trying to look professional, but they do it for purpose. They're actually going in the wine to touch every area of their tongue. That's what we want to do different tastes that tasted in different areas of our tongue. It can very slightly from person to person, and some can have more or fewer taste buds. But before you start looking in the mirror to count them, don't worry doesn't affect your ability to taste. It's what to do re practice, actually, than how maney taste buds you have. It's a good idea to know this map of taste buds just so you can identify where different taste buds are on what tastes they actually taste. So a good exercise for beginners. You might want to try this. You will need some lemon juice slightly diluted in water, some sugar diluted in water. You will also need some salt diluted in water. On if you could get hold of some glitz room from your chemist. Ah, little drop of blistering. And so the experiment is this. You taste each of those concoctions individually and see where they touch the area of your particular tongue on. Then you know what you're looking for. When you're tasting a wine, pay attention to where you taste those on your tongue. We taste most of the sweetness on the tip of our tongue. Acidity is really obvious. It's right here on the side about tongue. Any savory will be quite close since acidity, but a little bit further back. Savory or saltiness, you could even call it. Any bitterness will be right down the back of your throat. When I say bitterness, let's think about black coffee or tonic water. Business plays no crucial role, but it's usually found in young reds that still need a bit of aging. If it's just slight, it can actually be a characteristic of some Italian red wines. For example, bitterness is a taste. Tannins are tactile. That's why bitterness is often referred to as an after take because you taste bitterness right down the back of your tongue. Although of course taste is important, so is texture. Swallow your wine and see how long the taste last. Four. How persistent it is persistency is actually an indicator of quality, so I should taste it. What's the wine too sweet or cloying? As we would say, compared to the acidity, did it make you salivate more literally. Make your mouth water? Or was it so acidic that it actually did the opposite and almost dry? out your mouth. Was it savory and taste quite salty. Many say that assorted taste in wine comes from the minerality of the soil. It's that she quite typical in a fast car to one like this, because we have volcanic soil, which in some ways ends up in the wine. Don't ask me how some will say it doesn't, but it really is a characteristic of our wines in this area. On we have volcanic soil. Both the correct acidity on a savory taste will create more saliva, which is useful when you're having food, because it can help you choose better. What's your wine? Overly alcoholic alcohol creates wolf in your chest. It could also accentuate the sweetness. Alcohol is a complex structure that can have taste and texture. Did the alcohol just give you a smooth, on supple effect in your mouth? Could you smell anything before that could suggest? Would so does the wine taste nutty or smoky? A bit like cognac or honey? Was the flavor of your wine intense and persistent? Did it linger even after you swallowed? How long answering these things would you say that the wine you just tasted is a quality wine or just in ordinary run of the mill wine. By the way, there's a difference between I like it on. It's good today because there's so much competition. Some producers tend to adapt their wines to the consumers, taste rather than get in the consumer. Acquainted with heart riel wine tastes so some lines convey a overly sweet, overly alcoholic, overly flavored everything is amplified on sometimes wines consume constructed to suit the market. Of course, wine evolves over time and dolls are ever changing. But wine isn't supposed to be alcoholic fruit juice. You learn the difference with practice. Let's move on to our dry red. If you have an older bottle of red, I mean, that's been aged for more than six or seven years. You might want to decant it first because you can get a settlement. You don't have to do count a red wine unless it is older. You can also just pour very carefully and the sediment Whoa! Remain here in the car of the bottle, so follow the same steps as before. We went about 1/4 of a glass, so we look from the top. Is the wine limp IDs come we see through to the stem. Is it more or less transplant? Because it's a redwood connection. Get even more information from the wine by looking at it. So what color is it? Is it more of a purple color? Or is it a ruby or garnet reds? Or is it turning slightly? Brownie A. Is it a brick red or even mahogany? Is it more or less transparent? Or it's the color very compact that you can't see through it. The more compact the wine, the less light that gets through it. The more it was macerated during fermentation when it was made. So the greater amount of extracts it has, which is great news for us ladies. Those extracts of full of something coming from the skins called Rose burst to roll. All that stuff has a lot of antioxidants, and it helps stop. So se Jer, I mean, I do wine every day on I'm nearly 70. Please don't believe that I'm not there yet. Almost, but not quite. But really, wine in moderation is good for us. So what does the color tell us? Well, as we know, cholera in red wines comes from the skins. Remember, we mentioned this in our other part, on why making color comes from both the anthocyanins on from the tannins and for silence of purple. I'm a typical of younger wines, anthocyanins of more unstable than Tun ins. So they disappeared before Talyn's tellings, a more orangey or brick red. Both Parma rise over time on precipitate to form sediment, but anthocyanins disappear quicker. They're the first to go, leaving the color of the turnings, which over time will get Brownie A around the rim where the wind touches the glass smell first before swirling festival. Do you think the wine has any of the faults of defects that we mentioned before? What can you smell the more different groups of smells you perceive floral, fruit, spice, mineral and so on. The more complex you can consider the wine. Does the fruit smell more like fresh fruit or more raisins and mature or even jarry? Dried fruits mean the younger aromas have evolved into more mature fruit, jammy that the grapes were overripe. That's quite logical, really. Make a list, if you like, print off the tasting note sheet that I put in the glass resource. Is this good way of keeping track of what you drank on the sensations that it gave you generally but not written in stone reds can age more than white wines. Over time, the perfumes fused together on. That's when we will refer to our bouquet rather than just perfume. It's all there, but it takes longer to discover them. Aged wines need a little bit of air to, so you can do that by swirling wine in a bottle is in what we call a reduced state. It's in reduction on many of the perfume. Start to open up once they come in contact with oxygen. That's another reason to swell the glass. Let's taste, it seems before inhale some air through your mouth as you do so does the wind dry your mouth out too much? It could be a wine that needs a little bit more aging. Does it taste us? If they're a taste there that don't belong to each other again, it might need some more aging. Or it might have been adjusted by the winemaker. And maybe he put a little bit of too much of one thing in the wine. Look for balance in the components of the wine. Does the taste correspond to what you were expecting from the collar and from the perfumes ? Were you expecting a complex and mature wine because it had a ruby, garnet or even mahogany color? Or were you expecting a predominance of fruit because it was more purple in color? Someone stay purple with aging such a zinfandel that's going to stay quite purple even as it aged. But there are only a few exceptions. Are the tannins rough? Do they dry out your mouth too much? Do you have a granule? A sense, say Schoener, a gritty sensation in your mouth and on your tongue. Or is the wine so smooth that you can't taste any turnings or any texture? Some sort of turning is essential. Otherwise, it means that the wine is past its best. It would depend on personal taste on some writers can really have hefty tannins, but after a while, the more you become accustomed toe winds that pack a punch, the more you're going to appreciate them. It's a bit like having Thai food after you've been used to sausage and mash. You couldn't get accustomed to something even quite aggressive, on, you begin to like it. Maybe, as we already know, tannins poor, um, arise with proteins. This means the ones in your saliva as well. Because those tannins wrapped to the proteins in your saliva, you can put that to good use, impairing to some foods. You can dry out excess succulence of moisture like, for example, a steak. So let's say a little bit about food pairing. Okay, parent, convey subjective and also really quite complex. Ideally, if you were a Semenya in a restaurant, you would sit down and taste every single thing on the menu. You know exactly what ingredients air in there, and you would make notes of the characteristics of each fact tends to be on a sweeter side , just as passed on potatoes. Cumbie Succulence like a steak. Is the recipe juicy? Is the recipe of the food quite oily or is it really salty? Quite savory. Is there any acidity in what you're eating like a tomato sauce? Or is it a dressed salad? Is the food sour like some leafy vegetables conveyed a Or is it an aromatic food with a strong smell, or maybe lots of herbs in it? On Maybe we have lots of onion and garlic is a lot of persistence in the food. Doesn't taste really lingered? Or maybe it's something spicy and hot. Or it could be sweet carbohydrates tend on the sweet side. Then we would pair the wine to the food. Depending on the characteristics of the food. Food should be chosen before you choose your wine. So depending on the wine similarity or the opposite toe, what's in the food? That is how you repair your wine. So similar T sugary sweet is easy. It's always paired with dessert wines, so we're paying for similarity. If we couple together persistency in a food on spiciness, we can couple together the persistence of a wine, and it's spiciness. If a food is hot and spicy, you're gonna need a very persistent wine with a lot of taste. Maybe an aromatic variety thes air, the two for similarities. By the way, aromatic varieties. This four of these musk up Brocato Mom valcea on Goretzka Amina Sauvignon Blanc is actually considered Sammy aromatic, even though it has such a strong smell as our Chardonnay Cabernet Sauvignon company, Franka Milan. Glare per second. It's made from Grandma Lundgren, Moloto, Go! Ryan Rice Ling Al Attic. Silvana Qurnah. So what would you pair to a fatty food? A wine with high acidity? Andi or with bubbles? What if the food has a tendency to be in sweet carbs? Peas, carrots? Ah, wind, savory or salty succulence would go with a tannic wine. Oily foods go well with higher alcohol content. Savoury or sortie off pretending to acidic would go with a nice soft rounder wine. If the food is tending to bitter, you would also need a nice soft round wine. There are some foods that aren't operable. Take artichokes, for example, except golden fried artichokes. They go with a good Frascati like this one from my friends at Beatus. It's a local thing on. They just go well together. Then, of course, other foods that are very similar to the defect in wines. You wouldn't pear wine, too, so I'm talking about eggs, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, raw garlic and royal onion. All of these smell of wine fall, so they're very Ampara ble chili peppers just in your taste buds so really wouldn't taste any wine vinegar. That's really obvious ice cream unless you have a really age Sherry. Then it's very difficult to pair wine to ice cream. It's the temperature, and again the cold stings your tongue. What's really is also quite difficult unless it's actually cooked, like on a pizza. Ah, good wine. To go with the pizza is actually a wine from near Naples itself called Astorino again. Here, the traditional on the same area goes with the food stuff from that area. Pizza, obviously is famous in Naples, is the origin of pizza is Naples. So a wine from there there is more likely to go well, and the spring you in particular goes very well with pizza. So again, tradition comes into playing. When you're pairing your wine, it's some candy house. Some foods grown in a particular area go well with wines grown in the same area. Maybe has something to do with, um, grown in the same soil. Having said that, we'll know what we like to eat. Well, know what we like to drink? We're probably gonna have those together. However, we don't drink wine to wash our food down or to make up a pulp in our mouth, but as a complement to the dish. So really. The best thing to remember is to not overpower the taste of your food with the taste of your wine and vice versa. You don't want overpowered the taste of your wine with the taste of your food. When you encounter the perfect pairing, you will realize it just seems to all add up. The wine together with the food, will create something different but quite unique and quite perfect. Even it's a stiff one on one actually make three. So I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Thanks for joining May Andi. If you need any help or would like any suggestions, don't hesitate to put a common in the discussions area. I'll get back to you on Try and answer all of your questions. I've condensed quite a lot of information into a shorter lesson so that you can be confident when you're ordering in a restaurant. Don't feel intimidated by wine. Wine is a very democratic beverage. It might look snobby sometimes, but assumes you have some basic knowledge. Then just go for it. Fine. Taste as many different wines and you can. Another tip that I have for novices is to become accustomed to different varietals of writer is a wine made from just one variety, So try and taste all of the Shiraz is that you confine trying taste what, within moderation trying. Taste lots of different merlots from lots of different sellers. Try and taste. Lots of different serving Yom belong lots of different chardonnay. You get the idea. The reason for doing that is your eventually discover what the common denominator is of that particular variety. And then when you encounter that variety in the blend, you will even be able to pick it out in a blend because you'll just become so accustomed to what the characteristic is off that particular variety. Thanks again, everybody on board to your health. Allah, Saluda, Chin chin.
Michelle Smith Watercolor, Watercolor Artist-Sommelier in Rome
