CENTRE COUNTY — Tasting wine, especially around people who know a lot about wine, can be intimidating. And while not all wine needs to be vetted through an intensive tasting process to be enjoyed — sometimes a simple “yes, I like this” or “not for me” will do — knowing how to properly taste wine can make it easier to make better wine selections in the future.
Tasting wine can be broken into four steps: look, smell, taste and thoughts.
If you have ever been around someone tasting who is listing off a bunch of flavors they can smell or taste and all you can think of is “this smells like wine,” following these four steps can help.
After buying a bottle of wine — like the 2017 Ixsir Grande Reserva Red, which comes from the Batroun District in Lebanon and is made of 61% syrah and 30% cabernet sauvignon — pour yourself a glass. When looking at the wine, you want to assess three things: clarity, intensity and color, the latter being what will give you the most clues for the smelling and tasting steps.
Older wines will form sediment over time; natural wines that are not filtered will also have sediment. If the wine is old, you will want to carefully pour or filter it so you do not end up with an unpleasant sip.
The color of the wine will provide some key insight to the rest of the tasting experience. White wines typically fall into two color spectrums: green and straw-like or yellow and golden. Red wines will be either purple or red colored. These colors come from the specific types of grape varieties used.
While it is not 100% guaranteed, flavors will typically match the appearance of the wine. So, if a white wine is greener colored, it will have green fruit notes like pear or green apple. If it is more yellow, it will have either stoned fruit notes, like peach or nectarine, or tropical fruit notes, like pineapple or melon.
Red wines that appear more purple toned will have darker fruit notes, like blueberry, blackberry or plum, whereas ruby toned wines will taste more like red fruits, like strawberries and cherries.
If you look down through the top of the glass and see the stem through the wine, it has a low coloring, whereas if you cannot see through it has a deep intensity. This can be a clue to the body of the wine — how heavy it will feel in the mouth.
Look at your wine ideally in natural lighting with a white backdrop to best see the color. The Ixsir Grande Reserva has a deep ruby color.
After assessing the color, give it a good smell. Wines will have three levels or aromas and tastes — primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary aromas are the fruity notes that come from the grape variety. These tend to be more present in younger wines. The Ixsir Grande Reserva has notes of cherry pie, pomegranate and blueberry.
Primary aromas range from fruit and vegetables to floral, spice or mineral notes. The Ixsir Grande Reserva also has notes of potpourri and light granite.
Secondary characteristics come from how the wine is made. If a wine is aged in oak — the Ixsir Grande Reserva spent about a year in oak barrels — it takes on different notes, like cinnamon and baking spices and vanilla. White wines that are “buttery,” like a California chardonnay, use a technique called malolactic fermentation which gives that buttery flavor. This would be a secondary characteristic.
Tertiary characteristicscome from aging in the bottle. Older wines will evolve from tasting like fresh fruits to being more like dried fruits because they oxidize over time. These notes also could be leather, truffle, mushroom, tobacco or chocolate, to name a few.
The Ixsir Grande Reserva is seven years old at this point and has the start of some tertiary notes present.
Now for the fun part: Give the wine a good taste. Hold it in your mouth and swirl it around so it completely coats the inside. Do the flavors on the palate match the nose? Some wines will trick you and be completely different, but many match.
The Ixsir Grande Reserva tastes like cherry, blackberry and plum, with some pepper and tobacco spice on the finish.
If you want to be technical during your tasting, there are also a few other things to assess:
• Acidity — Tilt your head forward and see if it makes your mouth salivate. The more you salivate, the higher acidity level it has.
• Dryness — These levels come from residual sugar.
• Tannins — These are the parts that leave your cheeks and tongue feeling dry. Does your mouth feel dried out or not?
• Body — Does the wine feel heavy in your mouth? Lighter wines usually are better with a chill.
• Alcohol — Can you smell and taste it while drinking or is it unnoticeable?
• Finish — Consider how long the pleasant flavors last in your mouth. Does it linger for a while or disappear quickly?
To finish, consider all the traits about the wine and think through how you feel about it. Did you like how dry it was? Would you prefer a lighter or heavier red? Also, think through where you would enjoy it. Can you drink it on its own or would you pair it with food? Would you open it on the beach or in front of the fireplace with friends?
Being able to identify what you do and do not like about a wine can help you tell a waitress or sommelier at a restaurant or a wine shop clerk what you are looking for. Even if you try a wine and do not like it, you will have learned valuable insight from your tasting that you can apply going forward.
The 2017 Ixsir Grande Reserva Red retails for $30 at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits store at 127 Southridge Plaza.
