If there is one thing you should learn about wine…

If there is one thing you should learn to increase your enjoyment of wine, without a doubt I would say it is the skill to describe what you taste in a language that is accepted and understood by professionals and other wine enthusiasts.  The main reason is that using a common language should result in you getting better recommendations from merchants and sommeliers.  So the motivation is getting wines you enjoy more, and it is achieved through enhanced communication.wset_l2_sat

You do not need to try to emulate the likes of Robert Parker in your descriptions.  Keep it simple.  The WSET Level 2 Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine is the sort of thing I have in mind.  In fact, it could be a lot simpler for the purpose I outlined above – just learn to describe the degree of sweetness, acidity, tannin and body.  If there are any obvious aromas describe them too, but only if they are important to you.  Maybe you detect dried fruit, but do you really care whether it is raisin or sultana?

There are essentially two steps towards getting this basic skill.  One is to recognise, and distinguish between, each of the dimensions of sweetness, acidity, tannin and body.  Then you need to taste a good range of wines to appreciate what is high and low on each dimension. Recognising and distinguishing each of the dimensions is not as easy as you might first think, partly because they do interact, but here are some ideas to help.

For acidity and sweetness, prepare for yourself solutions of lemon juice (1 – 1.5 lemons in 0.75 li water) and sugar (~25 g in 0.75 li), try each solution individually.  Note and remember the sensations, and how and where on the tongue you personally detect them.  (If you have ever heard of the tongue map, forget what you have learned – it is now discredited!)  Now try mixing the solutions.  Also add neat lemon juice to the sugar solution, and vice versa.  You will, I hope, see how sweetness has the effect of reducing the perception of acidity, and vice versa.

Prepare some strong black tea and let it cool.  Swill it around you mouth and feel how the friction between your cheeks and teeth increases.  That is astringency – the most noticeable property of tannin.  Try adding some lemon.  Does it increase or decrease the astringency?  Opinions differ on what should happen, and it might depend on the details of the situation, but there is thought to be an interaction between acidity and astringency.

Body is a measure of how heavy the wine feels in your mouth.  To be honest, I have problems getting to grips with this concept, but I am told that many understand it intuitively.  Alcohol gives a big contribution to the body of a wine, making a wine heavy, and however intense the flavours are in a low alcohol wine (e.g. a good quality sweetish German Kabinett), it will always physically feel watery compared with a wine of normal strength.

Just a couple of further points.  If you still feel unsure about the language, don’t let it stop you telling a wine merchant or sommelier what style of wine you want anyway – good ones will appreciate any steer they get, and should be able to respond.  The other thing is that, if you want more details, I can strongly recommend the book Essential Winetasting by Michael Schuster.  Or you could perhaps try a course that leads to a WSET qualification.  Both of those options will teach you the basic language of wine tasting, and a lot more besides.

Update: I think the concept of dryness in wine could do with more discussion, so I have covered this in my next blog post.

Author: Steve Slatcher

Wine enthusiast

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