Tasting and describing a wine is not easy! Above all, it is the art of conveying your impressions and the sensations produced by its aromas and textures. Tasting is therefore rather subjective and personal, as it is based on our own experience. Indeed, just because your friend finds that the wine tastes of fig does not necessarily mean that you will agree with them. The essential thing is to know how to express why you like or dislike a wine. With regular tasting practice, you will refine your palate, your senses, and your vocabulary, becoming a true tasting expert!
Creating the right conditions
A tasting engages our senses. To taste wine, we need our eyes, nose, and mouth. If you have a blocked nose because of a cold, for example, we do not recommend organizing a tasting evening. Likewise, it is well known that certain foods can alter the perceived taste, particularly foods with very pronounced flavors. It is therefore not advisable to drink coffee before a tasting. The best time to taste wine is before lunch or dinner. This is when the senses are particularly alert.
To make the most of the experience, settle in a well-lit, temperate place, preferably one without any odors. For the shape of the glasses, we recommend choosing tulip-shaped glasses. This shape allows the wine's aromas to develop easily thanks to its opening, which provides good contact with the air. The narrower upper part will trap these aromas so that you can fully enjoy them. To maximize the aromas, we recommend filling the wine glass up to its widest point to allow contact with the air. Always hold your glass by the stem. Otherwise, your hand may warm the wine inside.
Should you decant a wine?
As a general rule, we recommend decanting young wines to aerate them and thereby intensify their aromas. The ideal approach is to decant it one hour before serving; this is when the wine will be at its best. On the other hand, avoid decanting wines that are too old. Indeed, contact with oxygen could destroy all their aromas.
Taste at the right temperature
The ideal serving temperature for wine should be between 7 and 12 degrees for white wine, and between 14 and 19 degrees for red wine. In general, it is preferable to serve wine slightly too cold rather than too warm. The reason is that wine warms up fairly quickly in the glass.
The order of tasting
It is often said that young wines should traditionally be served before old wines, or white wines before red wines. These principles do work, but do not necessarily need to be followed to the letter. Indeed, you can quite easily serve a white wine at the end of a meal with cheese, after drinking red wine with meat, for example.
The best approach is to determine the order in which to taste the wines according to their body and intensity. Prefer lively, fresh wines at the beginning of a meal. Then gradually increase the intensity and finish with sweet wines.
The stages of tasting
To learn how to taste wine, you need to go through three key stages that engage our senses: sight, nose, and palate. But wait, isn't that the Domaine du Goût logo?
Sight
Our sight allows us to analyze the wine's appearance, that is, its color. Its appearance can provide information about the wine's age or body. It may be pale, medium, or intense. Note that the wine's appearance changes over time.
For red wines, a purple hue indicates that it is a young wine. An older wine, on the other hand, will have brown hues. The different shades of red wine can range from purple to ruby, or from garnet to brown.
As for white wines, a young wine will have green reflections and be very clear. An older white wine will become more amber-colored and darker. The shades of a white wine can be lemon, gold, amber, or brown.
Finally, for rosé wines, a purple-colored wine is young, while an orange-colored one is old.
To properly analyze a wine's appearance, tilt it over a white surface and pay attention to its reflections.
The Nose
Analyzing the nose takes place in two stages. The first nose is when you smell the wine without aerating it beforehand, in other words, without moving the glass. It is thanks to this relatively subtle nose that you can detect flaws in a wine, such as cork taint.
Then comes the second nose. Aerate the wine by gently swirling it in the glass so that it opens up. The aromas are enhanced by the aeration.
There are three families of aromas in wine:
- Primary: derived from the grape variety used to make the wine.
- Secondary: resulting from fermentation.
- Tertiary: resulting from aging, in a barrel, for example. This aging gives the wine toasted or spicy aromas.
Do not hesitate to smell your wine several times to perceive all its aromas, as well as any new aromas that may appear over time and through contact with the air. If you can identify several aromas, your wine is “open.” Otherwise, it is “closed.”
At first, do not rush to try to identify specific aromas, but rather families. Is your wine floral? Fruity (red fruit, green fruit, citrus)? Spicy (vanilla, cinnamon)? Mineral?
Then form your own impression based on your sensations!
The Palate
Without a doubt, this is the most important stage of wine tasting.
During this stage, it is important to move the wine around well in your mouth in order to decipher all its flavors. Indeed, our tongue is structured in such a way that the receptors for bitterness, acidity, and sweetness are not located in the same places! To taste the wine even better, it is advisable to draw in a little air at the same time as your sip of wine, in order to aerate it and intensify its aromas. The analysis of wine on the palate takes place in 3 stages:
- The attack: the first sensation on the palate, which allows you to assess a wine's power. Is it supple? Direct?
- The mid-palate: this is when the wine's flavors unfold - the tannins in red wines and the acidity in white wines.
- The finish: the final note left by the wine; how long does it remain on the palate, and which flavors does it evolve toward?
For example, you can recognize a great wine by its ability to remain on the palate for a long time and evolve in the flavors it delivers, even after it has been swallowed.
Test yourself!
If you enjoyed these tasting tips, do not hesitate to order our wine boxes. You will taste three different wines carefully selected by our sommelier, Thierry Dorge. The best part of this tasting? Receive three bottles of your favorite wine!
