72 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JUNE 2017
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WINE
WHEN IT COMES to tasting wine, most consumers want to get
it into their mouths as quickly as possible. But there's a lot you can
tell about the condition, age and weight of the wine by studying its
colour and appearance, even before you put the glass to your nose.
Whether white, pink or red, wine should have a bright, clean
hue. White wines deepen in colour with age, going from straw to
golden, while reds lose colour as they age and eventually turn tawny
at the rim.
Aer you've swirled the glass, a colourless liquid will slide back to
the surface of the wine in a series of "tears." is tells you something
about the alcoholic strength of the wine: the thicker and slower-
moving these tears are, the higher the alcohol content.
e French call this effect "legs." e Germans call it "church
windows," which shows rather a different national perspective on
these matters.
e next step is nosing the glass. Your nose is your most impor-
tant organ when it comes to wine tasting. Your nose will tell you
everything you want to know about the wine except how long the
flavour will last in the mouth.
Your palate, by contrast, is a blunt instrument. It registers only
five tastes: sweet, salty, sour (acidity), bitterness (tannin), and a fih
taste called umami, a savoury taste like soya sauce or tomatoes.
Just to show how powerful your sense of smell is relative to your
sense of taste, you can smell 400 molecules of a substance, but in
order to taste it, you must have at least 25,000 molecules dissolved
in the saliva on your tongue.
In fact, you taste with your nose. Try this simple experiment next
time you pour a glass of wine: pinch your nostrils shut and take a sip
on wine. Keep your nose closed for five seconds aer you've swal-
lowed. Release and take a deep breath. You will only begin to taste
the wine when your nose is clear.
e taste buds on your tongue transmit those five basic tastes up
to the tiny hairs at the top of your nose, where they are decoded so
that you experience the flavour of, say, lobster or strawberries.
If your nose is blocked or you have a cold, you're not going to taste
properly. (Remember what your mother used to say when you had
to take some disagreeable medicine: "Hold your nose and you won't
taste it." Listen to your mother.)
| DETOURS |
Tasting Like a Pro
Evaluating a wine starts with eyeing it, then "nosing the glass" for its bouquet, and finally tasting it
