How to Taste Wine Properly - Part 2

In last week’s blog post, I covered the basics of tasting wine properly along with some general thoughts on why taking the time to really think about the wine when you are tasting is so important to enhancing your enjoyment of the wine. Now let’s put some of those ideas into practice and actually walk through the “five S’s” of tasting wine properly!

Let’s taste a wine together! I have a glass of the 2018 vintage of the Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Fume Blanc White Wine ($28) in front of me that I will use to walk through the tasting with you. This is an extremely popular version of a Sauvignon Blanc wine. So, what’s the difference between Fume Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc? Just one: Fume Blanc is aged in oak barrels, while Sauvignon Blanc wines are usually aged in stainless steel vessels after fermentation. I filled the glass about a third full – more than that and things could get a bit messy later on! If you don’t have the Fume Blanc, go ahead and pour whatever wine you have for this tasting!

We’ll follow the “five S’s” process to taste this wine properly in five steps: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, and Savor. Each of these steps provide a piece of the puzzle to help us better understand, properly characterize, and fully enjoy the wine in the glass.

The first step to tasting a wine properly is “See” which focuses on looking at the wine. It turns out you can learn a lot about a wine just by observing what it looks like in the glass. The best way to do this is to grab a sheet of white paper and hold the glass of wine in front of the white background. I focus on two things during this step: assessing the color and clarity of the wine. Generally, lighter colored wines indicate a lighter bodied, more refreshing wine while a darker colored wine points to a heavier, more full-bodied wine.

• Looking at the Fume Blanc, I see the color is a deeper yellow-gold instead of a lighter straw-colored wine which indicates this will likely be a bit of a richer style of wine (the deeper gold color comes from the oak barrel aging which also results in a bigger, richer wine than you would get from a traditional Sauvignon Blanc). Also, the wine is crystal clear with no cloudiness in the glass. This indicates a wine that has been filtered as opposed to a natural wine that is usually unfiltered and made with no added preservatives or chemicals.

The second step is to “Swirl”. This is where it really helps to not fill your glass up to the rim with wine! For those new to this approach, simply place your glass on the table and gently move it in a clockwise motion 4-5 times. For the more experienced tasters, pick up the glass and swirl it. This agitates the wine, allowing it to release the volatile compounds into the air so you can really smell the wine. Speaking of smelling, …

The third step is to “Sniff” the wine. Your sense of smell is the primary means by which you determine the characteristics of the wine and how you associate smells with the catalog of scents you are familiar with, like the scent of various fruits, vegetables, spices, and herbs. What you smell in the glass is the key driver that determines what you taste. Sniffing the wine also allows you to determine whether the wine has any particular flaws in it.

For example, some wines have a chemical in them called TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole) which comes from the corks used to seal the bottle and is transferred from the cork to the wine in the bottle. These wines are referred to as “corked” wines and when open, emit a musty odor (think wet moldy newspaper) and mute the flavors of the wine. It’s not dangerous, but it’s not pleasant either and the wine is ruined and shouldn’t be drunk if it is corked. Some people are extremely sensitive to TCA while others are oblivious to it. My wife Laurie can detect TCA immediately, even in extremely small amounts. I’m very sensitive to it as well but not as much as Laurie, which is why I always have her smell a wine I think might be off to confirm that’s the case.

When sniffing the wine, you are trying to associate what you are smelling with the various scents you have become familiar with over your lifetime. These include floral, fruity, citrus, woody, sweet, minty, toasted/nutty, chemical, and decaying scents to name a few. The best way to sniff the wine is to swirl it and then stick your nose as far into the glass as you can and breath in through your nose a few times to really get a good “sense for the scents”.

• For the Mondavi Fume Blanc, I get scents of apricot, floral notes, green apple, and even a whiff of petrol or gasoline (not an unusual scent for many German Rieslings). There is an herbaceous quality to the wine as well.

The fourth step is to “Sip” the wine (finally!!!). Here you are trying to identify the different elements of taste in the wine – these include salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and savoriness (sometimes called umami). You are also assessing the “body” of the wine (what I also refer to as mouthfeel – does it have the sensation of drinking water (light-bodied), milk (medium-bodied), or cream (full-bodied) – as well as the sensation it leaves in your mouth and how long that sensation lasts. To taste wine properly, draw just a small amount of wine into your mouth and then swish it around your mouth (like you would mouthwash) to agitate and release the compounds in the wine so it coats your entire mouth. Swallow the wine and then describe what you taste, how it feels in your mouth, and how long the flavors linger.

• Tasting the Fume Blanc, I first sense a thicker mouth-feel courtesy of the oak aging – I’d characterize the wine as medium-bodied. I taste bitter notes of almonds and a slight saline or briny quality to the wine. It has robust acidity which lends a note of sourness and tartness to the wine. I also taste green apple, honeydew melon, and pineapple in the mouth. The wine is dry (meaning it doesn’t taste sweet with residual sugar).

The final step for tasting wine properly is to “Savor” the wine. Here you are thinking about how all the components of the wine come together and the “finish” of the wine which is simply the lingering flavors of the wine left in your mouth and how long they last. Some questions to think about as you savor the wine include: (1) What did you like about the wine? What didn’t you like about it? (2) What food would pair well with the wine? (3) What occasions and when might you want to serve or enjoy this wine? (4) How is this wine similar or different to other wines you have tasted of the same variety? Of different varieties? And (5) How would you rate this wine – average, good, very good, excellent, superb?

• For the Fume Blanc, this wine has a nice long finish with a lingering slightly bitter finish. The acidity made this wine really refreshing even though it was “bigger” wine with a bit of oak and tropical fruit flavors. I really liked the complexity of the wine – the interplay of bitterness, tartness from the acidity, but also lushness from the oak treatment was really interesting to me. I thought the bitterness of the wine was a bit too prominent and would like it better if this characteristic was a bit more moderated. This wine would pair well with a fruit and cheese plate that includes more mild but richer cheeses (think Brie or Havarti cheese with apples, melon, and mixed nuts). Finally, this is an “all weather, all season” wine that can be enjoyed throughout the year. Overall, I’d rate this wine as very good.

I find it helpful to jot down some notes when I’m tasting the wine so I can remember how the wine tasted and what I liked or didn’t like about it down the road. If it’s a wine you really liked, it’s useful to keep a list of these wines so you can seek them out in the future. I have been “journaling” my wine experiences/tastings for about two decades now which has been essential to helping me better describe and characterize the wines I have tasted, as well as to capture the moments and experiences we were having when we drank the wines. I refer back to my journals often, to either look up a wine I know I enjoyed but forgot the name of, or to relive some of our most enjoyable and memorable food and wine experiences. I’d encourage you to give journaling a try or alternatively, you can just get on with it and enjoy that second glass of wine! Happy tasting!!