Dennis Perkins: Stick your nose in it
The truth of the matter is that the wine thing is way out of hand. It must be or else I wouldn’t have witnessed him, whom I took to be a frat boy, swirling and sniffing a goblet of wine late on a Friday night. Maybe he was drunk and trying to look like he wasn’t: I don’t know. Still, I wondered if he really knew what he was doing because though he had most of the right wine tasting moves down, he had his hand on the bowl of the glass and he was sniffing, almost daintily, above the rim of the glass. Tsk Tsk. That simply won’t do.
Tasting wine like a pro can be a wonderful thing especially if you’re in the company of those who will be impressed by your acumen – though, I’m not sure if it has a place in the confines of a weekend watering hole at the witching hour. Still, if you’re gonna do it, do it right.
There 5 basic steps to pro wine tasting – actually there are 7, but I’m omitting color analysis and initial, pre-swirl sniff for another day. Besides, that’s the height of the business, and it won’t help you much if you’re trying to look like a pro in the lovely half-light of a cool bar named after a gemstone.
So here’s a brief guide to the “how” of the tasting ritual and a little reasoning to clarify the “why” of the same.
PICK UP THE GLASS
That’s simple enough, eh? Just make sure that you grasp the glass by the stem, not the bowl. There are two reasons for this: one is that your hand is hot (oh, yeah) and is hotter than the wine; the other is that glass is like a billboard for fingerprints. So if your aim is elegance, smudges won’t help.
SWIRL
Get that wine moving because that helps all the lovely aromas jump outta the glass.
SNIFF
Sure the lovely aromas are jumping outta the glass, but like Pandora, you’ll be better off catching them before they leave – so stick your nose down into the glass (taking care not to inhale the wine – ugly, that). Now you’re supposed to think about what the wine smells like – is it fruit? Leather? Tar? Whatever it is, take note so you can say something clever like, “The apricots would be lovely, but I think they’re a little under ripe here.”
SIP
Don’t get excited and gulp, not yet anyway: take a little of the nectar in your mouth, swish it (silently please) and then let it rest in your mouth while your tongue evaluates the body – I love this part. Is it thin and leaves you wanting more? Is it full and mouth filling? Is it light like water or thick like something creamy? Does it taste like anything familiar?
SWALLOW
Okay - you only swallow if you’re out for a good time. If you’re being a professional – and I know this is counterintuitive – then you spit (subtly, please) into an appropriate receptacle. After you’ve ingested or expelled the fluid, think about how long the flavor lasts. Some folks like a lingering after-taste – a long finish – others want the afterglow to be short and simple. The point is to take note of it so you can make more clever remarks like, “boy, that’s long” or “this one’s a little short for me.”
And that’s just about it – okay, this is way too simple an explanation. Still, it’s a quick way to start understanding the way that wine gives multiple pleasures – and who doesn’t like multiple pleasures?