Wine Appraisal:
Appraisal starts
with the appropriate shaped glass, the international XL4 tasting glass is the
standard. The shape is the classic tulip with a wide deep bowl and narrow
opening to contain the wine while swirling and trap the vapours. The hand should
hold the stem and the glass should be clear (complete absence of colour) so that
the colour and clarity of the wine can be assessed.
Collect
your tasting glass for just $5 at our cellar door.
Tasting Technique
When assessing
or appraising a wine we use four of our five senses:
§
Vision (sight)
§
Olfaction
(smell)
§
Degustation
(taste)
§
Tactile (feel)
1.
Wine temperature should be 17 - 20ºC for reds and 10 - 12ºC for the
whites. Wines served too cold will have some of the aroma lessened and reds will
present harsh on the palate. Wines that are too warm will bring the alcohol into
prominence
2.
To appraise the wine, the glass should be clear and one quarter full.
3.
Tilt the glass on a 45º angle away from you with a white background so
that the visual assessment can be made. The stem of the glass should be held to
provide for clear vision and to not overly warm the wine.
4.
Swirl the wine in the glass several times so that the volatile chemicals,
that give rise to the wines aroma and bouquet, can collect in the glass.
5.
Smell the wine with 2-3 full quick sniffs. If you continually sniff the
wine the smells will become confused. Most people can only detect 3-4 different
smells at one time.
6.
Make a written or mental note of the smells and your assessment of the
wines aroma and bouquet.
7.
Now take a generous mouthful, suck air through the wine, swirl it around
the mouth so as to cover the mouth with the wine and if a formal tasting
expectorate (spit) the wine and record your impressions (if this is not a formal
tasting it would be a shame to complete the task as suggested). Predominant
tastes and odours are best detected with the mouth empty as the volatile
chemicals will rise through the retro-nasal passage (see diagram below). As the wine
warms, swallowed vapours will rise up through to the retro-nasal passage again,
for further odour detection. Many perceived tastes are indeed more a smell. To
prove this try to taste the same wine while holding your nose closed and you
will find the tastes you were able to detect difficult to find.
8.
If tasting several wines place and taste them in a logical and orderly
fashion from left to right.
Diagram showing the
movement of warm vapours up through the retro-nasal passage where they are
sensed.
Sensory Descriptors
Sight sense
You make two judgements
when you look at a wine.
1.
One is the colour, both the hue (the colour of the horizon of the wine)
and the intensity. The other is its appearance. From this it is possible to make
some judgements about the condition and the age of the wine. The colours of a
white wine may be water white, yellow, gold, straw yellow, amber, brown, golden
yellow, pale gold or other. Aged white wines will have typically deeper yellows
and golds. Red wines may be pink, orange, light red, tile red, brick red, ripe
plum and many other descriptions. Ageing will show orange and browns.
2.
The wine clarity is essentially how clear the wine is (brilliant, clear,
transparent, cloudy, dull, hazy, turbid or other). Naturally the wine should be
clear and brilliant.
Smell sense
The smell of the
wine can be divided into its aroma, grape derived odours and the bouquet, odours
derived from the winemaking process.
During the
fermentation of the grape many chemical compounds are made which produce odours
that can be recognised and described for example licorice, blackberry, melon
etc. The maturation of the wine in oak may also add to the smell of the wine
through vanilla, caramel and creamy type smells. The list of perceived smells is
endless and unfortunately not all are pleasant. Good winemaking endeavours to
avoid those unpleasant odours like mousse, foxy or swamp type odours.
Taste and Tactile sense
Of the four
primary tastes three are predominant in wine tasting: sweetness, acidity and
bitterness. The diagram below will show where the perception of these sensations
is prominent.
TASTE AREAS OF THE TONGUE
Diagram
showing where the four primary tastes are detected on the tongue.
Associated with
the sense of taste is that of tactile (touch), the feeling produced in the
mouth. Dissolved carbon dioxide can be felt as a fizz and astringent wines can
cause dryness or puckering in the mouth. Wines high in glycerol appear viscous
and give a fatter or thicker feel in the mouth. Alcohol in moderate
concentrations can be perceived as sweet. High alcohol wines may produce a warm
or hot sensation.
A major part of
the sensory evaluation is being able to communicate your impressions and
assessment to other people in an effective way. To achieve this there have been
several attempts to standardise terminology. The aroma wheel developed by
Professor Anne Noble goes a long way to achieving this standardisation of
terminology. The aroma wheel is copy protected and we are unable to print it for
you.
All of the
sensations will lead to the overall mouth feel. The palate reacts favourably to
balance and balance is what the winemaker strives to achieve. A balanced wine is
sometimes described as one without holes or gaps where all the components fill
the mouth with a uniform smooth enjoyable feeling. Wine should bring a smile to
your face.
Taste
award winning local wines today at ILNAM Estate
ILNAM Estate is
a unique tourist attraction as we are the only winery on
the Tweed. ILNAM Estate Winery is located just 20 minutes from the Gold Coast
Airport, 40 minutes from Surfers Paradise and only 1 hour 20 minutes from
Brisbane.
ILNAM ESTATE WINERY- 750 Carool Road,
Carool NSW- Ph (07) 5590 7703
