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Wine Tasting- Breaking the Code
by Lars Jensen You can easily become more knowledgeable about wine and wine tasting; you only have to break the "code". A good start is to learn some of the terms used to describe wines. They can be acidic, fruity, spicy, full bodied etc. Taste a bottle the next time you have some with a partner or a friend. You are sure to start a new and interesting experience with wine.
The wine dictionary:
- Aroma: The young wines have a fragrance or an aroma.
- Bouquet: Older wines have a deeper and more complex aroma.
- Flat: Wine with too little acid.
- Fruity: A wine may have a taste of fruit e.g. pineapple, peaches, cherries, plums etc.
- Full-bodied: Wine with a high alcohol content or extract content.
- Tannic acid: Also known as tannin. Derived
from the grapes peel, seeds, stems. Tastes
dry in the mouth. Gives the wine a full-bodied/character. A lot of tannin means it is immature but has good potential.
- Hard: The wine has a lot of tannin and not much fruit acid.
- Strength: Wine with a lot of taste and high alcohol content.
- Body: The "heaviness" of wine on the palate.
- Spice: Aroma and taste of spice, e.g. black
pepper, liquorish, vanilla, etc.
- Light: Wine with a light body, little weight on the palate.
- Raw: Young wine. Will become better with time.
- Acidic: Used with fruit acid in wine, (not tannin). Gives character. "Tingles" easily in the mouth.
- Sweet: Degree of sweetness of the wine.
- Dry: A wine with little of no sugar.
Taste it
When you taste wine, you need to use the three senses; smell/aroma, taste, and sight. The aroma of a wine is the most important sense when tasting wine, because with the aroma you can distinguish between a large variety of wines. With taste you can actually only taste the difference between sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Before you try to do what wine tasters or enthusiasts do to judge the wine in different phases, you need to have the right "equipment". You need to at least have a tulip- formed glass, as this tends to preserve the aroma of the wine better.
Only fill the glass up to 1/3 with wine so it is easier to swirl the wine in the glass. Swirling helps to get as much of the aroma to the senses as possible (remember, smell plays an important role in judging wines).
 Use your eyes
First you have to judge the wine by sight. The wine is judged best by looking at the sides of the glass by tilting it slightly. See if it is clear and pure in color. The color indicates the age of the wine (if it is old of young). A young wine tends to be more purple in color. An older one is a deeper red or even a weak brownish color, although there can be quite a few other colors as well.
 Use your nose
Use your nose to smell the wine while tilting the glass towards you. How is the smell? Does is smell of wine? Is it weak or strong? Is it a mixed or a simple smell? Try to describe the it in words as you smell. It can help to compare the aroma with, for example, flowers, fruit, spices, nuts etc.
 The taste
Take a good mouthful so the it swirls around in your entire mouth. Decide if the it is light or strong, dry or sweet, acidic or soft. The taste should be like that of the aroma of the wine. And finally, when you swallow, check if there is a long aftertaste or not.
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