It really is true: there are only two kinds of wine--the wine you like and the wine you don't like. What a relief! There are very few objective rights and wrongs, despite what some wine critics might have you believe. With that in mind, relax. Call up some friends and have yourselves a fun evening of casual wine tasting. No need to get uptight about it. It's only grape juice, after all. Keep in mind, if you are interested in hosting a formal tasting, there are sites a-plenty that can give you ideas and suggestions. Here, we are suggesting a tasting in a convivial, friendly and casual atmosphere.


What you'll need What you might need

Clear glasses with a 12 oz. capacity. Notepads, tasting note cards, pens
Wines--no more than six Dump buckets
Snacks--cheeses and crackers are nice

For serious tasters, different shaped glasses are used for different wines to direct
said wines to different parts of the taster's mouth. These are made by Riedel.



In general, you'll want to start with drier, lighter wines and move toward more full-bodied wines. This usually means whites first, followed by reds. Save any sweeter or dessert wines for the end. Serve your whites chilled, but not cold--between 55-60 degrees. Serve reds about 5 degrees warmer than the whites.

Pour yourself just 1-11/2 ounces of wine. Remember, you're tasting SIX, so plan accordingly. Hold your glass up to a white light or against a white background, such as a cloth napkin. How does it look? Note the color and clarity. Tilt the glass and slowly turn it, letting the wine "wash up" the sides of the glass. Hold the glass upright again, and look at the wine as it drips down--these are called the legs (there's a pretentious wine term for you)! Generally speaking, the thinner the legs and the faster they run down, the drier the wine and the higher the alcohol content. See, you're already becoming a wine snob in spite of yourself. Before you've even tasted the wine, you have an idea of the type (broadly: red or white) and the amount of sugar/alcohol in it! Yay, you!



Now, holding the glass by the stem, swirl the wine to help bring up the aromas. Put your face right down in the glass and take a big old whiff. If you're having some difficulty, you can help by putting your palm over the glass while swirling, then releasing your palm and sticking your face down in the glass.

The folks at UC Davis have come up with a keen little tool called the Wine Aroma Wheel, which can aid you in determining specific aromas in your wine. These are available, oddly enough, at The Wine Aroma Wheel web site. As I said, it is a keen tool, and can be very useful for "serious" tasting, but it is not necessary to the casual taster. It will be useful to keep in mind some broad terms from the Wine Aroma Wheel to help you in your tasting.




Fruity Green Woody Earthy Spicy Floral
citrus fresh/grassy vanilla mushrooms cloves orange blossom
berry cooked veggies oak musty pepper rose
tropical hay coffee anise

Caramelized
honey
butter
chocolate

You should be able to pick out at least two or three different aromas. Talk amongst yourselves, and help each other out!

OK, now you are finally allowed to taste your wine. You've viewed it, perhaps squinting up at it against the light in a most knowledgeable fashion. You've checked out its legs. You've stuck your nose in it. Now, take a sip, letting the wine roll over your whole tongue--you'll taste different elements in different parts of your mouth. Slurping and sloshing and making wise faces are not necessary and are a wee bit pretentious, but you've come this far, so the choice is yours!


Just for fun, taste your wine again with food. Grab some cheese and crackers and taste. Enjoy the flavor of the cheese and cracker, take a sip of the wine and see how it interacts with the food. It's amazing how wine and cheese love each other. Some wines are better with food, and you'll be able to tell immediately. Some are great to sip chilled by the pool. You'll be able to tell that, too.




So, did you find some wine that you liked? How about some you didn't like? See, we told you: there are only two kinds of wine!

Check out this keen wine tasting video, as well.

Examples:

Fire and Wine

My husband and I recently went to California on vacation. While there, we visited some wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties. If you’ve even glanced at a television in the past few weeks, you know that California is burning. While driving through mountain passes and across valleys, we saw the whole spectrum: from huge plumes of smoke rising over ridges to a marked haze in the air even up in the Sierras. In many areas of Northern and Central California, we smelled smoke, often to the point of burning eyes and scratchy throats.

This got us to thinking: what effect do large, long-burning fires have on grape vines, the grapes and on the resulting wines? We asked the question at one winery and were told that there would be very little effect. Frankly, we found this very difficult to believe. In an industry that practically eats, sleeps and breathes terroir, we thought that a large fire would surely have an effect. At another winery located on the western slopes of Spring Mountain above the Sonoma Valley, we again posed this question to our host and tour/tasting guide. He pondered for a couple of minutes as we mulled scenarios from out and out burning of the vines to smoke particles permeating wine skins, to ash sinking into the soil to the effect the smoke would have on the vines’ respiration and ability to photosynthesize.

He thought it was a great question, but although he thought that there would surely be some negative consequences, he did not know for sure. His interest obviously piqued, he went back into the winery where an international Chardonnay tasting was in progress and asked a gentleman who has the distinction of being the only American approved to oversee wine-making operations on the Right Bank of the Bordeaux region in France. He was sure that he would be able to get an answer.

Returning in a few minutes, he said, “yes!” as the short answer. The gentleman said that, short of physically burning, the vines would be most affected by the smoke lingering in the air and that respiration would be compromised. Further, he cited an example in Sonoma County a few years ago in which a small vineyard suffered a large forest fire nearby late in the growing season. The vines were unharmed, but the resulting wines were undrinkable.

Given this information, it will be very interesting to see what sort of wines 2008 produces. Some of the winemakers in small California boutique wineries are doing some great things with their wines, and it would be a shame to see all their work go for nothing this year.