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Winning With
Wine !
Our events - Catering Not
Included
* Blind Tasting Challenges - Guess !
* Burgundy Tasting
* Bordeaux Tasting
* New World verses Old World Challenges
* Country Quiz Challenge (Italian, French, Spanish etc)
Planning a successful wine tasting, or trying to match wines
with a gourmet meal, can be overwhelming. All too often,
sommeliers suggest wines that you've never heard of. Their
recommendations could be great advice, but they could also be
based on their own personal preferences - or on which selections
are most profitable for the house. In any scenario, the best way
to make an informed choice for your group is to know the basic,
and speak with authority.
Choosing
the right wine
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Step No: 1
| Check the colour and clarity of the
wine.
Deep red implies a wine that is full-bodied (like whole milk),
dry (no sweetness), and tannic (leaves a dry sensation in the
mouth). On the other hand, the texture of a light-coloured red
will be more like skimmed milk, and it is more likely to have a
touch of sugar that will keep your mouth from feeling dry.
Wine should always be clear, with no cloudiness and no visible
particles. If you choose and old red wine (typically more than
eight years) or a port, it may need to be decanted to separate
the clear wine from the tannins that have |
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side of the bottle. Reds should be served at 50 to 65 degrees
Fahrenheit, cooler than the temperature of most wine storage
rooms.
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White wines don't have tannins, but darker whites typically have
more body than the lighter whites. The amount of sugar usually
depends on the type of grape that dominates and the way the wine
is made (vinified). White wines range in sweetness from a sweet
Gewurztraminer (type of grape) to a bone dry Sancerre made
from the sauvignon grape.
Step No: 2 | Check the aroma of the
wine.
Technically, aroma is the smell of a young wine and bouquet is
the smell of the wine that has been aged, but often - and in the
article these terms are used interchangeably. Swirl the wine in
your glass to help release its fragrance; the glass should be
filled no more than half way.
With practice, one can swirl a wine glass in the air but for
beginners, moving the glass around in a small circle whilst it
sits on the tabletop works just as well.
To maximise the bouquet, put your nose into the bowl of the
glass and breath deeply. Exhale and repeat twice. Certain aromas
are associated with different grapes. Expect the scent of
strawberry or raspberry in a young Beaujolais; the smell of
apple, pear and flowers from a chardonnay; and a heavier mixture
of dark cherries, black pepper-corns, and oak from old
cabernets.
Step No: 3 | Taste the wine.
Take a small snip of wine and roll it around the tongue to best
appreciate flavour nuances. Think in terms of
"chewing" rather than drinking. You're looking for a
balance of flavour components. The sweetness of the wine will be
detected on the tip of the tongue. The taste buds along the back
side of the tongue respond to the acids in the wine - most
pronounced in white wines produced in cold climates, but all
wines need at least a touch of acid to be balanced. The back of
the tongue picks up any bitterness (typically in red wines with
excess tannin). High-alcohol wines will leave a "hot"
sensation in the middle of the tongue. The taste of some wines
will quickly fade whereas others will afford a long
"finish".
The body of a wine is most easy to detect just behind the tip of
the tongue, and it's important component of pairing wine with
food. The light, skimmed milk body of a pinot grigio is perfect
for sipping during an al fresco cocktail party or to accompany
light foods. A whole milk - body wine like a vintage Bordeaux
goes best with heavier foods and sauces that can stand up to the
tannin and oak.
The Glass and the Grape
The taste of the wine depends in part on the design of the
glass. Large-bowl stemware is the best for full-aroma reds that
release enough "nose" - another term for the smell of
the wine - to fill the bowl.
Type of Tastings
There are many superior vintages that could be included -
particularly 1996,1990 and 1985 - all of which share some
characteristics of fine, aggressive red wines but also exhibit
differences as a result of their various production years. If
you add a 2001 vintage as well, it will demonstrate how a bold
red needs time to mature.
For any group, "blind" wine tasting can be lots of
fun. The simplest blind tasting asks participants to identify
the grape from which the wine was made. More challenging tasks
may include asking the group to identify the producer and even
the year !
Pairing Food and Wine
The most effective tasting is one which food is paired with
wines. But this is also the most difficult type of tasting to
effectively orchestrate. It's not as simple as pairing red wine
with meat and white wine with fish. The cooking technique and
the seasoning used in cooking impact the interaction of food
with wine. For example, a brut (devoid of sugar) champagne goes
very well with zabaglione, but if the chef garnishes it with a
sprinkle of cardamom the champagne takes on a metallic taste.
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