"Yes, That's Wine!"

Last night I was re watching one of my favourite British comedians - Michael McIntyre sketch on the bizarre ritual of ordering wine in a restaurant. Prior to this class I feel that I took a role in the overall game that is the wine ordering process when no one understands what they are doing. Then ultimately - someone tastes it and says the very solid "Yes" - when often they did not know what they were tasting for. As part of this course I have developed me knowledge around wine tasting so wanted to summarise some of the basics of what I have learned: 

Hold the glass: Always use the stem so you don't warm the wine with your hand.

Take a look in your glass: Hold up a glass to light, and note the colour. Is it dark, rich, hard to see through? Or is it like coloured glass, easy to see through?

Give it a smell: Your nose does a lot of the hard work in identifying flavors. Do you smell a fruit? Now give it a swirl. Make sure your nose is close enough that you can pick up important notes (notes is wine-speak for aromas or flavors).

Take a sip: Try sipping a bit of wine with air in your mouth so you can aerate the wine itself. Swirl it around your mouth for a moment, so the different parts of the tongue. After a few seconds of pondering time, you can swallow. 

To help with tasting I found it useful to learn more about the aspects of a wine. 

Body: Alcohol gives wine weight. If a wine feels heavy, it often has a higher alcohol content. 

Fruit: This is where the wine falls on the scale between fruity and savory. 

Acid: If the wine has medium to high acid, it can make your mouth water, often described as "juicy." Too much acid can feel like sucking on a lemon.

Tannin, astringency or texture: Found primarily in reds, tannin comes from the skin, seeds and stems of grapes. In the mouth, tannin might feel like sucking on a napkin, as if the moisture has left your mouth. 

These short notes have helped me develop my thinking around wine tasting - now I hope to further develop these over time.