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Ten Ways to Improve Wine Tasting Skills |
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Written by foodie pam
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Saturday, 30 September 2006 |
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I love wine but I must admit I'm not very skilled at describing the characteristics of the wines I drink. Simply saying it tastes good isn't where I want to be. Instead, I yearn to be able to describe exactly what it is I like or dislike about a particular wine. So, I'm trying to improve my wine tasting skills. Today, I thought I'd share some of the ways I've been going about doing this or in some cases want to go about doing this. - Compare several wines from the same varietal. While most Chardonnays have similar characteristics each will be distinct. This is similar for other varietals. One way to learn about these differences is by opening a few bottles of the same varietal and comparing each side-by-side.
- Compare the same wine over several vintages. Not only do differences exist within the same varietals of different wines, but differences also exist within the same wine over different vintages. Sometimes these vintage differences can be quite striking. If you can find several different vintages of the same wine and compare them against each other it can be very useful in learning how to detect differences in wines.
- Compare several different types of wine. Whereas comparing the same varietal allows you to detect somewhat subtle differences, comparing very different varietals allows you to detect the vast array of wine tasting options available.
- Go to wine tastings at wine stores and/or wineries. My area has several wine stores that host their own wine tastings (The Wine Club , the Grapevine/Good Eats wine shops, Bev-mo , and others). During these wine tastings you can talk with the person pouring the wine and discuss what you taste. In most cases that person has a wealth of knowledge that you can feed upon to increase your tasting skills. Also, since you taste several wines at once you can compare the wines and learn what the differences are.
- Taste wine with friends who enjoy wine. I've found that tasting wines with others, even if they are not wine professionals, provides a great opportunity for learning more about wines. Especially if the people I taste with are better at describing the wine than I am. This need not be an wine specific event it can just be part of normal social interactions where wine is served.
- Host a wine tasting party. Tasting and discussing wine with your friends and comparing multiple wines is easy when you have a wine tasting party. These parties can focus on a single type of wine (see #1), on a flight of the same wine over several vintages (see #2), or on several different wines (see #3). Husband and I did this for a recent Malbec Wine Tasting Party . Doing this helped us learn about Malbec, a wine from South America, that we didn't know much about. Interestingly, it also helped us validate our wine tasting abilities in that we and our guests agreed on nearly the same wine ranking.
- Read about wine and wine tasting. Wine books and wine related articles can help you understand the breadth of wine characteristics and the terms used to describe those characteristics. While reading won't allow you to relate tastes or smells you experience for a specific wine it can help you understand what others are saying about the wine.
- Go to a wine tasting seminar. Formal wine tasting seminars are aimed specifically at learning about wine tasting. While these seminars can be helpful, I've not actually gone to one yet because I'd like to gather a bit more experience tasting wine first in hopes of maximizing my learning ability.
- Learn what the different wine smells are. Wine Enthusiast sells a couple of really neat, but unfortunately not very cheap, wine boquet kits. In these kit, 12 or 36 aromas are provided along with details on how to use the kit to improve you nose at detecting the nose of the wine. I haven't tried this yet but it’s on my "I want list"...
- Drink lots of wine! Clearly, anyone interested in learning how to fully experience wine must drink lots of wine. So enjoy, but as always, be sure to do it safely and not drive if you've been tasting...
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Last Updated ( Monday, 02 October 2006 )
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