A short tool belt for blind tastings:
What a Wine’s Color May Reveal:
Pay particular attention to the color of the wine, especially the colors displayed around the rim of the wine in the glass. Young white wines usually begin with lighter colors such as a pale straw yellow with a tinge of green which is always a bit of a give-away that the wine is young. With age however, the whites tend to become much darker yellow to perhaps even brownish tones after several years of aging. In reds, look for purple color in very young wines with a clear watery rim. With age, reds tend to turn more garnet, especially around the rim and can eventually appear amber to brown over time. With practice, you may miss the
Pay particular attention to the color of the wine, especially the colors displayed around the rim of the wine in the glass. Young white wines usually begin with lighter colors such as a pale straw yellow with a tinge of green which is always a bit of a give-away that the wine is young. With age however, the whites tend to become much darker yellow to perhaps even brownish tones after several years of aging. In reds, look for purple color in very young wines with a clear watery rim. With age, reds tend to turn more garnet, especially around the rim and can eventually appear amber to brown over time. With practice, you may miss the
vintage a bit, but you should nail the relative difference in age just from paying attention to the color. One more thing to remember is that you can make a white wine from a red grape but not a red wine from a white grape.
Varietal Character and Flavor Profiles:
If a Granny Smith apple taste like a Granny Smith apple, then that Granny Smith apple is said to possess good varietal character. Only thing is, you have to know what a Granny Smith apple is supposed to taste like. The same thing can be said of wines. Each grape variety used to produce wine should produce a wine with a flavor profile that is consistent enough to identify the grape variety,thus one must know these flavor profiles in order to determine if a wine has true varietal character. If a wine possesses good varietal character, then that counts as an important quality attribute for the wine, and can help one identify the grape variety used.
Old World/New World
Old world wines are those produced from the old world regions such as those in Europe. New World wines are those generally produced everywhere else such as Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, and the US. Old World wines in general can tend to be a little less expressive in that they don’t always exactly jump out of the glass, but on the other hand may produced more subtle flavors and interests that just keep on coming taste after taste, or in other words be much bigger in complexity. Old world wines also tend to get better with age so may tend to have more tannin, acid, or residual sugar to better preserve them over a longer laying down or cellaring period. New world wines tend to be styled more toward drinking early and many times possess richer
Old world wines are those produced from the old world regions such as those in Europe. New World wines are those generally produced everywhere else such as Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, and the US. Old World wines in general can tend to be a little less expressive in that they don’t always exactly jump out of the glass, but on the other hand may produced more subtle flavors and interests that just keep on coming taste after taste, or in other words be much bigger in complexity. Old world wines also tend to get better with age so may tend to have more tannin, acid, or residual sugar to better preserve them over a longer laying down or cellaring period. New world wines tend to be styled more toward drinking early and many times possess richer
fruit up front with more relaxed tannins. Those whose grapes are produced in warmer climates may possess more tropical characteristics in their flavor profiles and be richer in color. If you are acutely aware of where quality grape varieties are produced, and aware of their flavor profiles, you may be able to narrow down old or new world and have a good shot at possibly identifying not only what the grape variety is, but where it was most likely produced.
Connectedness
A strange term, but very important when evaluating wine quality and identifying where a wine is from. The French have a term “terroir” which embodies the entire environment of a grape’s character that includes the soil, the climate, the weather, and any other environmental factor that is important in producing the perfect varietal specimen. That is why they only allow certain grapes to be grown in certain regions, and even refer to the wine by regional name instead of by grape varietal names. Many believe that each different terroir will produce a unique flavor profile for any given grape variety, so that with training, one can identify where any wine’s grapes were grown. This difference or this attribute that “connects” a grape with a unique place on earth is a high quality attribute known as “connectedness”. An example would be the rich limestone minerality of the Chardonnay grapes produced only in Chablis, France or the fresh cut grassiness of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or even the eucalyptus from the Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Coonawarra, Australia. This quality attribute may be the give- away when identifying the region where a wine comes from.
A strange term, but very important when evaluating wine quality and identifying where a wine is from. The French have a term “terroir” which embodies the entire environment of a grape’s character that includes the soil, the climate, the weather, and any other environmental factor that is important in producing the perfect varietal specimen. That is why they only allow certain grapes to be grown in certain regions, and even refer to the wine by regional name instead of by grape varietal names. Many believe that each different terroir will produce a unique flavor profile for any given grape variety, so that with training, one can identify where any wine’s grapes were grown. This difference or this attribute that “connects” a grape with a unique place on earth is a high quality attribute known as “connectedness”. An example would be the rich limestone minerality of the Chardonnay grapes produced only in Chablis, France or the fresh cut grassiness of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or even the eucalyptus from the Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Coonawarra, Australia. This quality attribute may be the give- away when identifying the region where a wine comes from.
Lowell Faucette 10/23/2011
