16 posts
A wine maker using a Wine Thief to remove wine from a barrel for tasting Winemakers rely heavily on their senses of smell and taste to evaluate the evolution of their wine from the grapes in the vineyard to the final product that goes in the bottle...
While our tongue is only able to detect five basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory), our nose is capable of detecting millions of different aromas. And that’s how we enjoy all the wonderful “flavors” that food and drinks have to offer. ...
I had a recent conversation with another wine lover who complained that whenever their mother came over for a glass of wine she would down it like ice water. And, they noted, they had been serving their mother “really good bottles of wine.” So, they...
Wines regularly get described by their aromas – floral, citrus, green apple, melon, herbal, cherry, plum and spice. But, Riesling – can it really include the aroma of petrol? A lot of people might assume a bottle of Riesling must have gone bad if th...
Well, first let me start by saying you can never have too much wine, right? While that may be true, you can actually have too much wine in your glass. Pouring the ‘right’ amount of wine into a wine glass can actually enhance your enjoyment of the wi...
Recently, I posted a piece discussing how fermentation and aging affect a wine’s aroma. But, it was brought to my attention that the terms aroma and bouquet are different when it comes to wines. So, here’s a quick summary of each: Aroma - Each grap...
Last time we looked specifically at how oak affects the flavor of wine. There we learned that oak can be used in the fermentation process and/or the aging process to add various flavors to the wine. But before you take a first sip of wine, swirl your...
When I first became interested in wines, I remember asking if other fruits were used in the production of wines. After all, so many wines smell and taste like a lot of fruits other than grapes. So, if grapes are the only fruits used in wine making, h...
In a recent blog, I asked “What do you smell when you smell wine?” In wines, especially the red wines, there are a multitude of aromas that can be detected, with a little practice. And, these aromas play an important part in how the wine tastes. I w...
Wine is often described as having aromas of fruits, flowers and spices. But, what do you smell when you smell wine? The most common response from those just starting to like wine is “It smells like wine.” Well, that’s a good start. But, there’s so...
I recently read a piece in Wine Spectator (March 31, 2018) by Matt Kramer. It was titled “It’s Really Very Simple.” He started off by stating “The temptation for all wine evangelists…is to somehow make wine simple.” He then goes on to say “Although t...
Have you ever noticed that wines can taste really good at a restaurant, wine bar or especially at a winery? It’s the whole experience, not just the aromas and flavors, that affect our sense of taste. As I’ve discovered, a $15 bottle of wine, when se...
During a recent wine tasting, one opinion given of the wine was that it was sweet. My reaction was that it wasn’t sweet at all. So, how can a wine seem sweet and not sweet at the same time? Well, as you’d expect, everyone’s perception of taste is di...
While our tongue is only able to detect five basic tastes, our nose is capable of detecting millions of different aromas. When wine tasting, one of the Five S’s is smell. You stick your nose into the wine glass and take a sniff. You can get a very ...
Last time we took a quick run through how wine is made. And you may have noticed that there are only two ingredients in wine: grapes and yeast. Yet, white wines can be described as having flavors that include lemon, lime, grapefruit, apple, peach, p...
Ever wonder why people swirl their glass of wine? Is this just something that wine snobs do? Or is it a kind of nervous habit? Are they doing it so they can examine the ‘legs’ of the wine? Or, are they doing it just to look cool? What’s the point?...