Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wine Selection: Catering to Good Taste

By Tony Hampton

If you have ever tried wine tasting you will have found its quite easy. You don't need to be an expert and can even begin without any recognized training. Etiquette come first so always serve the ladies before the gentlemen. Water at room temperature is normally served at any good wine tasting parties. The waster is used to clean your taste buds ready for the next and most probably completely different type of wine. The water is not to be very cold as this can shock your palate which can change the taste of the wine dramatically.

Holding the wine glass by the stem and not the bowl in the palm of your hand is very important when it comes to wine tasting. One thing that people don't realize is that the palm of your hand is warm and this can warm up the wine therefore changing the taste.

Most individuals think that wine tasting is just a matter of rolling the wine around your mouth before you either spit it out or swallow.

Looking at the colour is the first thing you should do when wine tasting. Make sure the glass you have been given is clean and easy to see through otherwise you can't see the true color of the wine. To be able to see the wine and its true color clearly you should use a white background, some people use a white table cloth. White wines are not always pure white, sometimes they are a shade of green, yellow and even brown. For red wines, you will observe that it also has different shades of red, the lighter the color of the red wine is, the older it is.

Try doing a rim test and look at the color of the wine, this can give you some indication as to the age or flavor. Just tilt the glass and look at the wine, if it is purplish in color, it indicates that the wine is young, if it is brownish, it means that it is an older wine.

Testing the scent is the next step and this is done by swirling the wine around the glass to mix in the air and then breath fully through the nose after placing the glass just above your top lip. The wine could have been in the bottle for a little as six months to many years so by swirling the wine you will be releasing the flavors. It's like cooking at home where you stir the food in order for you to blend the flavor.

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