(no subject)

[rivka]

I like drinking wine, but I'm certainly no expert. I don't, for example, know how to talk about wine using the kinds of terms you see in tasting notes (for example, "A medium ruby starting to show some brick at the edges. A clean but modest nose of dark stone fruits and violets. The tannins are smooth and melting away. Blackberries and plums; rose petals. Lovely but starting to fade." Huh?).

So I'm intrigued by these instructions for how to develop a sense of different aromas a wine can have. It explains how to make "standards" to illustrate specific scents - combining a neutral wine (like the kind that comes in a box) with bits of different flavorings. For example:

Asparagus (several drops of brine of canned asparagus)
Bell Pepper (tiny piece of bell pepper - don't leave in too long)
Vanilla (drop of vanilla extract)
Butter (drop of butter extract)
Clove (one clove, don't leave in too long)

He recommends that you get some broadly different wines to taste, and then use the "standards" as a reference to try and identify the different aromas present in the wines.

It seems like a lot of work to set up the standards, but I also think it could be fun. Might be a good idea for a party.

Comments

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

That does sound like a fun idea for a party.

Also, Wine for Dummies is a great book for learning to evaluate wine. The biggest thing is tasting, tasting, tasting. I like tasting wine with other people, because they'll often be able to identify aromas and flavors that I don't have the words for. My best tasting notes come from times when I was discussing the wine with other people who were drinking it.