Wine Fundamentals: Examining Wines

[image width=”250″ height=”250″ lightbox=”false” align=”right” src=”https://winebutler.ca/dev/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3.jpg”] The initial step in tasting a wine takes place before you in fact taste the wine. When the wine was initially poured into your glass– prior to swirling it, smelling it, or drinking it– just take a look at it. The reason you take a look at the wine is to get a sense of its color, as a wine’s color can tell you a lot about the wine you’ll be drinking. When doing this, many individuals prefer to hold their glass of wine against a white background, as that helps you see the tone of the color more easily.

So why do we appreciate color? The first thing to keep in mind is that the color of a wine originates from contact with the grape skins after the grapes have actually been juiced. The longer the wine can be found in contact with those skins, the more those skins will certainly impart their color on the wine. Quick aside– if you skinned the grapes and juiced them, never ever letting them be available in contact with their skins, the resulting wine would have no color at all! Because the grape skins have a lot of their own qualities, similar to the zest of an orange has purer orange taste, or an apple skin includes more fiber than the meat, the longer the skin of a grape touches with the wine, the more of its own features it imparts. On top of this, oak can also help make colors lighter or darker, so understanding color, particularly for white wines, can assist individuals who do not such as oaky white wines avoid them.

Let’s Begin With White Wine

Very first look at the shade of yellow. Is the yellow extremely light and bright, approaching clear, or is the yellow deep and complete, practically approaching the color of straw? Light and bright white wines that you can see through have actually had minimal contact with the grape skins and are usually crisp and rejuvenating, like lemonade on a hot summer day. Usually, these wines have not been aged in an oak barrel.

If the wine is darker and deeper in yellow, then this is generally a great sign that the wine was aged in an oak barrel. It will certainly have a smoother taste and will be much fuller and richer.

Now Let’s Take a look at Red Wine

The same steps hold true when examining a red just like a white. Beginning by looking at the shade of red wine in your glass If the wine is light red, even approaching pink, it should taste light and bright. It could even be a little tart or “fresh” tasting and that is because the lighter the red of a wine, the less most likely that it was ever aged in oak, and oak is exactly what assists round and mellow a wine.

As the color of the merlot gets darker and darker, approaching the colors of maroon and purple, the red will end up being much bolder and richer. These types of red wine are the ones you think of when you believe red wine and steak dinner, and the darker and much deeper the color, the longer they have actually invested aging in an oak barrel.

Now that you’re a specialist in analyzing and understanding the color of the wine you’re going to consume, it’s time to swirl it around your glass.