Wine evaluation | Wine is not nice!

By Charl Theron

Too often we hear people giving bland descriptions of the world around us. If you have landed at Cape Town International Airport, you have probably heard the pilot announcing that passengers will see a bay on their left hand side, a mountain in front of them and an island on the right hand side. By simply adding the word False in front of Bay, Table in front of Mountain and Robben in front of Island‚ the entire announcement becomes far more interesting. An example of a bland approach to describing wine is when someone says this tastes nice. This usually happens when someone does not know how to describe the wine or does not want to be rude.

Wine is evaluated by using a variety of senses. The result of the wine evaluation can lead to a meaningful and very specific description, which can be shared with and understood by anybody who is familiar with the terminology that is used. The use of our eyes, nose and palate in the evaluation of wine can open up a world of descriptive terms.

One of the easiest ways to evaluate wine is by using our eyes. By simply looking at wine in a clear glass the degree of clarity, also known as the condition of the wine, and the colour of the wine can be evaluated. Consumers prefer wines to be clear and not cloudy or have any sediment or crystals. The colour of wine ranges from pale like water through straw-coloured, different intensities of green and amber to different intensities of red ranging from light red to nearly black.

Smelling a wine is an important step in the evaluation process. By nosing a wine many people are able to identifying the type of grapes used or the style of the specific wine. Popular examples of style include special late harvest wine, port, sherry and muscadel. A variety of aroma profiles are available to assist tasters in their evaluation of a wine’s aroma. A hierarchy of descriptions are usually used for that purpose. Firstly a wine can be described as muscat, non-muscat or aromatic. Muscat is the flavour associated with Hanepoot grapes, which are usually sold as table grapes. Non-muscat is used to describe flavours that are not similar to Hanepoot grapes and Aromatic is used to describe overwhelming flavours. Examples of aromatic wines are intense Sauvignon blancs (asparagus, green figs and green pepper), Riesling (fruit) or Gewurztraminer (spices or rose petals) wines. Once a wine has been categorised as muscat, non-muscat or aromatic, it can further be described as fruity, flowery, greenish and by any other terms that the taster associates with their perception of the wine.

Eventually wines are tasted. This is actually a continuation of the flavour evaluation since the flavour components are transferred from the nasal areas to the back of the mouth. It is also important to remember that wines are made to be drunk, not to be looked at, talked about and sniffed. That is why it is so important that a wine is finally evaluated on the palate. Although the human palate can only differentiate between sweet, salty, bitter and acidic (wines cannot be salty) a range of perceptions like tannic, smooth, astringent, thin and watery exist to describe the tasting experience.

Does anyone disagree that being able to describe a wine as a clear, greenish, non-muscat wine with a floral flavour and a dry taste is far more interesting than describing a wine as nice?

Back to SmartyPants Newsletter - December 2009 Edition
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.