Get the most out of your glass of wine: Swirl it!
The weekend is on sight! If you still don’t have your plans figured out, keep reading because we have a great tip for you: Meet up with a bunch of friends and go wine tasting! You may have noticed that the times of “just drinking wine” are way over. What we do now is way more exciting; we taste, experience and appreciate wine. You can learn so much from just one sip! Now worries though, wine tasting is not exactly rocket science and by following these easy tips, you will understand the basics. So, get ready and learn how to taste wine like a pro!
Step 1: Have a good look at your wine First thing first, look straight down into the glass. You know what they say: in vino veritas, in aqua sanitas. But it is not the truth you are trying to see, so raise your glass and hold it to the light. Then, give it a little tilt and make the wine roll toward the glass edges. This way, you will get to see the complete colour range. Just from inspecting a colour, wine experts could tell you about the wine’s age and weight and also identify certain varietal grapes. A quick tip for beginners would be: In general, young wines have rich, saturated colour with a bright glow whereas old wines have, due to the loss of acidity, a dull colour.
Step 2: Swirl it! Raise all the aromas by giving your glass a good swirl. If you don’t feel like risking spilling your wine by “open air” swirling, you can go for an easier, safer and a bit less impressive method of swirling it firmly on a table. Do not forget to have a good look at all the shape of “tears” running down the side of the glass. The wines with nice tears have higher alcohol and glycerin content which usually indicate higher density.
Step 3: Sniff it: Fruits, Herbs, Spices, Leaves, Wine barrel This is by far the most important step, so if you only want to do one thing, do this! Take a quick, deep sniffs and appreciate everything wine can offer. There are thousands of aroma components so don’t pressure yourself to name them all J Have fun guessing and don’t give up, because practice makes master!
Step 4: Sip Finally, the moment you have been probably waiting for – sip and enjoy! Take as many sips as you need to appreciate the texture, further aromas activated by the warmth in your mouth and all the bold and delicate flavours, but try to avoid huge gulps because you have many wines to taste.
Tip: Always hold the glass by its stem! Holding it by the bowl can result into temperature change which will affect the flavor of your wine.
You don’t have to travel far to experience a real wine tasting. On the contrary, you can have a perfect experience in the heart of Bangkok. For example, pop into Wine Connection in Sathorn and explore the exciting world of wine with WineEmotion systems. WineEmotion will serve you a perfect glass so you can taste as much as you want until you find that perfect bottle.
Source: Joe Roberts for fix.com; Paul Gregutt for winemag.com. Photo credit: fix.com
Posted on: 24.04.2015
