Basics of Wine Evaluation 25
simple. Persistency of the aroma deals with how long the aroma sticks with you: after you
smell the wine, does the aroma quickly fade from your senses or does it linger for some
time?
!Bouquet. The termsbouquetandaromaare often used interchangeably. Strictly speak-
ing, these mean two different things.Aromarefers to the smell of a young wine; it is also
used generically when discussing the smell of wine. Aromas are developed either naturally
based on the varietal or created due to the winemaking techniques used.Bouquetrefers to
the smell that develops once the wine is bottled. This can be a function of the aging process,
and thus bouquet represents the smell of a mature wine. Basically, the concept of bouquet
embraces any physical and chemical changes that impact the wine’s smell once the wine is
put into the bottle.^5
! Sipping, Swallowing, Spitting. The act of tasting is fairly easy to describe in
general terms, but in practice the specific technique varies from one taster to the next.
Basically, wine is drawn into the mouth and brought into contact with different parts of the
mouth and tongue. The liquid may be kept in contact with parts of the palate for a short
period or a longer time. Tasters may make tongue and cheek movements as well as suck in
a little or a lot of air to further aerate the wine. Then, some or the entire wine sample can
be swallowed or spat out depending on the purpose of the tasting. For amateur or social
events that involve wine tasting, there is generally little reason to spit out the wine during
the tasting process. For tastings involving a specific sensory evaluation purpose and involving
more than just a few wines, spitting is a necessary part of the process. In any tasting situation,
the palate can quickly become fatigued. When the tasting involves alcohol, the ability to use
our senses as an analytic tool quickly deteriorates. Sommeliers and other wine professionals
may need to taste a couple of hundred wines each week. Swallowing all of that wine would
have detrimental effects on their evaluation abilities as well as their health.
The Taste of Wine: Taste Examination In general, the primary taste
components in wine include sweetness, acidity, and the balance between the two (and to a
much lesser extent levels of saltiness and bitterness). There are also several tactile elements
that provide important areas of differentiation, particularly in the wine and food matching
process. These elements create a feeling of texture and body in wine and include tannin,
alcohol level, and an assessment of overall body. The assessment of overall body is derived
from tannin and alcohol but also the amount of extract and oak. Extract is the particles of
fruit that remains in the finished wine and can create a more intense mouthfeel. Oak may
be used in the process of aging wine and has an impact on a wine’s body, color and flavor.
Oak can be thought of as a winemaker’s ‘‘marinade.’’^6 Depending on wine traditions in the
region and preferences of the winemaker, wine can have no oak aging or substantial aging
in oak. The amount of color, flavor, and body oak imparts to the finished wine is impacted
by several variables: the length of time the wine is left in oak, the type of oak (typically
American or French), the age of the barrels (how many times they have been used), the
barrel size, and how dark the inside of the barrel has been ‘‘toasted.’’
Wine can also be evaluated on its flavor. Several factors are important to consider here.
The first consideration is identifying the type or types of flavors present. This process is
partially completed during the smell portion of the process but also during actual tasting
process. Flavors can be identified as odors prior to taking any wine into the mouth. Flavors
can also be identified in what is called a retronasal process.^7 As the wine enters the back of
your mouth, you will be able to pick up flavors that are entering your nasal cavity from the
interior of your mouth (recall your lack of ability to taste when you have a head cold).
! Savoring. Two other elements of flavor are needed during wine evaluation and in
determining good wine and food matches: flavor intensity (that is, how weak or powerful
the flavor elements are) and flavor persistence. It is important to consider flavor intensity in
both wine and food so that both take center stage in the pairing process rather than one