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Purposes of Wine Tasting
- Quality control during winemaking process
- Assure quality before purchase
- Wine's unique hierarchy of quality
- Food and wine pairing
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Importance of ISO tasting glass
- tulip shape traps aroma of wine in glass
- makes swirling to release aromas easier
- practical--size, robustness, serving size
- colorless--transparent for visual inspection
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Tasting Procedure
- 1. visual inspection
- 2. swirl to liberate and assess aroma
- 3. taste to asses flavor, aroma, tactile sensations
- 4. expectorate (spit)
- 5. consider finish
- 6. take notes during all stages of procedure
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General Serving Order
- 1) Dry whites or sparkling
- 2) Reds
- 3) Sweet whites or sparkling
- 4) fortified wines
- (low to high alcohol content)
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Visual Inspection
- Color--intensity, depth, hue
- Color at edges
- Clarity
- Brilliance
- Sediment
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Aromatic Inspection
- Aroma: describes primary smells derived from grape variety
- Bouquet: describes secondary smells derived from wine aging and winemaking techniques employed
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Key Wine Faults: Acetaldehyde
- sherry aroma from non-sherry
- roasted nuts/dried out straw
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Key Wine Faults: Brettanomyces
barnyard, moldy, gamey horse
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Key Wine Faults: Cork Taint
- damp basement
- wet cardboard
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Key Wine Faults: Ethyl Acetate
- vinegar
- paint thinner
- nail polish remover
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Key Wine Faults: hydrogen sulfide
rotten eggs
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Key Wine Faults: Mercaptans
- burnt rubber
- cooked cabbage
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Key Wine Faults: oxidation
cooked fruits and walnuts
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Key Wine Faults: Sulfur dioxide
- burnt matches
- prickly sensation in nose
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Tasting Assessment (AKA sniff, sip, spit)
- sniff
- take moderate sip size (1/4 to 1/3 mouthful)
- move wine around all surfaces of mouth
- suck air through lips over surface of wine
- assess aroma retro-nasally
- spit
- assess finish--length and flavors
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Acid-tasting substances in wines: from GRAPES
- tartaric acid
- malic acid
- citric acid
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Acid-tasting substances in wines: from FERMENTATION
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3 of 5 basic tastes in wine
- Sweet (sugar and alcohol)
- Sour (acids)
- Bitter (phenolics)
- SALTY AND UMAMI SHOULD NOT BE IN WINE
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Tactile Sensations in Mouth
- Body/viscosity
- Tingling (spritz)
- Mouth-coating
- Astringency
- Effervescence (prickliness from bubbles)
- Thermal
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Well-chilled wines are of _____ quality
poor; bad or no aromatics
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