Wining with Jerry Welcome back. I believe we left off with taste. Tasting requires you to appreciate the flavors in the wine and how they marry with the scents you have previously identified. This marriage is important, as what we taste is in large portion a reflection of scent. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself why everything loses flavor when you are sick and have a clogged nose. When we eat, we engage the retro-nasal passage that actually continues to smell as we chew, or in this case, sip. The best method for tasting wine properly involves placing the wine in your mouth and slowly drawing air over the top through a slow inhalation. This creates a bit of a slurping sound that permeates every tasting room I have ever been in. It is a talent that comes with practice. Don’t be afraid to try, even if you end up spilling a bit of wine down the front of your shirt. I know the first time I certainly did! Next, again try to identify the flavors present in the wine. Are they fruit driven or more earthy? Do you taste fig, currant, kirsch, toast, mushroom, truffle, lemon grass, tobacco or clove? There is nothing wrong with any description you come up with, truly. I have heard some intriguing descriptors in my time
acidic wine will often come off as bright, lively, refreshing and juicy. This is caused by your body’s natural reaction to acid. When you put something acidic in your mouth, you tend
and, so long as they get the point across, they were perfectly acceptable. Next is texture. This is much easier to appreciate. Texture is a relation of acid, tannin, glycerin and a few other components. There are all sorts of methods wine makers can use or manipulate to influence texture in wine. Different grapes behave differently on their own. Some are very tannic, naturally. Tannins cause the rough texture you feel on your tongue when you drink hot tea gone cold. In wine, tannins can be rough and aggressive or velvety and caressing. Usually trannins are only discussed with red wine. With white wine, much of the texture is derived from the wine’s acidity. An
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to salivate as your saliva is alkaline and counteracts the acid. This phenomenon creates a “juicy” feeling to the wine. If a wine is low in acid, it tends to be seem fat, soft and round. You remember that sweetness is a texture too, right? Now, for those of you who are exceptionally astute, you will have realized that I am missing a sense, aren’t I? That’s right, sound. Sound can’t possibly be associated with wine, right? Wrong. Well, wrong-ish. Most wines start with the best sound in
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the world. The sound of a cork being drawn from a bottle. What wonderful memories I have that start with that brilliant sound! These days many wines are bottled under screwcap and that sound is becoming a thing of the past. However, certain regions will always have cork in the bottles and, of course, there will always be Champagne. But that, dear friends, is another article entirely. To welcome the arrival of autumn, this month’s recommendations are for warm, approachable domestic red blends. These wines feature denser, more concentrated flavor profiles that offer relative complexity at attractive prices. • Apothic Red (loads of character for everyday drinking), under $10 • Clayhouse Adobe Red (an intriguing “kitchen sink” blend, well crafted and tasty) under $15 • Orin Swift The Prisoner (a superbly balanced, yet hefty wine for contemplation and conversation) under $35 Wine questions? Send them to yourownwineguy@yahoo.com
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www.AllegraBanquets.com October 2011 • People & Places 17