Margriet Vandezande – Crump

Wine has long been a staple at the dinner table in many cultures, evolving with the culinary traditions of a region. Ordinarily, wine was chosen because of it’s locality. However, with more choice of produce and progressive styles comes a need for a carefully selected wine list.

In choosing suitable characters for the wine list here at The Oxford Blue there are certain elements in both the food and wine that I look for and try to match and finding the right combination of these elements will hopefully make the entire dining experience more enjoyable.

So, what do I look for when I’m tasting a wine?

Sweetness: aka “Level of Dryness”

Sweetness starts at the tip of our tongue. Often, the very first impression of a wine is its level of sweetness. Believe it or not, many dry wines can have a hint of sweetness to carry a larger impression of body.

How to Taste it in Wine

•     Tingling sensation on the tip of your tongue.
•     Slight oily sensation in the middle of your tongue that lingers.
•     Wine has a higher viscosity; tears appear on side of glass.
•     A bone-dry wine can often be confused with a wine with high Tannin

Acidity: Wrapping Your Head Around It

Acidity in food and drink is tart and zesty. Tasting acidity is often confused with the taste of higher alcohol. It is common for wines grown in cooler vintages to have higher acidity. Wines with higher acidity feel lighter weight because they come across as ‘spritzy.’ If you prefer a wine that is more rich and round, you enjoy slightly less acidity.

Acidity Characteristics

•     Tingling sensation that focuses on the front and sides of your tongue.
•     If you rub your tongue to the roof of your mouth it feels gravelly.
•     Your mouth feels wet, like you bit into an apple.

Tannin: The Misunderstood Wine Characteristic

Tannin is often confused with Level of Dryness because tannin dries your mouth.

Tannin in wine is the presence of phenolic compounds that add bitterness to a wine. Found in the skins and seeds of wine grapes, tannin can also be added to a wine with the use of aging in oak. If you’ve ever had a strong cup of black tea, you’ve tasted tannin. It’s very bitter and has a drying sensation and is often described as astringent.

Tannin, although it sounds like it’s not something you want in your wine, actually adds balance, complexity, structure and makes the wine last longer.

How Does a High Tannin Wine Taste?

•     Tastes bitter on the front inside of your mouth and along the side of your tongue.
•     Tannin makes your tongue dry out.
•     After you swallow you feel a lingering bitter/dry feeling in your mouth.
•     Tannin can often be confused with the term “dry” because it dries your mouth out.

Fruit: Identifying Different Flavours

Wines are often characterized by their main fruit flavours, and the level of fruitiness that you taste in a wine leads to very different growing regions. Tasting for fruit flavours in a wine can help you better define what you’re looking for and how that might add or subtract to the flavour of the dish you are pairing. For example, wines that have strawberry notes lead into a very different set of varietal wines than enjoying wines that taste like blackberries.

Tasting for fruitiness in a wine

•     Red Wine: red fruits such as raspberry or dark fruits like blackberry and blueberry?
•     White Wine: Lemon and Lime or Peach and Yellow Apple?
•     Does a wine give you stronger impressions of other flavours such as grass, bell pepper, black pepper, olive or meat?

Body: Light to Full-Bodied.

Body is the result of many factors – from wine variety; where it’s from; vintage; alcohol level and how it’s made. Body is a snapshot of the overall impression of a wine.

The alcohol level ABV (or Alcohol by Volume) adds body. The wine will have a higher viscosity which is easily seen in watching it bead on the side of the glass. A high alcohol wine typically tastes fuller bodied than a light-alcohol wine.

Tasting body in wine

•     How long does the taste last in your mouth after you’ve swallowed? 5 seconds? 40 seconds?
•     Is the wine full bodied up front but then drops off at the finish?