Pip's Tips: How to taste a wine

These are a few tips from me as how to taste a wine. They start with the appearance of the wine and then on to the nose and palate. If you try and taste some wines whilst looking at this list then it will allow you to appreciate the wines and help you understand them as they tend to be pretty complex things. So give it a go! 

Appearance

It is important to look at the wine before you smell it as it can tell you a lot about the wine before you even start!

1. Colour

-This can give an indication of how old the wine is.

- For White wines, a lemon/ light green colour means that it is a young wine, an older wine will be a darker yellow colour, verging on brown in some instances. This darker colour comes from the barrels that it is fermented in.

- The colour in Red wines can show the body of the wine. A light red colour will mean it is lighter and a dark red colour will have more depth and body. To see the colour of the red, look at the edges of the glass.

2. Tears/ Legs

When you swill the wine around the glass and let it settle you can see the wine marks on the side of the glass – these are called the tears or legs. They come from the amount of glycerol in the wine, so if there are more legs then the wine has more body and a higher sugar content. They are generally more apparent in Red wines. It shows how ‘heavy’ the wine is.

Nose

You can gather a lot about the wine just by smelling it. It helps to give the wine a swill around the glass first and also to have a sip of it as this allows the flavours to develop and change in your airways.

1. Smell

- Check that the smell is clean first and that it does not have cork taint or smell ‘off’.

- It is easy to pick up 2 aromas to begin with. These tend to be either fruity or floral scents. After your first sip of the wine, smell again and the flavours will change and become more apparent- you will be able to pick up other scents like vegetal/ spicy/ earthy etc.

- When you swill the wine you bring oxygen in to the wine which releases flavour but also the alcoholic scent.

- You can smell the age. If it is a younger wine it will smell fruity/ floral. For a white wine there will be green fruit notes like apple and citrus.

Palate

This is the enjoyable part! Really let the wine sit in your mouth for a little while rather than swallowing straight away. And try to take some breaths through your nose as this allows the oxygen to meet with the wine and intensify the flavour.

1. Acidity

The younger a wine is the more acidity it will have.

2. Dryness/ sweetness

If a wine has some acidity then it will usually be a dry wine with little or no sweetness. And the sweeter a wine is then the less acidity there will be.

3. Tannins

Tannins are mostly found in Red wines. These can either be light or heavy and they coat the mouth.

4. Alcohol

The presence of the alcohol is easy to detect, sometimes it can be a little too over powering. But it can be important in giving balance to a wine.

5. Finish

The length of the wine is a combination of the sweetness/ alcohol and acidity. It can either have a short or long finish. Usually light wines have a short finish, where as more bodied wines have a long taste that lingers on the palate.


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Visit to my Wine Teacher's Vineyard and Winery

Every week on my wine course down here in the South of France, we have a visit to a vineyard to learn a little more about how things work and to get involved ourselves. This week we visited my wine teacher, Aymeric's, vineyard and winery in his home village of Montblanc, which is in the 

Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, close to my school. 

We spent the first part of the day picking Cabernet Franc grapes, which are a red variety with a white centre and they tend to make light red wines. We worked in pairs and then worked our way down the vines collecting grapes in crates ready to pack in to the back of their pick-up truck and take straight to their winery. Quite a few of the grapes were overripe and had noble rot (a little of which can be good as it gives a different taste to the wine, but too much is bad), so we had to select the bunches carefully. 

Here we are being taught about how to select the bunches of grapes and to see which types of rot are good and bad.

The grapes ready to go in to the back of the pick-up truck and then on to the winery.

Below is the wine picking team!

Once we had picked our rows we then went back to their winery which is in the centre of their little village of Montblanc. Their winery is in their old garage which they converted 3 years ago, and is underneath their house. Aymeric told us that his family has lived in Montblanc since the 15th Century, and 3 generations of his family currently all live in the house above the winery - amazing! 

Aymeric's house and winery, inside and out! 

Aymeric showed us how the grape press worked and his brother jumped in to start squashing down the grapes to allow for them all to fit in. The press is then turned on and the ends of the press come in to the centre whilst it is rotating. This then leaves all of the skins, pips and stalks in the middle. The process then starts again and the remaining grape pulp is then pressed for a second time, but the juice is much stronger and contains more tannins, as it is in the skin, pips and stalk that they lie, so it is not pressed for as long as the first press.

During this time the wine is being pumped from the press in to a tank where it will begin fermenting. 

Aymeric and his brother above are putting the grapes in to the press, and below are some of us who helped! 

We then saw the de-stemmer in action, which is a machine that removes the major part of the stem from the bunch. The de-stemmer is used when the grapes have been harvested by machine and therefore more stalk is removed as it is less accurate than harvesting by hand as you can be more selective. 
The de-stemmer works by 2 pieces of metal rotating around each other which pull off the stalks and releases the grapes underneath.

After the hard work we then went on to do some tasting! We tasted some 4 of their fermenting wines at different stages. We tried a white, rose and red wine about 3 weeks in to fermentation and then a merlot which was further along. 

Above Aymeric is giving me some of the fermenting white wine to try. 

Below is a close up of the fermenting white. It had a strong yeast flavour as it was early in the fermenting process, this also meant that it was quite sweet. As you can see it is very cloudy and the clarity will come as it ages.

Below is a rose wine, also about 3 weeks in to fermentation. As you can see the typical rose colour is there, but has a strong orange tinge. This was also quite sweet and yeasty.

Below is a fermenting red wine, also 3 weeks in to fermentation. The colour was almost luminous when held up to the light, with another strong sweetness to it. 

Below was a merlot that we tasted which was much further along in the fermentation process. As you can see, it has a much deeper red colour to it and you could really taste the flavours starting to develop. There was less sweetness and more acidity and tannins.

We then had a chance to try their finished product, which we enjoyed with some Comte cheese and some fresh baguette. Below you can see their label of wine, which is of Aymeric and his brother- a very fun idea! It was the perfect end to a very interesting day! 

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Chateau L'Hospitalet, Gerard Bertrand

I am currently living down in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of the south of France learning about wine. Possibly the biggest winemaker in the region is Gerard Bertrand. He buys grapes from various private vineyards around the region and then makes several wines from all of the grapes. He also has his own grapes. We went to his private estate called Chateau L'Hospitalet, where there is also a hotel and restaurant.

We visited his tasting rooms and tried several Roses and Reds. It was interesting to try a range of wines that also ranged in price quite heavily, and I enjoyed tasting a Rose at a higher price as it is good to see the quality of a more expensive Rose. They had very smart tasting rooms, and we also saw some of the winery and the grapes that had just been pressed. These were going to be sent away to be distilled to make Brandy and other spirits. 

http://www.chateau-hospitalet.com/en/

Below is the hotel part of the estate, which has a rustic French feel to it. I love the pistachio green of the shutters, such a popular colour in the south of France.

These are the pressed grapes that were being sent off to be distilled. It was interesting to see what they looked like once they had been pressed- a little like raisins! 

Below you can see part of the winery and the vats where the wine was fermenting.

This is the main tasting room and where they had all of their different wines on sale. It was interesting to the see the vast array of wines that Bertrand produces. The prices ranged from about €7 to well over €100.

Wines we tasted:

Chateau La Sauvageonne 2012: €16

This is the first Rose that I tried, and it was an unusual Rose as it had been oaked. It has more body than usual Roses, due to there being a few tannins present as well. It would be a good wine to go with cured meats and salads, nothing too overpowering.

Gris Blanc, 2012: €7

This is a very pale Rose, with a similar taste to a White wine. It is a little thin on the palate though. It is one of the most popular Roses on sale in France now, due to its price and easy availability. I think it would be good as an aperitif with a few canapes, as it is more of a palate cleanser before drinking a stronger wine with a meal. 

Cigalus, 2011: €28

This Rose is an IGP wine (Indication Geographique Protegee), which means that the grapes used to make the wine have to come from one particular geographic region, and the producers have to submit their wine for analysis and tasting before selling it. It has a complex taste on the palate, it was oaked and more similar to a white wine than a Rose. It has a mineral taste with a slight saltiness, but a long and crisp finish. The more expensive taste comes from a low yield of grapes used to make the wine.

Domaine de L'Aigle, Pinot Noir, 2011

This is a fresh tasting red wine, quite light on the palate with not much body. It would be a good wine as an aperitif with some canapes before having a fuller bodied wine with a meal.

Chateau Laville Bertrou, 2010: €11

This is a wonderful dark red wine with a jammy flavour of dark fruits and a heavy oak. It is a full bodied and tannic wine. As it is a powerful wine it really needs to be paired with a red meat and sauce so that the flavours match. I was really impressed with this wine and I therefore bought a bottle!

Domaine de Villemajou, 2011: €11.50

This is another fantastic red wine at a reasonable price. This wine is from Gerard Bertrand's Fathers vineyard, which he took over, so it has a family connection. It has an earthy, almost dusty taste to it, with the smell and taste on the palate of a forest floor. It is spicy with a hint of earthy mushroom. It is a medium bodied Red wine, that would pair very well with an earthy dish. Such as something with mushrooms, Game and a creamy sauce. 

Chateau La Sauvageonne, 2011: €25

This is a fruity wine with slight vegetal hints, it has a strong blackcurrant and dark fruit flavour with some sweet notes. It is a fresh Red wine that would be good as an aperitif or alongside a dish like risotto or something creamy as it would act as a contrast to cut through the creamy consistency. 

Gerard Bertrand, Aigle Royal, 2011: €43

This is a more special wine as the grapes are grown at 500m above sea level. It is a very ripe tasting wine and therefore has a sweeter note. It has a spicy and fruity taste, along with notes of leather and black pepper. This would be a good wine alongside an earthy flavoured meat dish.

Gerard Bertrand, L'Hospitalitas, 2011: €43

This is a spicy wine with a definite heat to it. It has earthy notes and I think that it would go well with something like risotto, polenta or a creamy pasta dish as it would give a good contrast in flavour and consistency. 

Cigalus Rouge, 2011: around €30

This is a complex tasting wine with lots of different flavour hints, this is because it is made from several different grape varieties. It is a very dark wine with a subtle smell of liquorice, and on the palate there is a vegetal, almost mouldy hint. It would go well with a sweet savoury dish, something like Pork with prunes or dates.

Here I am tasting some of the wine!

And below you can see some of the wine caves, where you can see the barrels. 

It is certainly an impressive estate that has made the most of its grounds with a hotel, restaurant and various art displays around the estate. It is definitely worth a visit if you happen to be down in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France! 

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