Tip 4
Chip says:
“As I’m sure you recall from last weeks’ tips, the first step in deductive tasting is the sight step. So, what is there to learn from simply looking at a wine? By knowing what to look for, you might be surprised at just how much you can discover. Before getting into specific things to look for, you should know how to look at a wine the right way…
Start by finding a white or light colored background to use as a backdrop and a space with good lighting, and then tilt the glass away from you so that you are looking through the wine to the background. This will give you the best ability to identify important attributes of the wine.
Below, are some notes on specific things to look for and what each item means about the wine you are tasting:
1. Clarity – Try to start here. Look for whether or not there are any particles in the wine. Do you see dark particles sitting on the bottom of the glass? These particles are likely what is known as sediment. More sediment is an indication of an older red wine or an unfiltered young red wine. For wines with a lot of sediment, decanting the wine is an appropriate step to remove the sediment from the wine.
2. Color – The color of a wine can help you understand more about a wine’s age and grape varietal among many other aspects. There are a few rules to generally follow about color. First, wines change color as they age. Red wines usually get lighter with age, and white wines will get darker. Many grape varietals will exhibit a common range of coloration within the broader color range for red and white wines. See below for the common color ranges for red vs. white wine:
Red: purple à reby (red) à garnet (reddish brown) à orange à brown
White: watery (almost clear) à straw (pale yellow) à yellow à golden à brown
3. Rim variation – This attribute is the difference in color you might see between the edges of a wine and its center when you tilt the glass to look through the wine. The color differences are an attribute of age and can become more pronounced as a wine gets older. For example, in a red wine, the center of the glass may appear deep purple or red, but when tilted for viewing, the wine near the edges of the glass will appear more garnet or orange in color.
4. Viscosity (commonly known as “legs”) – Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a wine with “good legs”. Legs, or tears as they are also called, in a wine are an indication of viscosity. Viscosity is mostly impacted by two variables, the amount of alcohol in a wine and the amount of residual sugar present in the wine. The higher the alcohol or residual sugar, the thicker and slower moving the legs will be. Conversely, low alcohol and low residual sugar wines will have thinner, faster moving legs. If you look very closely at the legs in a wine, you may also see what is known as staining. This is when the legs appear to have a bit of color in the middle rather than their usual clear appearance. The cleanliness of your glass can also impact the tears you might see.
Keep an eye out for these different sight –based attributes of wine the next time you taste, and don’t forget to take a couple of notes along the way."