Have you ever wondered why there are different glasses for red and white wine? Why do you smell the wine before tasting? What is the proper etiquette for a wine tasting?
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Naomi Miller and Tim McMullen owners of Borambola Wines sat down with The Daily Advertiser to give you tips and tricks to become a wine expert.
1. Invoke the senses
Tasting wine involves sight, smell, hearing and taste. The first thing to do is look at the wine and it can tell you about the age.
Brighter, red or crimson colour – if it’s red – would mean that it’s a younger wine. If it has brown or red tinges around the edge then it would indicate it’s an older wine.
Smell the wine. This is when you swirl the glass around, which allows the wine to aerate or oxidise.
There are different smells associated with different wines.
The common characteristics for chardonnay are melon or stonefruit, while a sauvignon blanc is more herbaceous with passionfruit or pineapple.
When you move into the red wines it becomes more berry-focussed.
Tasting the wine, of course, tells you about the longevity on the palate. Take a sip, if you like it that’s a good indication. No need to get too complicated.
Of course, to invoke the sense of sound is to chink your glasses or listen to the cork pop.
2. Remember wine tasting etiquette
If you’re pouring the wine yourself, hold it by the base. It looks professional rather than holding it by the neck, which gives the impression you’re just trying to fill the glass as much as possible.
There are different glasses for different wine and the glasses should be about a third full (sparkling wines are the exception).
When you taste the wine, you inhale the air which is part of the tasting.
Red wines have a bigger ball which allows the air to remove around so you get a nicer smell, but the white wine glasses are in a smaller glass to keep its chill.
A sparkling wine is in a flute to hold the bubbles.
When trying a range, work your way from the lighter style through to your heavier style.
If you don’t like the wine or are managing your limit, there is a spittoon on hand for you to learn over and spit the wine into.
Keep track of how much you are drinking if you are driving.
3. Don’t be afraid to try something new
We get a lot of people asking for something sweeter if they’re not used to drinking wines.
A lot of our wines are on the dryer side, but we do tend to offer a sparkling brut or apple cider and they tend to like one of those.
They think they want something sweeter, but they try one of those and think ‘oh it’s not just sweet that I like’.
When you travel to different wine regions, try their “hero wine”.
Here it’s our Shiraz, but in the hills, it’s their Pinot and Pinot noir because it grows well in a colder climate.
4. Find out about the wines
It’s not that you should like the wine, it’s more about understanding what that wine is about.
Having an education process is important and this comes into play when pairing the wine with food, which is a great way to enhance both the food and wine.
There are rules around this, but put simply white wine equals white meat and red wine equals red meat.
At the end of the day if you like a glass of shiraz with your seafood, then go for it.
When we go through and talk about all the styles of wine, then we chat about chilled and warm wines.
Never be afraid to ask about the wines.
Borambola Wines is bringing back their Cork & Fork Fest.
Guests can enjoy locally sourced and produced wines, beer and cider, a wide variety of food options, all while soaking up the sounds of local musicians.
Come and experience the Cork and Fork Fest at the Wagga Civic Theatre precinct from 5.30pm on Friday, October 26.
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