Tasting Series 1

What are Wine Ratings? If you have been following this series for the last few weeks, we have talked about Seeing, Swirling, Smelling, Sipping and Savoring your wine. Hopefully, you have a deeper appreciation of wine and are taking the time to be Zen with your wine; in the moment. Now we are going to talk about likes and dislikes, points and rating systems. Most people take a hedonistic approach to wine evaluation; they drink wine in pursuit of pleasure.…

My Head Hurts: Is your aching head caused by a hangover or intolerance to wine? When the body consumes too much alcohol it often starts complaining the next day. We all know the symptoms: headache, nausea, dazed and confused. Ethanol has a dehydrating effect caused by increase urine production causing thirst (grab another beer – not) and an electrolyte imbalance. So if you indulge, drink lots and lots of water during your binge. It is estimated that 75% of all…

So far we have Seen, Swirled, Smelled, Sipped and now we get to Savoring the wine. So if you haven’t swallowed your will from before, go ahead and do so now. After Savoring, the Finish begins: Remember the Attack was when wine first hits the palate and now we are experiencing the Finish. Sometimes the finish is short and sometimes the flavors of the wine seem to last minutes and minutes. Sometimes the wine is so remarkable it will stay…

Tannins Drying your Tounge Out? So you sip that expensive Napa Cab packed with tannin and all of a sudden your lips are sticking to your teeth, your mouth is all puckered up and you feel like you just drank all of the sands in the Mohave desert. Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it? Well to some, the answer is a resounding yes; to others, not so much. Well, it is tannins that are generally responsible for that “drying” sensation. Tannins are…

Many people grab a glass of wine and just chuck it back while in mid-sentence while being highly distracted; instead let’s learn how to focus on the moment (very Zenish) and understand everything that is about to happen as we learn the art of wine sipping. Strong flavors on the palate will alter the experience, so get rid of the gum, breath mint, pungent cheese or greasy dried meat flavors by using simple carbs such as crusty bread, water crackers…

Is there a Funk or a Skunk in my wine? Hopefully many of you have spent the last week wandering around sniffing all sorts of things. With any luck, you smelled some pleasant things, but what if the experience wasn’t so pleasant or had a FUNK? This week we will be talking about identifying some common wine faults. Wine is a wonderfully complex living thing that often is a host for many different “critters” – bacteria, microbes and yeasts. These…

I hope you all had a chance to take a moment to LOOK at your wine over the last week; now we are going to start Smelling the wine! On Monday, Lisa and I and two great club members ventured down to the Guadalupe Valley in Mexico for some relaxation and wine tasting, needless to say, I “looked” at a lot of wine. If you didn’t get a chance to read last week’s blog, you can do so here. This…

If you are wine tasting, or just having a glass, before you take that next sip of wine, stop and take a good long look at the wine in your glass. There are so many things you can learn about the wine just by looking at it if you know what to look for. When I teach the Wine Blending Class, the first thing we do is evaluate the visual appearances of the wine. Many people instinctively lift the glass…