EHOW ARTICLE ON HOW TO TASTE WINE...

Please - "cat pee" or "cat piss". Heck, who would want to drink a Sauv Blanc that was described as "cat urine"?

llol

How to Taste Wine Like a Pro

The most important aspect of tasting wine is smelling it. Most of "tasting" something is experiencing its aroma.

Smelling and Initial Tasting

Steps:

1. Bring the glass down to a normal level and, while holding the stem, swirl the glass rapidly. This will increase the surface area of the wine by allowing it to move up the sides of the glass. This also helps to release the volatile chemicals of the wine into the air.

1. Stop swirling. Insert your nose into the glass and inhale by taking quick, full sniffs. Some people prefer to take short sniffs, some prefer to just stick their nose in and leave it there for a while. Determine any off-odors, identify any grape aroma and rank the strength of the aroma.

2. Analyze the aroma further. Try to detect the smell of fruity or floral notes. Decide what they remind you of if possible. Next, note the presence of spices, such as pepper, anise, cinnamon, vanilla, tea or possibly nuts. Finally, note the presence of other aromas, such as cedar, oak, dust, moist earth, herbs, chocolate, tobacco, toastiness, smoke, tar, mushrooms, red meat, grass, hay, or asparagus.

1. Sip a small amount of wine and move it over your entire tongue so that all your taste buds come in contact with it. The trick to tasting wine is to allow the aromas of the wine to enter your nasal passageway at the back of your throat. Some people pucker their lips and suck in a small amount of air through the wine. Others find it easier to chew the wine as if it were food. Both of these methods will force the aromas of the wine through the nasal passage and will increase your experience of the wine.

2. Note how long the flavors remain in your mouth after you've swallowed the wine. This is called length. Some wines can have up to one minute of length. Also be aware of any overbearing presence of alcohol. A wine should have enough balance that you're barely aware of the alcohol in it.

Tips: If you've snickered at people who swirl their wine incessantly, you won't any longer. This is the best way to allow wine to have its intended effect on your senses.

Some funny (but genuine) taste and aroma descriptors are: horsey, barnyard, cat urine, mossy, hot, stewed, cooked, yeasty, dirty and candied.

Strong aromas of wet cardboard, vinegar, Madeira, sulfur or nail polish indicate a problem with a table wine. Wines that smell of these are not harmful to drink, but they won't taste very good either.

Judging

Steps:

1. Look for a very light shade of straw-toned color in white wines such as chardonnay and white Riesling. For semillon and sauvignon blanc, look for a more definite yellow color. For sweeter wines, look for a more golden color.

1. Note colors of red wines range from pink to different tones of purple. Rosés are usually medium pink. A brown tinge in a rosé is usually not desirable. Red wines range from "medium red" to "high red." A purple could indicate a young wine or a particular variety of grape.

2. Check for clarity of the wine. Notice if the wine is clear and free of suspended material - this is termed a brilliant wine. Some descriptions to use include brilliant, clear, dull, and cloudy. Dull indicates haziness, and cloudy indicates heavy amounts of suspended material.

1. As a beginner, focus on unwanted smells such as yeast, wood, mold, sulfur dioxide, oxidation (brackishness), acetic acid (vinegar) and hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg).

2. Taste for sweetness or dryness. An acid bite indicates the vitality of the wine. Taste for excessive tannins (bitter and rough)and for vinegar flavor, which is usually not desirable.

1. Note boldness, fullness and richness while tasting. These tend to indicate a wine with good body.

An old tradition in France is the snapping of your tongue when tasting a wine. Snapping the tongue off the roof of your mouth and making a clicking noise on the roof of your mouth is a way of saying that you like or don't like the wine. The louder the click the more you like the wine. If you are ever at a wine tasting being hosted by one of the vineyards supplying the wine, always snap on their wine (even if you do not intend to bring any of their wine home).

"Ric" wrote ............

British wine writer and critic Oz Clarke is accredited with "inventing" the descriptor "Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush" referring to Marlborough (New Zealand) Sauvignon Blanc.

One NZ winery actually calls it's "ordinary" SB "CPOAGB"

I know it is available in the UK - dunno about North America.

This is not a recommendation - there are far better NZ SBs around - but the name/label may shock your friends.

You don't TASATE wine, you DRINK it!

St> How to Taste Wine Like a Pro

You're NOT a pro, so forget it!

OPEN YOUR MOUTH, POUR IN WINE.

Yea, it's available here. And you're right - there are many far better NZ SB's; we had some '04 Kim Crawford last night; one of our favorites.

Didn't know that a Brit coined the term. I assumed it was out of NZ - given the use of the 'gooseberry bush' phrase. My Kiwi wife will be terribly disapoointed to hear this!

Cheers -

Quit pontificating, asshole.

Don't tell me how to drink wine.

Don't tell me to taste wine.

I know more about wine than you'll ever know.

IME the cat's pee adition to the gooseberry is typical of older SBs. Actually, I quite like old SBs occasionally.

--brian

Really? Then please enlighten us all with your wisdom by posting something interesting or meaningful; and cease with the flames.

"Ric" wrote ...........

Whereas Kiwifruit were originally known as Chinese Gooseberries" (here in NZ at least) - the "gooseberry bush" which Oz Clarke was referring to is the Cape Gooseberry (Physalis Peruviana).

It's foliage has a distinct, tomoto-like herbaceous smell when crushed.

So, unless SWMBO can remember the Cape Gooseberry growing wild around northern NZ, she should not fret.

"UC" wrote another load of insulting rubbish.....

Michael, you have been such a good boy of late - shame about your relapse into writing this sort of rubbish.

Again, you have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Italian wines - and by your own admission, only Italian Wines.

So, please, restrict your writings to those subjects on which you are conversant.

As we have discussed before, Italy makes about 18% of the worlds wine - which means that your knowledge of the remaining 82% is very, very limited.

The OP has seen fit to post an article which probably amounts to plagiarism of someone else's work - but is harmless enough.

Take a grip !!!!

Tasting is rubbish. Drinking is good.

The only ones that matter are made in Italy.

Try Santa Tresa Avulisi (Nero d'Avola). You'll thank me. Profusely.

The BEST 18%.

On the cork?

Salut/Hi st.helier,

le/on Wed, 5 Jul 2006 13:43:54 +1200, tu disais/you said:-

I know he is, yet the first time I ever heard the phrase was from the lips of Jilly Goulden in the BBC "Food" program. Knowing them both, I suspect it was the latter.

Salut/Hi UC,

le/on 6 Jul 2006 07:14:22 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

Now if you had written "Oregon" I'd have confused you with that acidulous twerp Anderson.

Jeepers. What is it with you guys that you can't see anything beyond the end of your noses.

There's more to wine than your perticular patch.

Sigh.

I wrote.....

whilst my good friend "Ian Hoare" countered by saying.....

I am going to stand my ground here, Ian.

Whereas I cannot claim to know them both (I did meet Oz during a tasting of NZ wines in London in 1990) and although I saw many, but not each and every screening of their joint TV programme "BBCs Food & Drink show", my recollection is that Jilly described the experience of drinking New Zealand sauvignon blanc as being like 'diving into a gooseberry bush'.

I am 99% certain that it was her on-screen colleague Oz Clarke who coined 'cats pee on a gooseberry bush' phrase.

I could be convinced otherwise - go on, try!!!!!

I take it you're still upset because Dick and I haven't returned your ball...

You must mean "particular". So much for your lauded English skills.

David

"Dave" wrote ..........

Mr. Anderson, how infantile you are in trying to implicate Mr. Niedich in another of your childish tirades.

Through corresponding over many years, I understand Mr. Niedich somewhat: his politics are slightly to the right of Genghis Khan - his comments, views and contribution over the years have been totally consistent.

If Richard doesn't want to return Ian's ball, *he* will bloody-well say o - he does not need a failed web site journalist to speak for him.

You on the other hand are a snivelling whimp - a commentator who is full of his own importance as an self-appointed advocate for the Oregon wine industry (I am positive that there are dozens of winemakers actually active in Oregon who can speak their own mind!!), who, when asked to show his qualifications as an authority on the world wide wine industry, failed to deliver.

There are some on this ng whose mis-use of language is both welcome and humourous - they do not take themselves seriously, and neither do most like minded contributors.

Then there are others to whom English is a second language - people with an encyclopedic knowledge of the wine industry, who are only too willing to share their knowledge and experience with the rest of us.

Furthermore, there exists another grouping - people who have both the tasting skills and access to wonderful, aged wines, coupled with the ability to translate their sensory perception into words - these people I both admire and hope, god willing, to meet some day, somewhere, in some winemaking backwater of the world.

Then there are the petty, pretentious prats, just like you - the ones so full of themselves that they forget, they are simply a voice in the wilderness.

Get a life David.

You live in a country which prides itself as a paragon of free trade and the free enterprise system.

If Mr. Erath want to sell, bloody good on him.

If you don't like it - buy the place yourself - hey, you are probably only a couple hundred million short.

I am sure that if enough like minded people shared your view, then this could have been a possibility.

But they don't and you didn't.

Get a life - and get a bottle - preferably from somewhere like Burgundy or Burundi - fill your mouth and leave the rest of us in peace.

Now, where is that bottle of Olssens "Slapjack Creek" Pinot Noir from Central Otago? - ah, there it is.

Certainly not a Burgundy - but probably better than most from Oregon.

But, it is mine; and I rejoice in the fact that people like you, with such a narrow focus on the wine industry will never know or understand the simple joy of enjoying the fruit of a winemaker's labour and dreams, no matter where their origins.

Hi Ian - I could have sworn it was Jancis Robinson... Cheers! Martin

St. Helier,

Who's the one on the childish tirade? I'm surprised the Kiwis let you into their country -- they have rules for keeping out pests to protect their crops.

You should know by now, especially since your kill-file doesn't work, that I don't care what you think.

Through your words shows a misdirected sense of self-attributed superiority. Whatever pleasure you get out of leveling endless insult, all it does is reveal your true personality. No matter what positive things you may be able to contribute, it's undercut by the dismissive vitriol in your tongue.

My only regret is having allowed myself to be drawn into an endless flame war, not only with you, but other members, when the best choice would have been to simply walk away.

All due apologies go to list members for the recent OT posts on the corporate winery thread. I did begin the discussion in a sincere interest to get some exchanges going, and to that end, I can only ask that members here consider that certain others had a good hand in helping guide it off course.

Now, unless I missed the "good old boys club" sign when I first walked through the doors of this group, I'm not going anywhere. As for you, st. helier, you already know where you can go.

David

Dear St. Helier,

I actually had no problem with Daves post using my name. I could have defended myself had I felt he was wrong or misguided.

More tolerance needs to be here on this group. If people are wanting to make a point and it has something primarily to do with wine, tasting, wineries then he should be allowed to do so without having to hear crap from you, Ian, etc.

I am pretty sure Dave knows that if Dick Erath plans to sell out that is his choice. The real question is what does it mean to have corporate wineries taking over. How does that impact thie industry.

Quite honestly I think it is a very serious question. Its like progress. Can it be measured in buying efficiencies. If so, progress is Wal-mart redefiined. I am not making a negative statement on Wal-mart. I think they are a GREAT company. But, there has been impact that some would call progress. Is that progress?

Anderson, Parker, who needs them?

I trust MY judgement. I was at my favorite wine shop last week, and they have a new sales clerk there. Young (need I say more?). Attempting to engage me in conversation, he mentioned that something or other received so many points in the Spectator or something. I told him in severe tones: "All that matters is MY opinion, OK?"