With Burgundy, Chablis and of course Champagne putting France on the map for fine wines, it’s worth knowing how to best appreciate them. Next time you’re at a wine tasting, or if you plan to celebrate French wine and host a wine tasting of your own, here’s some tips.
- The glass. The wine glass that you serve your wine in makes a huge difference to the wine tasting experience. The best for most wines is a tulip shape which has a large bowl narrowing at the rim. For Champagne stick with the traditional flute which will keep the bubbles from dissipating too quickly. Glasses should always be clear so that you can judge the appearance of the wine before tasting.
- The wine. Anyone who has endured a warm glass of bubbly, or a too cold glass of red wine in a bar will know the importance of serving wine at the right temperature, but this differs even between different types of red. For instance, rich, spicy wines like Bordeaux and Shiraz should be served at 18°C whereas lighter reds like Beaujolais are best at around 12°C. The rule of thumb with temperatures to serve wine at is the fuller bodied the wine, the warmer it can be. Aim for 6°C to best enjoy Champagne.
- Pouring. If you’re hosting a wine tasting, of course you should serve only a very small measure of wine in the glass, but generally too, wine should never fill a glass – leave plenty of room for the ‘nose’ (at least a couple of inches below the rim) – so that you can swirl the wine and release the all important perfume.
- Appearance. No, we’ve still not tasted the wine yet! Next is judging the appearance of the wine in the glass. The colour can tell you a lot about the wine; Chardonnays are usually darker than Sauvignon Blanc, for example. Tip the glass slightly and look at the edge of a red wine and you can often tell how old the wine is; a darker amber colour denotes age. You may see oil-like dribbles down the insides of the glass when you tilt it back, these are ‘legs’. If you’re tasting French wine then you should refer to them as ‘larmes’ (that’s the French for ‘tears’, which is what Gallic tasting tutors will refer to them as.) It’s a long-held myth that legs or tears indicate quality, they actually simply show high alcohol or sugar content in the wine.
- Tasting. Swill the wine around your mouth for around 20 seconds, breathing as you do so that you aerate the wine. You’ll often see wine tasters inhale through their teeth so that they bring oxygen into their mouth which increases the taste of the wine. Make sure it covers your whole tongue before spitting it out. Over time you’ll come to learn how each grape tastes and therefore often where the wine is from; for instance, pinot noir is the grape variety most often used in red wine from Burgundy. Pinot grigio has smoky, spicy flavours, chardonnay often has tropical fruit notes, while merlot often betrays itself by a chocolatey flavour.
Happy wine tasting!
