There are three parts to evaluating wine: viewing it, smelling it, and tasting it. Once you have done all three, you are then able to form an opinion about it. The nose is the most important tool in perceiving how a wine both smells and tastes. If you don’t believe me, try pinching your nose while tasting. Nevertheless, all three senses – sight, taste, and smell, must be considered in order to properly analyze and evaluate wine.
Appearance
The appearance of wine is studied for its clarity, brightness, evidence of gas, color (hue), color intensity, any rim variation, and its viscosity. Both red and white wines are characterized by brightness of the their color, as well as the color itself. White wines can range from almost clear, to yellow and gold, and can even be amber or brown. The color of red wine generally ranges from a light cherry-red, to purple, to ruby, to garnet, and finally to brown. Young wines tend to be lighter in color, while older, more mature wines can change color and may appear brown. In sparkling wines, the size and quantity of the bubbles indicates quality. Many elegant, pin-head sized bubbles is what you want; you don’t want a few large bubbles.
Whatever the color is, a sound wine must be clear. If it’s cloudy, it either contains sediment or has been shaken up. If this is the case, the wine should be left to settle for 24 hours, then decanted and tried again. Although sediment in the bottle is not a fault, it should never make it into the glass. Some red wines may be so deep in color that they appear opaque. This also is not a fault, but is simply a sign of a very extracted, full-bodied wine.
The viscosity of wine is the final point of the appearance to assess. Viscosity refers to the texture of wine, and is identified by the thickness of the “legs” or “tears” running down the inside of the glass. You assess the legs by swilling the wine around in the glass, and observing the thickness and the speed at which the legs fall. The thicker the legs, the higher the alcohol content, sugar content, or both. If light or sheeting legs are observed, the wine has a low alcohol content. Make sure you glass is clean, because dirt or grease on the glass will distort the result.
Smell
The smell or “bouquet” of a wine is also important when analyzing a bottle. Aromas will help you identify the grape(s), origin, climate, quality, and perhaps even the vintage of a wine. After assessing the appearance, you then smell the wine; the best way to do this is to swirl the wine around the glass, which releases the esters and aldehydes (chemical compounds formed during the fermentation and aging of wine), making it easier to detect the components in the wine. Please do not be timid when smelling the wine – get your nose into the glass. Although there are many possible aromas a wine can possess, no bottles should smell moldy, or like damp cardboard. This is surely a sign that the wine is “corked,” meaning the wine has a faulty or contaminated cork.
The aromas identified in wine can include fruits, vegetables, fungi, herbs, nuts, spices, minerality, leather, honey, tobacco, coffee, chocolate, caramel, meat, wood, or just grapes. The strength of certain aromas in the bouquet may suggest whether the wine is of a New World or Old World style. New World wines tend to be “fruit-forward” and have a bouquet that jumps out of the glass. They also likely to have a higher oak influence – aromas of wood, vanilla, or honeysuckle. Old World style wines tend to have a more subtle, complex, and less aggressive bouquet, with more minerality and earthy characters.
Taste
Finally, the wine should be tasted, and the flavors considered in relation to the appearance and bouquet. Tasting will confirm or refine the information gathered from studying the appearance and smell of the wine. The perception of taste, like the perception of smell will vary from person to person. People have varying thresholds at which they perceive flavors, and so those with more of a keen tasting sense will be able to pick out more and/or subtle flavors than others. Due to this varying perception, the focus should be on the major descriptors which are generally tasted, and the strength of their presence in the wine. The main components of a wine break down into the categories of fruit flavors, non-fruit flavors, minerality, oak, spice, tannin, acid, alcohol, and the length of the finish. Wines may be one dimensional, for example fruit and alcohol, or complex with the majority of the components present.
Next, analyze whether the wine is light, medium or full-bodied. Wines below 12% alcohol are considered light-bodied wines, and wines that are above 14% alcohol are considered full-bodied. Those in the middle are considered medium-bodied. Wines that are light in body such as Pinot Grigio or Beaujolias are meant to be drunk young because they will not improve over time. Light-bodied wine is normally full of fruit flavor, and low in tannins. Full-bodied wines are made from grapes which contain more tannins, and are generally more complex in style. These wines can be enjoyed young, but could benefit from aging.
The sweetness and dryness of wine can be characterized as dry, off dry, medium, medium sweet, and sweet. Tannins are sensed more in dryer wines, and can be felt around the gums and the sides of the mouth. The sweetness and/or dryness of a wine must be in harmony with the fruit, acid, alcohol, and length of finish. Depending on how in sync each component of the wine is with each other will determine the quality of the wine.
