Topic: Wine-Evaluation
Learning To Taste Wine At Different Stages
FREEI apologize in advance for the lengthy response, but this is a fantastic question and I really wanted to flesh out my answer for you. You’re absolutely right to realize that tasting
Learn Some Wine Judge Etiquette
FREECongrats on getting invited to your first ever wine judging! I’ve been judging wine competitions, both for home and commercial winemakers, for over 15 years now and they’re always a great way
Delicious Endeavors: The science of food-wine pairings
MEMBERS ONLYApproaching food-wine pairings can be complex given the nearly endless options available . . . but there is a science to it. Learn the basics to matching a wine with a food course to impress even the sticklers in the group.
Evaluating Wine: Being mindful of the sensory experience
MEMBERS ONLYUsing all your senses when tasting wine is always encouraged by wine evaluation experts, but make sure that you are taking in the whole experience and not simply breaking it down and compartmentalizing the elements.
Evaluating Wine “Numbers”
FREESo, stick with me for a little bit as I get a little philosophical for this one as the answer isn’t straightforward but necessitates a little rambling. My frequent readers will know
Classes, Clubs, and Consultants: Getting expert help at home
MEMBERS ONLYFeedback is one of the quintessential parts of growing and learning in this hobby. There are many avenues a hobby grape grower and winemaker can take for evaluation and advice, so make sure that you’re looking in the right spots.
Visualize Sensory Evaluation: Utilizing spider charts to compare wines
MEMBERS ONLYWinemakers new and experienced will often compare different wines and make mental notes about the experience. For those that want to improve upon their wines, spider charts offer an easy-to-visualize evaluation of several sensory variables.
Decanting Advice
FREEThose are a great couple of questions. Decanting, or the pouring of a wine out of its bottle into another, larger container (usually made of clear glass or crystal), is something that
Reconfiguring Your Tasting Palate
MEMBERS ONLYI apologize in advance for the lengthy response but this is a fantastic question and I really wanted to flesh out my answer for you and readers that are following along. You are absolutely right to realize that tasting new and developing wines is vastly different than tasting bottled wines. Especially, as wines gain bottle
Chilled Red Wines
FREEThough especially welcome in summertime, and especially tasty with regards to Pinot Noir, I break the “room temperature reds rule” year round and with many varietals to boot. In the depths of
Acetobacter Problems
MEMBERS ONLYWell, it seems like you have been paid a visit by a colony of Acetobacter, aka acetic acid bacteria. They love air, eat alcohol, and turn it into carbon dioxide and vinegar. Not fun. The biggest issue is that no matter what, once you’ve got them and they’ve produced a certain amount of acetic acid,
Minerality in Wine
MEMBERS ONLYTerms such as “mineral taste” and “minerality” have entered the modern wine lexicon and into common usage probably by traditionalists in an attempt to link the equally ill-defined concept of terroir to wine flavors and aromas. The terms often appear, for example, in tasting notes of Riesling wines and the Chardonnay-based Chablis wines of Burgundian
Hangover Myths Revealed
FREEI just read the article you refer to, which seems to claim that “natural wine” (an ill-defined term, which in the article seems to mean “minimal sulfites added except at bottling” or
Get Your Swirl On
FREEI say Toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe . . . this sounds like a bizarre wine myth in the making that we should just quash right here. Though undoubtedly, swirling your wine glass
Yeast Impact on Wine Aroma and Flavor
FREEIf you are of the opinion that yeast selection does not matter and that the only role of yeast is to convert sugar into ethyl alcohol (ethanol), you may have been missing
Wine Evaluation: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYTo make good wine one must understand what good wine is and, alternatively, understand and be able to detect wine faults. Anyone can learn to evaluate wine, and as a winemaker it is critical to be able to identify wine faults. If you want to learn where to begin, taking tips from these pros is
Drinking From Brass
MEMBERS ONLYThere certainly is something historically appealing about hoisting an overflowing chalice of one’s own homemade vinous deliciousness. In ancient times metal was a common material from which to fashion drinking cups. From medieval castles to Viking mead-halls, brass, pewter, and silver goblets have been part of our world’s imbibing culture. However, such romantic imaginings are
Making the Most of Your Winery Visit
MEMBERS ONLYHeading to wine country is a field trip for adults. You’ve got beautiful scenery, interesting people, new beverages to enjoy and an opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday life. But how do you make the most of your winery field trip? As a winemaker, you have insight into the
Making the Most of Your Winery Visit
MEMBERS ONLYHeading to wine country is a field trip for adults. You’ve got beautiful scenery, interesting people, new beverages to enjoy and an opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday life. But how do you make the most of your winery field trip? As a winemaker, you have insight into
Sensory Perspective
MEMBERS ONLYNot long after I got started making wine I realized I was relying more than I had expected on core sensory concepts like sight, smell and taste to guide my winemaking activities. I say that it was more than I had expected, but in fairness I hadn’t thought much about it. I’ve been cooking passionately
Wine Tasting 101
MEMBERS ONLYMost of us make wine because we like to drink it. The drinking part is easy to master: just tilt your head back and swallow. The tasting part, however, is a little more complicated. There is a lot of mystic hoo-hah written about wine tasting, with tales of tasters so accomplished that they can not
Amplify Your Taste, Bud!
FREEThe wine tasting technique that I describe in this article was developed over the last fifteen years out of sheer frustration. As a wine sales representative, I’ve made hundreds of wine presentations
Flavors That Make Cabernet Great
MEMBERS ONLYJudging is highly subjective, and there are as many methods of evaluating wines as there are tasters. That’s a good thing. If wines could be rated objectively, we’d all be buying Microsoft Cabernet. The following is my own approach to evaluating Cabernet at Kathryn Kennedy Winery in Saratoga, Calif., where I have been winemaker since
Wine Tasting Made Easy
MEMBERS ONLYYou un-bung one of your barrels, thief a little wine out into your glass, and bring it up to your nose for a sniff and a taste. Immediately a little voice in the back of your mind (speaking with a nasally Frenchified accent, to be sure) pipes up: “Excuse moi, garçon, but you can’t possibly