The wine tastings, these innovative concepts for discovering wine, wine producers, vineyard and winery, are growing more and more in France and all around the world. Wine enthusiasts, sommeliers, restaurant owners, and wine lovers have fresh ideas and new approaches to discover and promote their wines and share their passion with other wine lovers in a tasting room, a wine cellar, a bar or a restaurant serving good wine.
The image of French wine abroad represents French luxury, and great professionals and connoisseurs are taking advantage of it to propose some of the best and most unique wine tastings. Red wines such as an award-winning Pinot noir, a delicate Cabernet Sauvignon, the fruity white wines’ tasting notes, or a wine tasting experiment with sparkling wines. These are some of the many things you can enjoy when sipping wines at some of the best wine tasting events when having your holiday in the wine country.
Whether you are in Paris, in the Bordeaux region, or on the Cote d’Azur, you will always find some of the best organizers of wine tastings, to learn about wine during your holidays in France. Wine tastings generate positive enthusiasm from professionals and individuals. The French Flair is being promoted through the many young wines and local wines during wine tasting experiences or a blind taste. They are significant events to meet new people and share knowledge about wine in general.
In the wine community, there are the creators, the artists, the perfectionists, and at the end of the chain, the speakers. The speakers speak, taste, and select their ways. Then according to their criteria, they choose the bottles of the winegrowers to share, taste, and tune them on different gastronomic agreements. They are the key people you will have the chance to meet at your wine tasting!
As we all know, tasting a glass of wine to make your own opinion is the best step not to be wrong and to make the right choice. The reason is quite simple: we all have our personal taste, and we can all enjoy the same wine differently! But do not make me say what I did not say, “Your choice will always be good because it’s yours!”
We often have great opportunities to taste new wines. We must not deprive ourselves! These are often unique moments to discover a new region, a new grape variety, a small estate, or merely a new vintage.
However, you must know that depending on when and where you taste; you will not appreciate the wine in the same way. The environment plays on your judgment. Your physical fitness and your psychological predisposition also play.
It has already happened to us all that on a particular day, we strongly appreciate a glass of wine … and to have a different judgment a few days later. It is perfectly normal.
To learn how to taste wine, preferably the fitted wine glass, ideally a tulip-shaped glass. It will allow the wine to aerate while concentrating the aromas on the upper part. A glass for each of the wines is the best way to discover the wine smell if you have to taste several at the same time is ideal. It allows us to better compare the wines among them.
Before you start tasting, let your wine cool down for about a minute. It will depend on the wine, but it needs to aerate after long months in its bottle.
It is best to start with less powerful wines. We do not necessarily talk about alcohol but a wine with a lot of lightness. The reason is, again, quite simple. If you start with a too powerful wine, the next ones will not be able to express their richness and their complexity.
In general, the more you go south, the more powerful the wines will be … but that’s just the theory! Indeed, each grape variety, each vineyard, each parcel may reveal specific characteristics of excellent wines.
There are as many ways to taste as tasters. To approach this question is, therefore, to rush into a very vast universe. But it’s also a lot easier than it seems. If you take pleasure in the tasting, it is that your method is the right one!
Anyway, it is not necessary to master all the lexicons of the sommelier. All you have to do is to have some ideas in mind that can better decode a wine. And as with any method, the experience will allow you to forge yours.
You can admire the bubbles in a glass of champagne or the color of an old Sauternes. But forget those stories of the huge importance of the look of the glass of wine you are tasting.
The visual examination gives us little information. The dress of the wine (that is, its color) may indicate that a wine is more or less concentrated. But counter examples are legion. Some grape varieties (such as Pinot Noir) can be less dyer and give full-bodied wines. It is only in the context of a blind tasting that this phase is beneficial: it can indicate the age of the wine. We look then, not the color but the reflections.
For white wine, we will look at the reflections of the disc by placing his eye at the glass. A white wine first has green highlights, then silver, then gold and bronze. A white with silver highlights is likely to be a young wine, such as one or two-year-old wine.
For red wine, we bring the glass in front of a white sheet, and we look at it. The reflections are first of cherry or raspberry hue, to evolve towards the tile.
The nose is analyzed in two stages: the first and second noses.
The First nose: we feel the wine without airing it, that is, without moving the glass. Generally, this nose is not very powerful. It is how we identify the defects of the wine. The aromas are still not present, the flaws “jump in the nose,” as the famous ” taste of cork,” also very noticeable on the nose.
The Second nose: we air the wine, and as it opens, its aromas are increased tenfold. Wine is a living product that reacts with aeration. If you do not feel anything, it may be that the wine still requires aeration (in the bottle or carafe). It is interesting to move your nose in your glass to detect new aromas.
But to recognize that a wine smells peony is not essential, far from it. Some points to know:
And precisely, we can group 3 families of flavors:
It is probably the most critical phase. It is essential to hold your glass by the foot. Because the grip of the glass will affect the place where the wine will arrive in our mouth. But the sensors of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and acidity are not located in the same areas in the mouth. It will be necessary to turn the wine in the mouth to decrypt it completely.
It is even advisable to suck air at the same time (we speak of grumble wine) that we enjoy to air it. It is not rude to make noise while enjoying wine!
Finally, we will pay particular attention to the 3 phases:
During a wine tasting, you will recognize a great award-winning wine to its ability to evolve in the mouth and to persist even once we have swallowed. Recall that it is perfectly reasonable to spit a great wine during a tasting.
So, if you want to know more about the many wine tasting events available in your area, get in touch with some of the best wine tasting event organizers and enjoy some fun evening with other wine enthusiasts.
Just keep in mind that a wine tasting evaluation is very personal, and you will each have a different appreciation, it is normal.
