Wine Tasting And Sensory Analysis Flashcards
True or False
The reason one generally drinks wine is enjoy it, while one taste wine in order to analyze it?
True
True or False
It is always best to taste wine in a well lit environment free from noise and obvious aromas?
True
True or False
It is always best to taste red wines before white wines?
False
A Blind Tasting refers to tasting a wine:
Without knowing anything about the wine
A vertical tasting is one where:
Several vintages of the same wines are tasted
A horizontal tasting in one where:
Several different wines from the same region and vintage are tasted
An industry tasting is one where:
Several wines are shown by a winery, broker, or retail establishment
Purple hints in a red wine are signs of:
Youth
Sediments in a wine is typically a sign of:
Age
As white wines age, they get ____________ in color
Darker
As red wines age, they get ______________ in color?
Lighter
The most important sense we use when analyzing wine is our sense of:
Smell
True or False
To smell an aroma, the particles / molecules of the item you are smelling mist become airborne?
True
True or False
We can use our sense of sight to evaluate acidity?
False
True or False
Intensity of aroma and intensity of flavor can be used as indicators of age for a wine?
True
Which of the following will not cause a white wine to turn golden?
Carbonation
The amount of pigmentation a red wine has is an indicator:
Grape skin thickness
True or False
A wine with high tannins would correctly be described as dry
False
It would called Tannic or Astringent
What are the 3 distinct stages of flavor of a wine goes through while it is on the palate?
Attack - when you first sip, you usually get a bright and fruit flavor
Midpalate - occurs right after the attack phase and last until wine is spit out, usually you get a wood / spice & earth / mineral flavor
Finish - Occurs after the wine is spit out or swallowed, the flavor that lingers is the finish. Finish flavors are usually, spicy, toasty, or reminiscent of tart fruit
Give an example of a characteristic that is not useful when determining the quality of a wine?
Tannins
True or False
The more stress a grapevine is under, the more intensely flavored and concentrated the grapes will produce?
True
Grapes grown in a warm climate will produce wines _____________ than grapes grown in a cool climate?
Less acid and more alcohol
What are some indicators of the climate in which the grapes for a particular wine are grown?
- Body
- Alcohol
- Acid
What are some indicators the help show the age of wine?
- Color
- Body
- Sediment
True or False
Tannins Levels, pigmentation, and varietal Characteristics are all good indicators of the grape varietal used to produce a red wine?
True
You are tasting a wine that has a deep red color and soft tannins, and smells strongly of leather, tobacco, and wet dirt. How old is this wine?
3 to 5 years old
You are tasting a white wine that seems to have very little alcohol content, a sharp acidity, and a very light body. What climate did this wine most likely come from?
Cool Climate
What is aging in regards to drinking and what is the proper way to determine the age range of a wine?
Two important characteristics of determining Aging:
- Color
- Dominant aroma Category
When it comes to Age range the rule of thumb:
- 1 to 3 years
- white: Clear to light straw
- red: Purple
- 3 to 5 years
- White: Yellow
- Red: Red
- 5 or More years
- White: Golden
- Red: Amber / Brick
- Dead
- White: Brown
- Red: Brown
How do you determine climate and how does it effect the grape?
Climate is determined by where grapes were grown for in a wine
- the stages a vine goes through during the growing season
- warm climates have longer growing seasons to the grapes have longer to ripen than in cooler climates
- warmer climates due to more ripe grapes produce more wines with less acid, more alcohol, less sugar
- Cooler climates due to more less ripe grapes produce more wines with more acid, less alcohol, more sugar
- 3 main characteristics that are impacted are:
- Acidity
- Alcohol content
- Body
What is an old world wine?
Old world refers to European wine producing countries such as:
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Germany
- Austria
- Hungry
- Greece
Note
- Old world wines typically come from a cooler climate
- tend to be more earthy and mineral - driven
What is a New World Wine?
New World refers to Non European wine producing countries such as:
- United States
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Chile
- Argentina
- South Africa
Note:
- typically are made in warmer climates
- more fruit forward
- usually aged more in oak than stainless steel
What is quality and how do you determine it in wine?
- based on certain characteristics and beliefs that have been developed over the course of history.
- The best way to determine the quality of a wine, you need to consider:
- the intensity of aroma and flavor
- complexity of aroma and flavor
- the finish
What is a sensory analysis?
Your senses, they are the tools used to analyze wine
- Sight
- Smell
- Taste
- Touch
What is LED Tasting?
When you already know something about a wine or its origins before you taste it.
- used to learn about a particular region and helps to reinforce your knowledge of the grapes from a region
What is blind tasting?
Having no prior knowledge of the wine you are tasting
Involves independently conducting a sensory analysis of a wine, and then drawing conclusions about the wine based on your findings
What is vertical tasting?
When you taste one wine from multiple vintages
Example:
Caymus from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
What is horizontal tasting?
Similar to vertical tasting but instead of several vintages of one wine, you taste several wines from the same region and same vintage
Note:
Gives a good example of how the terroir effects the Vineyards and vintages year in and out
How do you determine clarity in a wine?
By seeing if you can see through the wines in glass
- If the wine is clear, it is called bright
- If the wine isn’t clear, it is called cloudy
Note:
- It is easier to determine clarity in white wines than red wines
What gives a wine color?
All wines start off as white wines, red wines are red Due to the pigments being left in the wine during fermentation
What can alter the color of a wine?
- Bottle Aging
Slow oxidation and color change can occur over time as wines interact with a small amount of dissolved oxygen - Barrel Aging
Oak barrels are watertight but large amounts of oxygen cause rapid oxidation and color change - Residual Sugar
Sweet wines tend to be darker in color because of the residual sugar in them
How do you determine the intensity of pigmentation?
The thicker the grape skin more pigments are contained in those skins
Note:
When viewing wine if you look through your glass at some words on a paper:
- and you can easily read the writing - very little pigmentation and the wine was made from thin skin grapes
- if the words seem a little obscure - medium pigmentation and medium skinned grapes
- if the words seem impossible to see, then the wine is made from thick skinned grapes and has a lot of pigmentation
What is part of the grape skin that gives black grapes it’s color in a red wine?
Pigments
What are the pigments called that give strong antioxidants, helping to reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases, as well as maintaining healthy cardiovascular functions
Anthocyanins
What is it called that determine the amount of dissolved solution contained within its liquid?
Body
What are the two types of body in a glass of wine?
-Light Bodied Wines:
Have fewer dissolved solids, will move around the glass quickly and sheet down the glass once the motion stops
-Heavy Bodied Wines:
Those containing larger amounts of dissolved solids, will move around the glass slowly, cling to the inside of the glass, and set up thick, slow moving drips (legs or tears) that will drop back down into the bowl of the glass
What are small air pockets that form from Heavy Carbonation, usually only found in sparkling wines?
Bubbles
What are small particles or crystals that form in wine and sink to the bottom of the bottle or glass?
Clue:
Also is a great clue for determining the age of the wine and usually is decanted before it is served to a person
Sediments
What is the dime sized piece of your anatomy called that is located at the top of the nasal cavity?
Olfactory Epithelium
What are the tiny hairs that cover the olfactory epithelium
Cilia
What is the passageway called that connects your mouth and nose?
Retronasal Passage
What is it called when you focus on how much total aroma you can smell in a wine, how loud the aroma is?
Intensity of Aroma
Note:
Higher quality wines typically have a stronger aroma than lower quality wines
Red wines will almost always have a stronger aroma than whites
Distance from and to the glass is the best determining factor for intensity.
What is it called when you are analyzing how complex or simple a wine is on the nose?
Complexity of Aroma
Note:
- A complex nose is one that has several layers of aromas, every time you stick your nose into the glass, something new is revealed
- A simplicity of aroma is when you get a simple repeated smell
