The Art of Enjoying WineHanizah AbdullahFeature WritingThe Art of Enjoying WineLearning about wine and tasting it right is for many people an”important rite of passage into adulthood” – an enjoyable experience withmany benefits. In likelihood, drinking wine is an art that is refined andfun to do as it gives pleasure to the five senses and also, by havingknowledge about the wine that you are drinking, you increase your enjoymentand experience of the whole wine appreciation. The ability to enjoy goodwine is an acquired one. (Robinson J. , 2000)Mr Noel Emmanuel, the beverage manager of Grand Hyatt Singapore, said”Stimulating taste buds via food and beverages is a significant part of theso-called human experience.
” Human taste is comprised of four basiccomponents:” sweetness, saltiness, acidity and bitterness”. Flavours aredetected by different taste buds in your mouth that individually perceiveto one of the four components of the taste. Mr. Emmanuel also pointed out, “The areas most sensitive to the tasteis the tip of the tongue, with acidity taste buds located towards themiddle”.
The taste buds that detect the bitterness is located at the backof the tongue, and therefore the last to get involved with the wine in yourmouth. When tasting wine, a little stimulation of the bitter-sensing tastebuds is pleasant. What Tannin IsTannin is an important component of red wine. The taste is similar tothat when you bite into a grape seed.
That dry bitter taste is tannin. Inmoderate amounts tannin gives red wine an added flavour dimension as wellas acts as a natural preservative. Great red wines have naturally quite alot of tannin in their youth; with aging the tannin softens and lendscomplexity to the mature red wine. Red wines with too much tannin arebitter and unpleasant, and its fruit flavours may be hidden beneath thetannins.
Mr Emmanuel, who has 9 years experience in the food & beverageindustry, explained that the right amount of tannin does not mask otherflavours, but instead it gives the wine a little ‘grip’ in the mouth andseems to hold all the flavours together. Five-step process of wine tasting. 1. Look at the wine: According to the book Wine Uncorked by FranklinBeckett, judging a wine’s colour allows you to make some assessment abouthow old the wine is and how heavy the wine might feel in your mouth. Youngred wines are close to purple in colour. Over time, they pass through redtowards brown.
White wines start off in various shades of clear and theyhead toward a straw colour. Different wines have different colours. Beckett described thethickness of the colour usually indicates a richness, fruitiness, andheaviness. Thickness is best judged toward the edges of the wine as it sitsin the glass. Glasses are tipped to 45 degrees angle to create a large edgeof wine against the side of the glass.
This means that the wine is filledonly a quarter full during the critical tasting. The proper way to hold anyglass wine is by the stem. 2. Swirl the wine in the glass.
Beckett illustrated that swirling willhelp expose the wine to more oxygen, which could be a goal of the taster,eager to taste the wine right out of the bottle, but it is usually done torelease aromas. Mr Emmanuel also recommended that the easiest way to swirla glass full of wine is to lift the base of the glass somewhat vigorously;you will create a tornado of aromas that lift up and out of your wineglass. 3. Smell the wine. According to Beckett, the best way to smell wine isto stick your nose into the glass after you have swirl it as it will allowyou to catch the updraft of the little tornado of aroma you have created. 4.
Taste it: Mr Emmanuel made clear that with time, a novice will beable to understand the many flavours of wine as well as its importantcomponents such as acidity and tannin. “It is important to let the wine linger in your mouth for at least tenseconds; otherwise, you are not really tasting it. It is important to rollthe wine around your mouth with your tongue and expose it to as much ofyour mouth as possible. This encourages vaporisation, which releases aromaand flavour” Mr Emmanuel explained. 5.
Swallow or Spit: With reference to the book Wine Uncorked, Beckettexplained that at the dinner table, you are probably not going to bespitting out your experiments. However, if you go to a tasting where yousample a lot of wine, you are going to spit out most of the wines you try. It is easier to judge a wine’s aftertaste though, known as its ‘finish’when you swallow it rather than spitting into a bucket. The thirst quenching-embrace of a cold white wine on a hot day ornight is the perfect sensory experience.
However, alcohol is a drug, pureand simple; it is foolish not to be aware of its dangers. It affects ourbodies, brains, judgement, coordination and perception. ‘Responsibledrinking’ is not an oxymoron. Moderation is the key to most pleasures.####
