Wine Appreciation = Wine Tasting

Outcomes:• Help demystify wine • Learn the basic steps involved in wine tasting• Introduce techniques to appreciate wine• Identify the three general principles of a wine’s character -

appearance, smell, and taste• Understand more of the language of wine• Enjoy wine! A little knowledge can make enjoying wine even

better!

What's in it For You – W.I.F.Y.

• Understanding a products' features allows you to present their benefits accurately and persuasively.

• Customers respond to enthusiastic staff who are passionate about their products.

• Customers are more likely to trust staff who show confidence in what they are selling.

• Customer satisfaction is the result of an exceptional experience with our products and service.

• We are here to assist customers in making decisions to enhance their service experience.

• Customer satisfaction helps to meet sales targets and increases tipping.

like 

verb \ˈlīk\: to enjoy (something) : to get pleasure from (something): to regard (something) in a favorable way: to feel affection for

appreciate verb ap·pre·ci·ate \ə-ˈprē-shē-ˌāt, -ˈpri- also -ˈprē-sē-\: to understand the worth or importance of: to admire and value: to recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of: to be fully aware of or sensitive to.

Points Out of 20 to Evaluate Wine

• Appearance - 3 max • Aroma/Bouquet - 6 max • Taste/Texture - 6 max • Aftertaste - 3 max • Overall Total - 2 max

SCORE =

Four Steps to Tasting Wine

Step 1 – Sight Labels –• Producer or Name • Region • Variety or Appellation (Ah-pel-ah-syohN)• Vintage or Non-Vintage (NV) • Alcohol volume

Old or New World wine?• Old World wine generally refers to wine made in Europe. They are

lighter - bodied, more restrained and traditional, lower in alcohol, more structure driven and concerned with the place the wine is produced.

• New World wines are typically more ‘fruity’, modern, squeaky clean, fruit forward and in general more varietal driven with higher alcohol content. Science and the role of the winemaker are more often emphasised.

Legs (or Tears) – Thick or Thin?

• Legs - The traces left running down the inside of your wine glass after it’s been tipped

• Thicker, more prominent and slower legs can indicate a higher alcohol level

• Sweeter wines are more viscous, the tears will flow slower down the sides of a glass.

Colours in the Glass To see the true colour of the wine, tip the glass away from you at an angle of 45 degrees against a white background and take a look at the meniscus (the curved upper surface and rim) of the fluid. Also look in the centre of the glass for transparency or opaqueness and graduations of colour.

• Colour comes entirely from the grape skins, the pigmentation in the skins. • Deep coloured red wine is either young, made with ripe grapes or a thick skinned grape

like Grenache. Thin skinned red grapes add just a little colour.• Sauvignon Blanc can be slightly green, showing it is fresh, if it’s bright and clear you

know it will be fresh, fruity and dry. A golden Semillon shows it has been fermented in oak while the Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in stainless steel. The Semillon will be sweet and rich.

• White wines deepen with age, they gain colour. The opposite is true with red wines, as they age they lose colour. White wines maderise while red wines oxidise.

• The browner the wine, whatever the colour, the older it is. For red wines, a brick tinge at the rim tells you how old it is, the more orange and less blue, the older the wine. The lighter the rim the older it is. The rim can almost be colourless.

2. Sniffing:• There are four basic steps but in steps 2, 3 and 4 there

are no right or wrong impressions!• The nose picks up far more characteristics than the

palate is able to• The aroma wheel shows just how many qualities our

noses can pick up.

3. Tasting:

• Tannins make the mouth feel dry while acids make the mouth water

• We look for fruit and oak in tasting a wine• Mouth feel: wines of different alcoholic strength

feel different in terms of their texture – light, medium and full body

• Higher alcohol wines feel fuller bodied• Lower alcohol wines feel light.

4. After taste or finish:• After the wine is either swallowed or spat out• A major determinant of the wine's quality• The aftertaste of a wine can be described as bitter,

persistent, short, sweet, smooth, or even non-existent

• We also consider the aromas still present after swallowing

• High quality wines typically have long finishes accompanied by pleasant aromas

• The longer the flavours last the better the wine.

Reflection

• Name one thing a wine label can tell you.• Name a colour to describe white and red wine.• Where does the colour of wine come from?• Name one general principle of a wine’s character.