L'histoire

The art of wine tasting

To the eye

The wine tasting starts with a visual examination of the “robe” of the wine. In different cases, it shows the color and the clarity. The “robe” can also tell the maturity of the wine. When it’s young, the white wine has a pale yellow color with green reflects. With aging, it will turn to orange yellow. However, for the red wine, it’s the opposite: when it’s young, the color is dark, with purple reflects, even bluish. With aging, it grows pale: the ripe cherry color becomes orange red, then mahogany for the wines to be kept.

To the nose

The olfactory examination is carried out in two steps. The bouquet consists in smelling the wine over the glass without stirring. Then, rotate the glass clockwise to release the aromas, and at the same time, define the odors, which are classified into ten families: animal, woody, spicy, balsamic, chemical, floral, fruity, vegetable, empyreumatic and ethereal.

In the mouth

Finally, the taste examination starts with a mouth attack of few seconds, to allow the wine to come into contact with your taste buds: in fact, the tip of the tongue captures the sweet, the rim gets the acidity and the back catches the bitterness. When the wine is in the mouth, inhale some air in order to aerate and warm up the drink so as to perceive the aromas by retro-olfactory in the nasal cavity. At the end, if the aromas remain for a long time in the mouth, this is what we can call a wine with good quality.


Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

voir