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Legs
November 23, 2010 by David
Filed under Wine Words
As in: “Nice legs on that wine!” What are they? Those driplets that come down the side of your glass. Are they a sign of quality? Nope. If the wine forms noticeable legs rather quickly it has a fairly high level of alcohol. And, that’s neither good nor bad. Alcohol gives “big” wine much of its body. Big alcohol needs big flavors or the wine tastes medicinal and feels hot. Lower alcohol feels lighter on your palate, which is refreshing and also food friendly. More on tasting basics here.
Wine Tasting Basics
There’s a common misconception that good tasters are a rarefied group with special abilities. Nonsense. The reason most of us aren’t good tasters is that we haven’t tried. Most of the time when you have wine you’re conversing and there’s food, music and all kinds of distractions. It’s hard for anyone to evaluate anything under those circumstances. This is not to say that the scenario is wrong – wine is made to be enjoyed with friends and food, but if you really want to learn something about the wine, you’ll need to take a quiet moment and tune in to it. The following suggestions are meant to help you get the most out of your wine by putting your senses to work.
Fill the glass a generous 1/3 full and hold it by the stem or the base, whichever is most comfortable for you. This isn’t just tradition or etiquette, although they play a role. If you hold the glass by the bowl, you can’t see the wine and you’ll smudge it with your fingerprints. A clean, clear bowl will help you evaluate the color and clarity of the wine, and you’ll also avoid warming the wine with your hand.
CLARITY AND COLOR OR HUE
Hold the wine up to the light or against a white background. The wine should be brilliantly clear, and free of UFOs (unidentified floating objects – a little cork won’t hurt you!). The wine should please all of the senses, including the eye. If the wine is cloudy, it may be an indicator that the wine is past its prime or is spoiled, but never let this put you off of tasting the wine to make sure. If it tastes okay, it is okay. However, good clarity is the ideal.
The color of the wine gives you some hints about what to expect from it. It’s best to use a white background and tilt the glass at a 45° forward angle against it. There is a range of color into which white and red wines fall, and the hue can send a message about the stage of development and condition of the wine. Here is a sample list of colors for white and red wines, and the color progression that occurs with age, from young to old:
| White Wine | Red Wine | ||
| Light Green-Yellow | Purple | ||
| Pale Yellow | Ruby | ||
| Yellow-Gold | Burgundy | ||
| Gold-Brown | Tawny | ||
| Brown | Brown | ||
You can see that white wines go from pale with youth, to gold and brown with age, while reds start out with blue and purple tones and gradually turn to brown.
Some whites are so pale, they’re almost clear. Most often these are whites that were not barrel aged and shouldn’t be bottle aged. They are light and fresh in style. When young whites are yellow it tells you that they have probably been barrel aged. Barrel aging before bottling speeds up the aging and turns the pale wine light yellow.
While whites deepen in color as they age, the reds lighten in color over time. In both cases, slow oxidation is the cause. For reds, in addition to browning, the pigment enlarges with oxidation and falls out of solution. This is why you see sediment in older red wines. Brown color is a sign that the wine is old, perhaps too old.
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Start a Wine-Tasting Group!
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Fun Fact by Nancy Hawks Miller, Goosecross: Wine Tasting Groups
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The Taste of Yountville!
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Visit Our Tasting Room
Enjoy Goosecross wine in our intimate barrel cellar. We take pride in providing one of the most enjoyable, informative and friendly experiences in the wine country. The Wine Country Weekly Review recently reported, “If you want to see a small winery… (and) love good wine, the spot to visit is Goosecross Cellars.”
We are open daily from 10am – 4:30pm. Please call 800-276-9210 or send an email to us for additional information.
NVWR® 24 – Anyone Can Be A Good Taster!
September 5, 2006 by David
Filed under Napa Valley Wine Radio
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In this episode we bring some of the key elements of our long-running Wine Basics Class® right into your home. Started in 1995 by winery Owner Colleen Topper, this highly-regarded class has been written up in “Sunset Magazine” as well as many other prestigious travel and news publications. Since Nancy Hawks Miller joined Goosecross in 2005, the class has been further refined but, as always, retains its original spirit of fun, education, and warm hospitality.
Text: Wine Tasting Basics
