Wine Sensory Seminar

Pietro Buttitta

Road ScholarsLake County, California

October 2013

Introduction• Know and grow your stylistic preferences, and us that

knowledge to investigate outside of the box• We are born with different sensitivities but we all can train

and refine how we process our experiences with food or wine

• Part of the fun is where and how the wine was grown and made – context is important

• Talking about wine should be fun, and like any new language, it takes a little practice

• Soft, fruity and oaky wines are a relatively new thing – very sweet or very acidic was normal

The 4 vinotypes

• Sweet – most sensitive to alcohol, acid and tannin. Need sugar to balance. 21% of women, 7% of men

• Hypersensitive – largest group at 37%. Foodies. Tend toward lighter, elegant side. Balance is key

• Sensitive – Go with the flow, adventurous types. 25%. Complexity is key and can enjoy a wide variety of styles

• Tolerant – 32% of men, 16% of women. Bigger, louder, stronger preference. Like spirits. “Iron palate”

Some basics tasting principles• Your first sniff is the best, so get into a focused and

clear mental state in which you feel ready to taste• Think of tasting as a circle – start with a clear

experience, pick it apart and analyze the components, then return to the integrated whole picture

• Do some memory work, attaching profiles to the wine from that place. If it makes an impression, you will likely remember it. If not, it is just a beverage

• Wine changes also, so be patient and observe• Mechanics – get comfortable spitting, rinsing with

water

Talking about tasting wine

• French system based on analog descriptors, it can be a little foofy – think of it as describing food

• Language works both ways; shaping what we experience internally and how we communicate it

• Increasing your wine vocabulary will increase your tasting accuity and allow more nuances to arise

• The flavor wheel is a good tool to get started and become comfortable with descriptors

Looking at wine

• Visual Components Color – it is important, but not too important Age – whites will get darker, reds get lighter Color Density – varietal, barrel, winemaking Clarity – a component of integrity Mouthfeel – perceiving texture and viscosity Sediment – not necessarily a bad thing

Appearance

Appearance

• A word about “legs” or “tears” and wineDoes not indicate quality, though it did indicate ripenessAlcohol, evaporation and surface tensionViscosity and sweetness

Appearance

• Most reds clarify themselves, so a hazy red usually has a problem. Nearly all whites are highly filtered and stabilized, so it is rare

• Sediment can be tartrate crystals orpigments in older winein either case, don’t worry

Smell

• Primal, complicated brain/nose interaction,10,000 smells and the 20/80 rule

• Use your retronasalslurping skills

• Caution – the nose adaptsfast and needs time toreset!

• The first sniff is your best!

Smell

• We are born with relatively equal senses, but generally women have a better sense of smell

• We may not be born with equal sensitivity, but we can train the brain portion to improve

• Taste declines with age, but…• Mental ability to identify and remember

smells can increase with age

Smell

• How intense is it? Varietal, age and winemaking style dependent

• Oak can have a huge influence• Aroma is primary, like cherry and apple, bouquet

is secondary and comes with age like truffle, leather and good mushroom

• Cleanliness – don’t fear funk, but assess quality• More on defects later…• Taste Brassfield

Palate/Taste

• Tasting combines aroma with tactile sensation• Mechanics: small amount, aerate, swish wine

around mouth, spit or don’t, concentrate through the exhale and carefully observe the finish

• All things being equal, the longer the pleasurablefinish, combined with balance, the better the wine is

• Describing the tactile aspects of wine can be more contentious than aroma descriptors

• A trick for assessing alcohol level

Palate/Taste

• Taste buds regenerate every ten days• Gustatory cells translate chemicals into electrical

signals to the brain• Ignore the old tongue map – you taste everything

everywhere, though it can be clustered in areas• Texture and weight is sensed in several ways in

addition to actual taste bud sensations. Tannic wine can be felt on gums without taste buds

• Mouth damage can really skew tasting

Palate/Taste

• Sweetness/dryness • Acidity• Tannin• Astringency• Oak• Alcohol• Viscosity/body• Balance assessment• Finish

Palate/Taste - sweetness

• Sweetness – sugar is an important tool, adds weight, balances acid, moderates tannin, holds onto aromatic molecules, but fruitiness is not sweetness though sweetness holds onto fruit

• Champagne and Riesling styles are the best example of sugar/acid balancing act

Palate/Taste – sweet versus sour

• Champagne styles based on added sugar (dosage)

• Brut Nature = no added sugar and under 3 grams/litre of residual sugars (less than 1 teaspoon)• Extra-Brut = between 0 and 6 g/litre of residual sugars• Brut = less than 12 g/litre of residual sugars• Extra sec (or Extra Dry) = between 12 & 17 g/litre of residual

sugars• Sec (or Dry) = between 17 & 32 g/litre of residual sugars• Demi-Sec = between 32 & 50 g/litre of residual sugars• Doux = more than 50 g/litre of residual sugars

Palate/Taste - acidity• Acidity – often the defining characteristic

between “Old World” and “New World” wines• Acidity + Tannin = astringency (tactile dryness)• Acidity is the backbone of white wines• Acidity is extremely important in pairing food

with wine (more on this later)

Palate/Taste - oak

• Oak is an incredibly complicated and loaded subject that bridges smell and taste sensation

• Oak ads to the nose and mouthfeel as body and complexity, spice, smoothness, etc.

• Oak can cover up or diminish flavors, such as pyrazines or underripeness and it helps set color

• Use oaked wine strategically when pairing• When it comes to winemaking and consumer tastes,

oak is the elephant in the room• Taste Chardonnay

Palate/Taste - tannin

• Tannin – that drying, fuzzy, chalky sensation you get from aspirin, many seeds, strong tea or coffee

• Comes from tanning leather, strong affinity for proteins in saliva. They are part of all the “good stuff” in grapes

• Tannin is present in both skins and seeds of grapes, skin thickness does not dictate tannin level

• Oxygen softens tannins, so decanting or aerating your wine if it is too tannic

• Tannin is part of the beauty of in red wine pairing

Palate/Taste – mouthfeel/texture

• Body is a general assessment with multiple inputs like acid, tannin, oak etc.

• But, bigger/smoother is not necessarily better. Sometimes the body assessment is a value judgement. Do you want Pinot like syrup or Cabernet like water?

• Grape variety, tannin profile, acid, and lots of winemaking choices result in body, and a ton of legal additives

• Taste Cabernet Franc

Palate/Taste - astringency• Astringency is a composite sensory phenomenon, tannin +

acid, usually in red wine. A lot is bad, a little can be good and lively

• White wines can be astringent too, usually high acid + high phenolic content

• Human saliva production can vary 10-fold, which indicates variation in taste experience and astringency/tannin and acid perception

• It is the longest-lasting sensation and builds up over time but without adaptation

• Taste Sangiovese

Palate/Taste - alcohol

• Alcohol has conflicting attributes: it is warming and cooling, thick and thin, and sensitivity to it is highly variable

• High alcohol wines tend to extract more oak from barrels, and balance can be difficult

• Wines from warm climates have more sugar and more alcohol, not necessarily a bad thing

• Knowing your sensitivity level is helpful here

Palate/Taste - balance

• Very much a judgment call, balance is balance of sweetness, alcohol, acid, fruit and tannin for you

• Some grapes produce wine that may be considered unbalanced if we do not understand their nature: Tannat, Petit Sirah, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, etc. Their balance point looks different so varietal is important

• Knowing your own taste helps here, but new grape varietals can surprise you with their own unique balance points

• Taste Syrah

Blending

• Some areas blend – Bordeaux, Rhone, Veneto, Portugal, Rioja

• Some don’t – Burgundy, Barolo, Brunello, Ribera del Duero

• Each has advantages and disadvantages• Very hard to make generalizations about

quality, more about paradigms and tradition• There is a lot of silent blending though…

Wine flaws and faults

• “Corked” wine - musty, dank, lacking aroma• Volatile acidity – vinegar (can smell sweet)• Ethyl acetate - nail polish remover• Brett - horsey, sweaty, barnyard, band-aid

(can be confused with corked easily)• H2S – rotten egg, sewerish

some flaws like Brett and VA can enhance complexity at low levels

Corked wine

• Corked wine is the most important defect to detect. You can return corked bottles to the store. It is (usually) not the winery’s fault if the bottle is corked

• TCA actually overwhelms and anesthetizes your sensory bulb, so the first sniff is the best at detecting it as you adapt quickly

• Look for a damp basement, wet newspaper, moldy smell, and the wine will be lacking fruit and taste very flat. The texture is all that remains

• Saran wrap trick

Food and wine pairing

• When in doubt, keep it regional and balance the weight of wine with the weight of food- match (duck and Cahors, truffle and Barolo)- weight (oaky Chardonnay with butter sauce)- flavor keys (smokey Syrah with grilled food)- acid levels (tomato and Chianti)- reflect a key element- Bubbles. When in doubt, bubbles.

Food and wine pairing

• Troublemakers:- Acidic salad dressings, lemon juice- Spicy/chili hot exacerbates alcohol perception- Sweetness gets messy, desserts should be slightly

less sweet than dessert wines, many sweet sauces (Teriyaki, BBQ, the Panda) will overpower a red wine

- Bitter (radicchio) + bitter wine = bitter- Losing a delicate wine or an aged bottle- Umami can make wine bitter or metallic

Food and wine pairing

More advanced:• Counterpoint is beautiful when it works• Can’t like flavors nullify each other?• Acidity is your friend and work horse, in the wine and in

matching food to the wine• Sometimes, pair the sauce, not the protein• Temperature – ice cream numbs taste buds, heat can

bring out tannin• Sometimes rosé is your best friend• Always think about adaptation when pairing

Food and wine pairing – special wines

• Port – typically a cheese plate wine, tremendous values can still be found

• Sherry and Madeira – very versatile styles (Fino, Manzanilla for sherry, Sercial and Verdelho for Madeira) range from dry to sweet, can be very food friendly and interesting

• Late harvest and fortified dessert wines – produced all over the world, often take place of a dessert or best with simple fruit or pastry

• Amarone – like Cabernet on steroids, let it shine

Winemaker Tricks

• All legal in California: adding water or acid, removing water or alcohol, adding concentrate

• Additives during fermentation: enzymes, yeast products, yeast food, tannins, oak, micro-ox

• Aging: fining products (milk, egg, gelatin) or removing some defects by crossflow filtration, oak, ml bacteria

• Additives at bottling: grape concentrate, DMDC, gum arabic, tannin, polysaccharides, oak products

Reading a French wine label

Reading a domestic wine label

How to read a wine label

• Appellation: when a county appellation is used “Lake County” 75% of the grapes must be from that place

• When an AVA is used “Red Hills” 85% is the minimum – it is a tighter designation

• If the label states “California” then 100% of the grapes are Californians of some sort

• Vintages are more important in some places than in others, even here the last couple of years

• Labels will tell you were the grapes grew, not necessarily what parent company made the wine