HOW TO TASTE WINE

Well… well… well… there you are my shy and lovely expectators and audiences. Today is a lovely day for me; I don’t know I just felt happy today. Maybe because its December, and a lot of parties are coming maybe that’s it; and small things and problems have been resolve lately and it feels nice.

Lately I been hanging around with Mr. Gush who’s been a resident here in Cambodia for eight years now, He’s an Austrian and a chef, he already wrote two popular cookbooks. He loves wine so much and I love him for that, I don’t really know much about wine not until I met him.

Wine for me during my transformative years as a social climber are for classy people only, besides being costly it don’t make me drunk easily. My alcohol dosage when I’m just a poor little provincial girl is consist of cheap gin ( gin bulag ) concocted with different kinds of nectar and juices and named it with the most fabulous name ever there on earth like “Green eyed monsters or “gin pomelo”. “Tuba” in the visayas of course is my favorite mixed with coca-cola and San Miguel beer that’s all I know.

However, listening to professional wine tasters, it is easy to get an impression that wine is all about feeling, intuition and literally spirit. Wine tasting or wine drinking is not at all about getting drunk, it’s about refinement and appreciation of your life and culture in general. Wines are always present in every formal or informal ritual to the western culture, like tea to the Asians and “Sake” for the Japanese. Bouquet, clarity, earthy, crisp, open, and nostalgic could be difficult for many to understand even to me who is very understanding. By the way oenology is the science of winemaking, para sa vocabulary nyo yan… okay…

Serving wine requires some education and experience. Some wines are best served at room temperature (red generally), while some should be served chilled (white generally). But that’s the general rule in western culture, but in tropical, or asia and hot country people tend to chill everything be it red or white. So don’t be surprise when people in asia ask for ice with they’re red wine.

There are several main varieties of wine, which are named after the type of grape they are made from. Some of the most popular are: Merlot, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah (Shiraz in Australia),Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Pinot Grigio,Gewürztraminer. ( punyeta hanggang ngayon di ko pa rin ma-pronounce nang tama yang german word na yaan ) Bordeaux is actually a combination of Merlot and Sauvingnon Blanc. But don’t ask me how to pair it with foods… all I know is how to drink it.

So here we go our topic for today is…

How to taste wine

Pour the wine into an ordinary wine glass no more than half full and swirl it a bit to generate additional 'winey' vapor. As much as possible don’t ever use metal glasses not unless its glazed like the cup that the priest uses. Avoid heavy glasses so the wine can easily be seen.

Then examine to determine if it is clear, hazy or opaque. Clear is when you don’t see any sediment ( sediment di mo alam eto yung parang latak na namomoo sa tasa nang kape mo pag ubos na in wine meron nyan ) So its hazy if it looks like thick but a little bit clear. Opaque kung para na syang kape ka dark.

Smell the wine briefly and pay close attention by closing the eyes. This may seem pretentious but will help you to focus on one or two sense taste and smell over sight. I love it when I do that, it makes me feel like very social… you know and very pretentious.

Attempt to identify the odor. Determine if the odor is fruity like grapes or apples or oranges… attempt lang wala namang masama… basta try to identify what you feel and smell what’s it like, intuition is very important here.

Now take a small sip and run it around the tongue to get many different taste buds involved. Yeah literally imomog mo!!! Different areas of the tongue are more attuned to sweet detection, other more salty or bitter. These is what I love about tasting wine it makes you more aware that there are other taste bud in our tongue more than the sweet bud we know. That is why marami ayaw nang ampalaya kasi hindi nasanay ang mga bitter taste bud mo sa pait.

Set the wine aside or finish it and let it linger with your taste bud… drink another kind of wine after the next day and try to differentiate what you feel from the previous one and the one you’re drinking now. If you paid attention with the first things above you can differentiate it. Its like memory but through the senses.

In all cases, subtlety is the key. Good wines don't have a strong scent.

Swirl the wine gently, sniff and taste”

That’s it… that’s the general rule to be a wine taster. Before long anyone can be swirling around a glass of wine and tossing around 'delicate', 'floral', and 'woody' like an expert…. For me I always call them SUPEE!!! For super!!!

Thanks to Mr. Gush for giving some insights about wine tasting, Am not a pro but I enjoyed the fun of tasting wine it makes me drunk and I love the way red wine stain my already red lips…
MWAHHH!!!