Q: What are secondary aromas?

Secondary aromas are created during winemaking : during fermentation and ageing of the wine, aromas of their own are formed; these include, for example, yeast and - particularly vividly - the wood notes (vanilla, caramel, coffee, smoke) when the wine has been aged in barrels . Certain yeasts , which are often specially bred, specifically produce clearly definable aroma substances that can override the varietal typicality of the grape variety . Very cool fermentation often leads to a distinct ice-bonbon tone in the wine, which is called "dropsig"

Q: How do you manage tasting notes?

At the latest with a growing stock in the wine cellar , the question arises of how to manage it optimally. The aim is to systematically record the wines in order to a) find them quickly when you are looking for them, and b) not overlook them so that they do not become undrinkable at some point due to overaging. In addition, one can store the date of purchase, source and price as well as tasting notes. All this information can certainly be organised to a certain extent with index cards or slips of paper. At some point, however, you may wish to manage your wine cellar by computer. Then you can either use standard applications or special software programmes: An individual wine cellar administration can already be set up with a conventional spreadsheet system (e.g. Microsoft Excel) or database system. These have the advantage that you can flexibly adapt them to your own needs. The disadvantage of such standard applications is that they hardly reach the user-friendliness and scope of performance of ready-made solutions. Special software designed specifically for the purpose of managing cellar inventories and tasting notes is offered by several service providers. These can be found in the web catalogue under the heading "wine software" .

Question 1

What's in the wine?

Accepted Answer

The ingredients of wine influence sensory perception.

For the most part, wine consists of Waterusually between 78 and 85 per cent.

The second largest part is made up of Alcohol (mainly ethanol and glycerine). To convert: one percent alcohol by volume corresponds to about eight grams of alcohol per litre of wine. For fermentation, the rule of thumb is that one percent by volume (or 7.9 grams) of alcohol per litre of wine is produced from around 15 grams of sugar per litre of must (or vice versa: 10 g/l sugar ≈ 5.2 g/l alcohol ≈ 0.66 percent alcohol by volume).

Another essential ingredient is Sugar - the residual sugar that has not been converted into alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide during fermentation. The main types of sugar in wine are fructose and glucose, with the glucose being fermented first; the residual sugar therefore usually has a higher fructose content. The residual sugar content can range from zero to over 250, and in rare cases even over 300 grams per litre of wine.

Acidity is also an important component of wine, with the acid content being composed of several different types of acid: primarily malic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid and citric acid, as well as traces of other acids. During malolactic fermentation (also called biological acid degradation), the strong malic acid is converted by bacteria into the weaker lactic acid.

In addition - and this is particularly important for sensory perception apart from sugar and acidity - wine contains Colouring, Flavourings and Tannins. Chemically, these include phenols, esters, thiols, terpenes, pyrazines and tannins. These sometimes highly complex compounds shape the smell, taste and texture as well as, to some extent, the appearance of the wine.

Finally, minerals are relevant: mostly salts - especially of potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sodium - as well as trace elements.

Question 2

What are primary aromas?

Accepted Answer

Primary aromas are created in the vineyard: they depend on the grape variety as well as the soil type on which the vines grow. Above all, fruity and mineral notes are primary aromas

Question 3

What are secondary aromas?

Accepted Answer

Secondary aromas are created during winemaking: during fermentation and ageing of the wine, aromas of their own are formed; these include, for example, yeast and - particularly vividly - the wood notes (vanilla, caramel, coffee, smoke) when the wine has been aged in barrels. Certain yeasts, which are often specially bred, specifically produce clearly definable aroma substances that can override the varietal typicality of the grape variety. Very cool fermentation often leads to a distinct ice-bonbon tone in the wine, which is called "dropsig"

Question 4

What are tertiary aromas?

Accepted Answer

Tertiary aromas emerge during ageing: due to the chemical transformation during bottle ageing, new aromas emerge again after longer storage, such as the typical maturity notes in red wines (nuts, earth, damp leaves), the petrol tone in matured Rieslings or - in the negative case - oxidation and firn notes; the latter are signs of ageing.

Question 5

What factors influence wine quality?

Accepted Answer

To answer this question, it is first necessary to define what wine quality means, i.e. what characteristics a high-quality wine has.

The following characteristics make up wine quality:

A wine in which all these characteristics are strongly pronounced is of high quality. The expression depends on the following factors, which can be controlled in the vineyard and cellar.

Animation video: Oliver Ende, endes-welten.de

One of the most important factors for the wine quality is the Extract of the grapes - technically speaking the Must weighti.e. the sum of all dissolved substances in the grape must. The extract can be influenced most easily by limiting the Yield influence: The fewer grapes hanging on the vine, the higher the extract of the individual berries and the more substantial, high-quality and storable the wine. With increasing ripeness, the must weight then increases, because more and more extract substances are formed in the grape. The age of the vines also plays a role here: the older the vine, the fewer and smaller, but more extract-rich berries it produces.

Another important factor is the Terroir: the interaction of climate, soil and vineyard management. The climate includes factors such as temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, humidity and wind; with regard to the soil, the nutrient content and water supply are particularly important, which are largely determined by the geological composition. Taking these conditions into account, the vineyard must offer the grape variety planted there the most favourable natural conditions for growth and ripening. The winegrower influences this by choosing the variety and the cultivation method: the more nature-loving and environmentally friendly the vineyard is cultivated - for example in organic or biodynamic cultivation - the more stable, substantial, differentiated and balanced the wine. This also applies analogously to cellar work: the fewer chemical and physical measures are used during vinification (this begins with pumping the must and applies in particular to fining the young wine), the more delicate, expressive and balanced the wine. Basically it can be said: the more time a wine is given in the cellar (for fermentation, for stabilisation, for ageing), the better the wine lees ageingfor stabilisation, for ageing, for harmonisation), the higher the quality.

Closely related to the terroir is the narrowness of the Origin is closely related to the terroir. The highest quality wine is made from grapes that come from only one vineyard or even from only one parcel. The principle of this so-called origin principle is thus: The closer the origin, the higher the wine quality. The reasoning behind this is: The smaller the geographical unit in which the grapes grow, the more homogeneous and characteristic the terroir and the more strongly this is expressed in the wine - which is also a sign of quality. In the case of wines with a protected designation of origin, this is linked to certain, precisely defined quality specifications, which can range from the maximum yield to the minimum ripening period. This is where the various Quality systems are applied.

In order to maintain the quality of the wine for as long as possible and to ensure that the wine develops as well as possible during bottle age ing, it is essential to store it in the best possible conditions storedark, rather cool, at a constant temperature and not too low humidity, and without the influence of oxygen or foreign aromas.

Question 6

What is the difference between aroma, taste and texture?

Accepted Answer

The sensory testing of a wine is also called organoleptic testing. It differs from analytical testing, in which certain measured values (e.g. acidity, sugar content, alcohol content, etc.) are determined with the help of technical, physical and/or chemical tests. Sensory testing, on the other hand, uses the senses to determine the quality of the wine. The senses involved are the sense of sight (eye), the sense of smell (nose), the sense of taste (tongue) and the sense of feeling (oral mucosa)

Appearance (visual inspection) assesses the colour and clarity of the wine.

At Smell (olfactory test), clarity, intensity, expression and complexity are assessed:

Is the scent clean, i.e. free of off-tones?
How strong is the smell? (quantitative)
What does the wine smell like? (qualitative)
How many aroma components can be detected and how differentiated are they?

At Taste (gustatory test) the same aspects are assessed, again clarity, intensity, expression and complexity:

Is the taste clean, i.e. free of off-flavours?
How strong is the flavour? (quantitative)
What does the wine taste like? (qualitative)
How many aroma components can be detected and how differentiated are they?

Aromatics is the generic term for aromas and describes first of all, to a certain extent, the fact that the wine has aromas, that it is aromatic. If a certain characteristic is attributed to the aromaticity, this indicates the basic category of aromas that the wine has (keyword: aroma wheel): If the wine has a "fruity aromaticity", this means that it (at least predominantly) smells of fruit (e.g. berries, cherries, cranberries).If the wine has a "fruity aroma", this means that it smells and tastes (at least predominantly) of fruit (e.g. berries, cherries, plums, pome fruit, stone fruit, citrus fruits); if it has a "spicy aroma", this means, for example, that notes of spices, herbs, tobacco or leather are in the foreground.

Most of the Aromas is perceived via the nose. The tongue only registers the "coarse" flavours sweet, sour, salty and bitter as well as umami (savoury, positively flavour-enhancing) and fatty (scientifically: oleogustus). The detailed aroma characteristics are registered retronasally, i.e. when the air rises from the oral cavity via the pharynx into the nose - smelling on the exhale, so to speak.

During the Texture(trigeminal/tactile test), the characteristics of the wine are assessed that cannot be tasted or smelled but can be felt via the oral mucosa; examples include juicy, creamy, melting, soft, firm, pungent, cool or warming. Criteria such as pressure, pull and length also count as texture, and last but not least, alcohol is perceived tactilely: It tastes of nothing itself, but seems sharp - and that is not a taste, but a sensation.

Question 7

What rating systems are there for wine?

Accepted Answer

Various rating systems have emerged or been developed to assess a wine professionally. Most of them are based on points (the higher the points, the better the wine), others on symbols, where the quantity also gives information about the quality of the wine.

Examples of symbols are the grapes of the wine guide "Gault&Millau" (1-5; full steps black, half steps red), the stars of the wine guide "Eichelmann" (1-5; full steps filled, half steps not filled), the Fs of the magazine "Der Feinschmecker" (1-5; full steps filled, half steps not filled) or the glasses of the Italian wine guide "Gambero Rosso" (1-3).

Among the point systems, the most widespread are the ratings with a maximum of 5, 20 or 100 points.

With the 5-point system - here using the example of the German quality wine test - the following gradation applies:

Level 5 (4.50-5.00 points) - excellent
Level 4 (3.50-4.49 points) - very good
Level 3 (2.50-3.49 points) - good
Level 2 (1.50-2.49 points) - satisfactory
Level 1 (0.50-1.49 points) - unsatisfactory
Level 0 (0.00-0.49 points) - unsatisfactory

In the 20-point system, the limit for a drinkable wine is 10 points, in the 100-point system it is 50 or even 70 points, depending on the critic or medium. For example, Robert Parker 's "Wine Advocate" is known for its very generous use of the 100-point system, while the wine guide by wein.plus under tasting director Marcus Hofschuster applies the system much more strictly. In any case, wines can be evaluated in the most differentiated way with the 100-point system.

The following gradations and "translations" can be made:

100-point system wein.plus	Rating	Explanation	100-point system generous	20-point system
up to 69	defective	Wine with more or less pronounced wine defect	up to 75	up to 9.9
70 to 74	acceptable	neutral simple wine, without faults, but with little substance and without varietal typicity; under 3 euros acceptable	76 to 79	10 to 11.4
75 to 79	decent	clean, harmonious, appealing wine with some varietal typicity; recommendable for up to 5 euros	80 to 84	11.5 to 12.9
80 to 84	good	clean, harmonious wine with good structure, character and style, real drinking pleasure; a good buy for up to 8 Euros	85 to 88	13 to 14.9
85 to 89	very good	remarkable wine with personality, expression, fullness and finesse as well as a certain complexity and depth, deserving the attention of every demanding wine lover; for up to 15 Euros always an opportunity	89 to 92	15 to 16.4
90 to 94	excellent	first-class wine, one of the best of its kind, absolute purity, harmony, balance, depth and character; under 20 Euros always a bargain, but also up to about 30 Euros not really expensive	93 to 95	16.5 to 17.9
95 to 99	great	World-class wine, whose depth, complexity and expression create an unforgettable sensual experience and which is able to completely captivate every wine lover; worth 40 Euros and more	96 to 100	18 to 19.9
100	unique	Wine that can only be made differently, but not better, a pleasure experience of a very special, incomparable kind	100	20

The individual evaluation criteria can be broken down according to the following scheme, which results in a maximum of 20 points:

Appearance
Colour (0-2 points)

0	inappropriate, faulty
1	appropriate
2	appealing and expressive

Clarity (0-2 points)

0	broken, milky, cloudy
1	clear and pure, but dull and lacklustre
2	brilliant, shiny, crystal clear

Smell
Purity, intensity and complexity of aromas (0-4 points)

0	absent, defective, bad, spoiled
1	weak, diffuse, neutral, restrained
2	adequate, clean, pure
3	exemplary, fragrant, fine
4	characteristic, particularly fine and distinctive

Taste
Purity, fruit, sweetness, acidity, possibly tannin, body, structure (0-7 points)

0-1	hardly present, empty, thin, strange, spoiled
2-3	muted, slender, lacking in expression, straightforward
4-5	pure, expressive
6	aromatic, rich, full-bodied
7	full of character, stylistically outstanding, perfect

Overall impression
general quality, typicity, harmony, balance, finesse, finish, maturity (0-5 points)

0-1	poor, inharmonious, atypical
2-3	short finish, harmonious
4	medium to long finish, balanced, typical, delicate
5	long lasting, exemplary, very harmonious, highly refined, great wine

Half points can also be awarded in the evaluation. The sum of the points can then also be converted into the 100-point system, whereby - as described above - the levels 11 to 20 correspond to the levels 71 to 100. Each point of the 20-point system above 10 thus corresponds to 3 points above 70 in the 100-point system. At 17 points, this results in a correspondence of 91 (70 + 7x3), at 18 points in a correspondence of 94 (70 + 8x3); the steps in between make up exactly the higher differentiation of the 100-point system.

A few important notes in conclusion:

A rating in points or symbols makes a statement about the quality of the wine, but does not explain it or describe the wine. Therefore, the rating and the sensory description of the wine should always be considered in combination with each other - because points cannot be tasted.
The quality assessment of the wine only says something very limited about its enjoyment value in a particular situation. This is also (and considerably) dependent on the environment, the time of day, the ambient temperature, the accompanying food, the personal mood and other factors.
Even a wine that is objectively of very high quality need not necessarily be enjoyable - certainly not if you consider people's individual preferences, sensitivities and dislikes. For example, a young, powerful, tannin-rich red wine of very high quality will receive a high score because its character and potential are included in the evaluation. However, only people who like strong, tannic red wines will enjoy it, and only when the wine is ready to drink.

Question 8

What wine awards are there?

Accepted Answer

When it comes to wine awards, a rough distinction must be made between the point ratings of individual critics and wine guides and the results of wine competitions and tastings by relevant magazines, where wines are judged by juries of several members.

Some of the best known international wine critics and media are (in alphabetical order):

Authoritative international wine competitions are:

International Wine Challenge (IWC)
International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC)
Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA)
Concours Mondial de Bruxelles

For individual countries, specific wine guides, magazines and competitions are important, whereby the focus is not primarily on the wines from these countries, but on the respective market. Different awards are given: Medals ranging from Bronze, Silver and Gold to Grand Gold and Platinum as well as titles such as "Collection of the Year", "Winery of the Year", "Winemaker of the Year", "Rising Star of the Year", "Discovery of the Year" or "Newcomer of the Year".

Germany

Austria

France

Guide Hachette
Gilbert & Gaillard
Bettane & Desseauve
Concours Général Agricole de Paris
La Revue du Vin de France

Italy

Gambero Rosso
Luigi Veronelli (Vini di Veronelli)
Luca Maroni
Daniele Cernilli (Doctor Wine)
Slow Wine

Spain

Guía Peñín
Guía Proensa

Question 9

How do you manage tasting notes?

Accepted Answer

At the latest with a growing stock in the wine cellar, the question arises of how to manage it optimally. The aim is to systematically record the wines in order to a) find them quickly when you are looking for them, and b) not overlook them so that they do not become undrinkable at some point due to overaging. In addition, one can store the date of purchase, source and price as well as tasting notes.

All this information can certainly be organised to a certain extent with index cards or slips of paper. At some point, however, you may wish to manage your wine cellar by computer. Then you can either use standard applications or special software programmes:

An individual wine cellar administration can already be set up with a conventional spreadsheet system (e.g. Microsoft Excel) or database system. These have the advantage that you can flexibly adapt them to your own needs. The disadvantage of such standard applications is that they hardly reach the user-friendliness and scope of performance of ready-made solutions.
Special software designed specifically for the purpose of managing cellar inventories and tasting notes is offered by several service providers. These can be found in the web catalogue under the heading "wine software".

Question 10

How do you taste a wine?

Accepted Answer

Tasting wine, tasting wine, tasting wine - three terms for the same process. One usually tastes a wine to judge its quality. Professional wine critics, sommeliers (wine experts who work in gastronomy) or tasters (who work as buyers in the wine trade, for example) do this full-time - but anyone can taste and judge wine. There is no need to make a science out of it, because drinking wine should first and foremost be a pleasure and an enjoyment. One of the essential elements is that when tasting wine professionally, you don't swallow but spit, so that you stay sober and your judgement is not clouded by the intoxication that would otherwise set in.

No one would think of answering, "I don't know," when asked after a meal whether it tasted good. I know too little about food for that." Just as one can say whether one likes a meal or not without bias, one can and should also say whether one likes wine or not. People who are more intensively involved with wine and with tasting then only go one step further and ask why they like or dislike the wine.

In this respect, it is helpful to know what to look for when tasting wine in order to recognise for yourself why you like a wine or not, to be able to discuss it with others and to know the next time you go to the wine merchant in which direction you would like to continue tasting through the wide world of wines. Whether you like a wine or not depends on the following criteria:

Appearance

The visual impression is one of the factors that determines whether a wine tastes good or not. After all, an attractively presented meal tastes better than a meal that has been thrown on a plate without any care. The following criteria are important when it comes to appearance:

A clear or even sparkling and shiny wine makes a better impression than a dull or even cloudy wine.
The depth of colour - depending on the grape variety - allows conclusions to be drawn about the extract and thus the flavour intensity and quality: A wine that is deep red or a strong golden yellow is more promising than a wine with a pale, inconspicuous colour.
The hue gives an indication of the age of the wine: the darker a white wine is and the browner a red wine is, the older it is, which means the more the primary fruit has receded into the background in smell and taste.

Smell

Smelling the wine is about checking the following questions:

All these factors determine whether the smell is perceived as pleasant or not. There are wines that smell like nothing, others smell so animating and complex that you just want to smell them forever, while others have a downright repulsive nose.

To enhance the olfactory impression, the glass can be circulated in the free hand or on the surface of the table to supply the wine with oxygen, which opens up the aromas

Taste and texture

To perceive the taste and mouthfeel of the wine, take a sip and keep it in your mouth for a few seconds before either swallowing or spitting it out. For spitting, there are appropriate containers available at a professional wine tasting. These usually look like a champagne cooler with a removable lid that has a hole in the middle. In German, such a container is called a "Spucknapf", in English it is called "spittoon", in French "crachoir".

You can also add oxygen to the wine in the mouth to open up the aromas. This is done by slurping discreetly, but it is also enough to move the wine back and forth a little with the tongue. Even if you sometimes experience the opposite: a professional wine tasting runs silently; the slurping or spitting should hardly be heard. In this respect, a high slurping volume is by no means an indication of a high level of wine expertise; rather the opposite.

When tasting, the following questions can be answered:

Does the wine taste intense and complex or rather neutral (like water)?
Does the wine have a perceptible Sweetness?
Does the wine have a perceptible Acidity? If so, is it harmonious, refreshing and stimulating or rather dominant, sharp and unpleasant?
Does the wine have Carbonic acid (like mineral water)?
Does the wine have perceptibletannins? If so, are they coarse or fine? Are they supple, harmonious and soft or rather furry, drying and bitter?
How strong is the Alcohol perceptible? Is it well integrated and supports the wine or does it make itself felt warming or even sharpening?

A wine will taste good and be judged positively if all these factors are in balance with each other and none of them stands out in an inharmonious way

Finish

The finish - or reverberation, persistence or length - of a wine refers to the time the wine lingers in the mouth after swallowing (or spitting): how long the aromas and taste dimensions are perceptible and how long the mouthfeel lasts. The finish can be measured in seconds and can last less than five (short), five to ten (medium) or over ten, sometimes even twenty seconds or more (long). The longer the finish and the more persistent the palate impression, the higher the quality of the wine.

Book recommendation

A recommended book to approach the topic of wine tasting practically and systematically is the guide "Wein degustieren" by Kurt Gibel (Hallwag-Verlag, ISBN: 9783774262522 - 9,90 €).

Publisher's short description: "This little book is a completely new approach to wine tasting. You don't cram grey theory, but activate both sides of the brain at the same time with the help of the pictorial representations on the fold-out Wine Maps. This holistic method helps to jog the memory and the art of tasting is acquired with fun and without effort. The 120 most important tasting terms and around 120 aromas quickly become familiar to the user of the work. How it is that wines sparkle, smell and taste so differently is explained in the second chapter. Other parts of the book deal with food and wine as well as wine temperatures. They are meant to encourage you to leave old familiar paths and seek your own taste experiences."

Question 11

How do you judge the appearance of the wine?

Accepted Answer

The appearance of a wine can say a lot about its grape variety and origin, its maturity and condition. One looks for clarity, depth of colour, hue and viscosity when judging appearance.

Clarity

To judge the clarity of a wine, hold the glass against a light source or against a bright white surface. The spectrum ranges from crystal clear to clean and matt to cloudy.

A persistent, uniform cloudiness (to be distinguished from swirled deposit that settles over time) is always a sign of faulty quality or over-ripeness.

Colour depth

To judge the depth of colour and also the hue of a wine, hold it diagonally against a white surface. In both white wines and red wines, an intense, dense colour can indicate a lot of substance and extract. These two factors usually result from yield reduction and are quality criteria of the wine.

However, the depth of colour also depends significantly on the grape variety: In the case of red wines, for example, a Trollinger or a Pinot Noir naturally has significantly less colour intensity than a Cabernet Sauvignon or Dornfelder. Not every "lighter" wine is therefore inferior - and not every deep-dark wine is automatically of high quality.

With increasing maturity, the depth of colour tends to increase in white wines and decrease in red wines. Oxidation increases the depth of colour in both cases.

Hue

The colour tone can be assessed using the following - exemplary - scales:

White wine	Red wine
- Lemon yellow	- Cherry red
- Greyish yellow	- Purple red
- Greenish yellow	- Ruby red
- Golden yellow	- Garnet red
- Amber gold	- Brick red
- Yellow-brown	- Copper red

The colour shade gives an indication of the wine's state of maturity. Especially the colour at the edge of the glass is interesting. The following basic statements can be made:

Viscosity

Viscosity can best be determined by first swirling the glass and then holding it against a white surface. Drops then begin to run down from the edge left by the liquid on the inner wall of the glass, forming "church windows". The later this drop formation starts and the slower the drops run down, the higher the viscosity and thus the extract and quality of the wine.

Question 12

How do you judge the smell of the wine?

Accepted Answer

Smell is used to assess the aromas of the wine, i.e. their purity, intensity, expression and complexity. Thus, the questions are:

Is the aroma clear and free of off-tones? (Purity)
How strong is the smell? (intensity)
What does the wine smell like? (expression)
How many aroma components can be detected and how differentiated are they? (complexity)

To answer the last question and thus professionally describe the aroma of the wine, one has to systematise the aromas. This is most easily done with the Aroma wheel. In doing so, the aromas are combined into groups (e.g. fruity, floral, herbal, spicy, nutty, vegetal, toasty, earthy, microbiological, chemical) and these are then successively broken down into individual components (for "nutty", e.g. walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds).

In the representation of the wheel, the aromas become finer and finer from the inside to the outside, and this is also how one proceeds when describing a wine: Depending on how detailed one can perceive a fragrance, the naming of aromas becomes more and more differentiated and concrete. Two examples:

	Aroma description of white wine	Aroma description of red wine
Aroma group "fruity	Fruits	Fruits
Specification (subgroup)	yellow fruits	red fruits
Category	Pome fruit	Berries
Single flavour	Pear	Strawberry
Expression of the fruit aroma (stage of development or Treatment of the fruit)	fresh / ripe / overripe / dried / preserved / candied	fresh / ripe / overripe / dried / preserved / candied

Simple wines will only allow rather rough descriptions of aromas ("dark fruits"), high-quality wines, on the other hand, will allow very sophisticated ones ("partially dried blackcurrants and preserved blackberries").

It requires a well-trained sense of smell and a good memory to perceive a fragrance in all its facets and to name the individual components. A simple basic rule applies: you can only identify something you know. For example, if you don't know what a banana smells like, you won't be able to recognise and name this aroma in a wine that smells like a banana. However, everyone can distinguish between the rough aroma groups inside the aroma wheel (see above), and to get an idea of what a wine smells like, it is also quite sufficient to describe it as "fruity", "flowery" or "spicy". How to train your sensory skills is described in detail in the corresponding beginner's knowledge entry: How to train your senses?

Specific aroma wheels for white wines and red wines can be ordered from the German Wine Institute (shop.deutscheweine.de).

Question 13

How do you judge the taste of the wine?

Accepted Answer

As with the smell, the purity, intensity, expression and complexity of the wine are also assessed with the taste:

Is the taste clear and free of off-tones? (Purity)
How strong is the taste? (intensity)
How and what does the wine taste like? How does the wine feel in the mouth? (expression)
How many aroma components can be detected and how differentiated are they? (complexity)

The flavour expression of a wine is divided into different dimensions:

Several senses are involved in the perception of taste: the sense of taste (tongue), the sense of smell (nose) and the sense of feeling (oral mucosa).

Tastes

The tongue registers only six tastes:

The last two flavours, "umami" and "fatty", hardly occur in wine. Therefore, the relevant questions are:

Does the wine have a perceptible sweetness? If so, is it rather subtle and discreet or does it dominate all other sensations?
Does the wine have a perceptible acidity? If so, is it harmonious, refreshing and stimulating or rather dominant, sharp and unpleasant?
Does the wine have perceptible bitterness? (This can be the case especially with red wines, as the tannins they contain taste bitter)
Does the wine have perceptible salty notes? (This can be the case with particularly mineral wines, because minerals are salts)

Aromas

Aromas are perceived via the nose when the air rises from the oral cavity via the throat into the nose - in a sense, this means smelling while exhaling. The technical term for this is retronasal.

The systematic identification of aromas is helped by the Aroma wheel. The aromas are grouped together (e.g. fruity, floral, planty, spicy, nutty, vegetable, roasty, earthy, microbiological, chemical) and these are then successively broken down into individual components (for "nutty" e.g. walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds). In the representation of the wheel, the aromas become finer and finer from the inside to the outside, and this is also how one proceeds when describing wine: Depending on how detailed one can perceive a scent, the naming of aromas becomes more and more differentiated and concrete.

Mouthfeel

Mouthfeel or texture refers to the characteristics of a wine that can be felt rather than tasted or smelled. Terms to describe the texture of a wine are, for example, juicy, creamy, melting, soft, firm, sharp, cool or warming.

The body as well as criteria such as pressure, draught and length also count towards texture, and last but not least, the alcohol is perceived tactilely: It tastes of nothing itself, but seems sharp - and that is a sensation, not a taste.

Exemplary questions about texture can be:

Finish

The finish - or reverberation, persistence or length - of a wine refers to the time the wine lingers in the mouth after swallowing (or spitting): how long the aromas and flavour dimensions are perceptible and how long the mouthfeel lasts. The finish can be measured in seconds and can last less than five (short), five to ten (medium) or over ten, sometimes even twenty seconds or more (long). The longer the finish and the more persistent the palate impression, the higher the quality of the wine.

Question 14

How do you recognise wine faults?

Accepted Answer

It is estimated that five to ten percent of all wine bottles are defective. The faults can manifest themselves in very different ways; in most cases they are caused by microorganisms. However, some phenomena that may seem unusual are not wine faults.

What you can see

Especially with young wines, a Cloudiness often a sign of a fault. The turbidity may appear as a fine haze or in the form of flaky or cloudy precipitates. In older red wines, however, a temporary cloudiness can also be caused by swirled up Depot swirled up. This settles again, however, and is not a wine defect. Likewise, turbidity is not necessarily a defect in the case of unfiltered Wines.

Also Tartar is also not a wine defect. This is a matter of salts of tartaric acid that precipitate in the form of small, transparent crystals. Tartar is completely harmless to health

With older wines, one should pay attention to the Level of the bottle. Over the course of several decades, liquid gradually evaporates through the cork. Bottles of very old wines are therefore sometimes no longer completely full. However, this should not happen with wines that are less than 15 years old and is a sign of a faulty closure; the wine may then already be heavily oxidised.

If the cork has Mould has formed on the cork, this alone is no cause for concern; it rather speaks for an intact cellar flora. However, the cork should not stick out of the bottle. If the cork has already been driven out of the bottle by a few millimetres, the wine was probably exposed to too high temperatures and may have suffered damage.

On the other hand, it is harmless if cork crumbs float in the bottle or glass after opening because the cork was not pulled out completely. This is not an indication of a cork defect(cork taint), and the crumbs can simply be fished out.

What you can smell and taste

One of the most common and most prominent wine faults is cork taint. It manifests itself in a dull, musty, musty smell and a dull, bitter taste. It is mainly triggered by the chemical compound trichloroanisole(TCA), which is formed when microorganisms break down certain chlorine-containing substances from wood treatment. Typical of the cork defect is that the smell in the glass becomes stronger and more unpleasant. If in doubt, let the glass stand for about ten minutes and then smell it again. If the smell has then disappeared, it was not a cork taint.

Cork taint, by the way, can be treacherous and may not show up immediately or clearly. Sometimes the wine seems flawless in aroma and taste, but a musty tone then appears in the reverberation (the smell that comes directly from the throat to the nose after swallowing). It is also possible that only in the course of time - a quarter or half an hour after opening the bottle - a "hidden" cork taint becomes noticeable. Sometimes a wine simply smells and tastes peculiarly "muted" without one being able to precisely fathom the impairment; a cork defect can also be the cause of this - especially in the case of agglomerated corks. On the other hand, a musty, musty smell can also occur with wines that are not sealed with corks.

Another mistake is the "atypical age tone" (UTA). This is caused by the chemical compound aminoacetophenone (AAP), which produces a dull, soapy-bitter smell and taste reminiscent of mothballs, floor polish, dirty, damp rags or wet cardboard. UTA often occurs when the vines have suffered from a lack of water, nutrients and/or nitrogen, as well as with high yields and early harvests.

The third common wine defect is sulphur boil. It is caused by hydrogen sulphide and its smell is reminiscent of the exhalations of a billy goat (hence the name) or of rotten eggs, decaying meat, boiled cabbage or burnt rubber. Possible causes for the formation of Böckser are insufficient nutrient supply of the vine, high fermentation temperatures or hygiene deficiencies. Since hydrogen sulphide reacts with copper, you can put a copper coin (e.g. a piece of a cent) in the glass and swirl it a little to get rid of the gust; but it is better to simply replace the bottle of wine - as with all other wine faults.

Question 15

How do you organise a wine tasting?

Accepted Answer

A wine tasting in a private setting is an excellent way to combine wine enjoyment, wine experience and conviviality. Even without the tasting serving the analytical evaluation of wines, one can broaden one's wine horizon in an interested group.

The following utensils should be prepared:

Number of wines and guests

The number of wines to be tasted depends on the wine experience of the guests and also on how serious the tasting is. In a cosy group of less experienced curious people, six different wines are quite sufficient, otherwise the guests will be sensory overwhelmed. For experienced wine drinkers, the guideline is 10 to 15 wines - a higher number only makes sense when experienced tasters come together.

The problem of leftovers should also be considered: if a very small group (four people) tastes a total of ten different wines, you will end up with ten almost full bottles. The optimum number of guests for a wine tasting is eight to ten - with this number of people, one bottle per wine is sufficient and is emptied in reasonable quantities.

Selection of wines

There are no limits to your imagination when it comes to choosing wines. You can put the tasting under a theme, e.g. certain grape varieties, growing regions or countries. Comparisons are always interesting: stainless steel versus wood, New World versus Old World, Riesling chardonnay or Pinot Noir from Germany against other countries, etc.

The host can provide the wines, but he or she can also ask the guests to bring one wine each for the tasting - either according to the pre-determined theme, or one organises a surprise tasting where each guest brings a wine of his or her own choice. In this case, it makes sense to agree on an upper price limit.

Further ideas and tips for organising wine tastings can also be found in relevant books.

Preparing the wines

Young, powerful wines need sufficient air before tasting so that the oxygen can break down the aromas. However, it is a challenge to carafe several wines carafe - who has five or even ten decanter carafes in the house?

A simple solution is to pour the wines into the decanter and then pour them back into the bottle (which necessarily requires a funnel). Before refilling, it is advisable to rinse the bottle with clear water for wines with a deposit. In this way, you can serve several wines aerated even with only one carafe in the house - although the carafe should of course also be rinsed thoroughly with water between wines.

Order of the wines

For a successful tasting, the correct order of the wines is important. There are several rules for this, which should be combined sensibly on the basis of the selected wines:

White wine before rosé wine before red wine
similar wines (e.g. of the same grape variety) directly after each other
Stainless steel before wood
in ascending order of residual sugar, i.e. dry wines before sweet wines
ascending by alcohol content
in ascending order of quality (appellations of origin, predicates)
conventional wines before natural wines

Handling glasses

Glasses can be rinsed with water between each wine. However, this is not necessary if the tasting sequence is correct. Once wetted with wine, the glass is "avinated" or "wine-green", i.e. it has a certain basic wine aroma (because wine is clearly identifiable as wine even beyond all aromatic details and is sensorially different from fruit juice or beer). This allows many specific, fine aromas of the individual wines that are tasted afterwards to stand out better. Between very different wines or after a faulty wine and also before the first wine, one should always rinse the glass with water.

A proven method of rinsing the glass before each new wine - and especially before the first wine - is to simply rinse it with water to rinse with wineanother proven method is to simply rinse the glass with a sip of water: pour and swirl the glass so that the entire inner wall is wetted with wine. You can also pass this first sip from one glass to the next in the round, because it will be poured out at the end anyway.

Blind tasting or open tasting

In convivial gatherings, wine tasting is usually done openly, i.e. all the guests know exactly which wine is going into the glass. This has the advantage that the sensory impressions can be directly related to the grape variety, the origin and the winery.

A professional tasting, on the other hand, is usually a Blind tastingi.e. the bottle label is covered and the guests either know nothing at all about the wine or at best the grape variety(ies) or the origin. To cover the bottles, there are covers made of fabric or corrugated cardboard that can be put over the bottles. Alternatively, aluminium foil can be used to wrap the bottles. In addition, the capsule and the cork should be removed before the bottle is brought to the tasting table, because they can also give clues about the producer. If you are very particular, you should even decant the wines into neutral bottles, because the shape or colour of the bottle can also reveal something about the contents.

In a blind tasting, all bottles must be numbered so that they can be clearly identified.

Question 16

How do you train your senses?

Accepted Answer

Everyone can train their sensory skills. This is done first and foremost by consciously tasting wine. When tasting wine, one should try again and again to analyse and describe the smell and taste. Only through one's own experience does sensory experience set in, and only through continuous training have even professional wine tasters and critics gained their expertise.

The basis for being able to recognise and name aromas is the conscious sensory perception of the environment: What do flowers, plants, fruits, vegetables smell like? This applies to as many individual species as possible. What does the forest smell like - in spring, in summer, in autumn? What do earth and rocks smell like - dry, warm, cold, wet? What do herbs, nuts and spices smell like - again, as many individual species as possible? How do fruits and herbs smell and taste when they are fresh and when they are dried? What do preserved or pickled fruits or vegetables taste like? How does fresh wood smell, how does burnt wood smell? What are roasted aromas, what are smoky notes? How does food smell and taste when it is fresh and when it is cooked (boiled, stewed, roasted, grilled)? Many of these questions are already easy to pay attention to every time you prepare food.

In addition, you can train your sense of smell and taste through exercises and references.

Train your nose

With the help of olfactory references, you can refresh your memory for certain scents. For this purpose, there are various aroma sets in different versions from several suppliers, such as Le Nez du Vin, Aromaster or Aromabar. According to the manufacturers, these sets contain the most important aromas found in wine in small vials so that they can be "sniffed" at any time. Such sets are available for both typical white wine and red wine aromasand even specifically for wine faults. At around 300 euros each, however, these sets are relatively expensive, and the aromas that are prepared here are artificially produced, which is noticeable in some cases.

More true to nature and significantly cheaper are therefore references produced in-house. Below are some examples, which can be added to as desired; the production principle is always similar.

A base wine is required for these recipes. This should be a neutral, simple wine; for example, a dry Müller-Thurgau or a passable northern Italian Pinot Grigio for about three euros per bottle is quite sufficient for this.

Recipes for white wine smell references

Lemon
mix freshly squeezed lemon juice 1:2 with the base wine
Grapefruit
mix freshly squeezed grapefruit juice 1:2 with the base wine
Apple, pear
Cut the apple or pear into small pieces and steep for 3 hours in the base wine
Peach, Apricot
Mix peach or apricot nectar (e.g. Granini) 1:1 with the base wine
Pineapple
steep 1/12 of a fresh pineapple in 200 ml of the base wine
Honey
dissolve 2 teaspoons of honey in 30 ml of base wine
Mushrooms
cut 30 g mushrooms into small pieces and let them steep for 3 hours in 200 ml base wine
Grass
cut fresh grass into small pieces and steep for 2 hours in the base wine

Recipes for red wine aroma references

Strawberry
steep 30 ml strawberry preserves and one fresh strawberry in 70 ml base wine
Raspberry
steep two crushed raspberries in 100 ml base wine for 1 hour
Blackcurrant
add 10 ml cassis syrup to 90 ml base wine
Prune
cut two prunes into small pieces and steep for 3 hours in 100 ml of base wine
Herbs
add 0.5 to 1 ml of herb liqueur to 100 ml of base wine
Clove
infuse two cloves for 3 hours in 100 ml of base wine
Pepper
crush two black peppercorns and steep in 100 ml of base wine
green pepper
a 10x10 mm piece of fresh paprika infused for 30 minutes in 100 ml of base wine
Vanilla
add 1 ml vanilla extract to 100 ml base wine
Oak wood
roast 1 g of oak wood shavings in the oven at 60 °C for 1 hour and then steep in 100 ml of base wine for 3 hours
Coffee
infuse one crushed coffee bean in 100 ml of base wine
Cocoa
steep 2 pinches of cocoa in 100 ml of base wine

If you want to try to recognise the aromas blindly, you should fill the finished mixtures into neutral containers and number them (note the key for the resolution!) or you can colour them with food colouring.

Training the tongue

Taste training is essentially about experiencing the tastes of sweet and sour.

Sensation of sweetness

The basis for the following references is a sugar solution in a ratio of 50 g of sugar to one litre of liquid. The liquid used can be a base wine (see above) or simply water.

Then the following mixtures are created in glasses placed next to each other; it is easiest to count out the proportions in each case with teaspoons and pour them directly into the corresponding glass:

neutral	32 parts liquid
3 g/l	2 parts sugar solution to 32 parts liquid
6 g/l	4 parts sugar solution to 28 parts liquid
12 g/l	8 parts sugar solution to 20 parts liquid
etc.	etc.

Then a third person replaces two of the glasses in secret and the test person must then taste which two glasses were replaced. Depending on the individual threshold values, the concentrations can also be varied accordingly.

Acid sensation

Here, the basis for the following references is an acid solution in the ratio of 10 g citric acid to one litre of liquid (base wine or water).

Then, again in glasses placed next to each other, the following mixtures are created:

neutral	31 parts liquid
0.3 g/l	1 part acid solution to 30 parts liquid
0.6 g/l	2 parts acid solution to 29 parts liquid
0.9 g/l	3 parts acid solution to 28 parts liquid
etc.	etc.

Then a third person again replaces two of the glasses in secret, and the test person must then taste which two glasses were replaced. Here, too, the concentrations can be varied according to individual threshold values.

Interaction between sweetness and acidity

The next level of sensory training is to learn how sweetness and acidity influence each other's taste perception and to learn to separate the two tastes in perception.

To do this, a series of reference solutions is built up in which acidity and sweetness occur simultaneously:

Sugar (g/l)	Acidity (g/l)	Proportions of sugar solution	Proportions of acid solution	Proportions of neutral liquid
3	0	2	0	30
3	0,9	2	3	27
6	0	4	ß	28
6	0,6	4	2	26
6	0,6	4	3	25
12	0,3	8	1	23
12	0,9	8	3	21

The task now is to correctly order these samples according to sweetness or acidity. (The values in the table can also be varied as desired)

Question 17

Which wine is good?

Accepted Answer

Whether a wine is good or not is first of all a question of personal taste. If you are sensitive to acidity, you will not be happy with a dry wine, for example Rieslingwhich is naturally acidic, no matter how highly rated or how expensive it is.

An important indication of the quality of a wine are the assessments of wine critics, wine guides, trade magazines or wine competitions. (For details see questions "What wine awards are there?", "What rating systems are there for wine?", "What wine guides are there?" and "What wine magazines are there?")