So You Want to be a Wine Connoisseur: Savor

Sparkling wineWe’ve offered tips on seeing, smelling, sniffing, and sipping wine. Now, to savor the wine. A true mark of a connoisseur is the ability to evaluate the wine. Having a clean palate and making good use of your taste buds can help you make evaluations regarding whether the wine is harmonious, balanced, complex, and/or complete. You can be sure that if the wine has not been properly stored, such as in a custom wine cellar in Toronto, savoring of wine leaves a lot to be desired.

Harmoniousness

The flavors in a wine should come together like a tasteful symphony, completely in harmony. It’s not unusual for certain components in a young wine to be more pronounced. In other words, blending hasn’t occurred. Skilled winemaking yields even young wine that plays harmonious notes on your taste buds.

Balance

Wine that is nicely balanced has desirable flavor components in advantageous proportions. Focus on detecting the sour, the sweet, the salty, and the bitter notes in wine, when evaluating balance. Saltiness is actually rare in wine and bitterness is better described as astringent flavors, which usually come from tannins. The sweet and sour or acidic notes are most prominent. If a wine is too sugary, too sour, or too bitter, it doesn’t have good balance. If you find out-of-balance flavors in young wine, it’s not likely it would have aged well. In old wines, it could be that the balance fell apart during an unsuccessful aging process.

Complexity

Detecting complexity in wine is a sign of experience in wine tasting. The beauty of complex wines is that they have depth, similar to a sublime painting. One sign of a complex wine is that the flavors linger in your mouth long after swallowing. When wine has a strong and familiar flavor similar to a carbonated soft drink, it lacks complexity. Just as you took the time to see, swirl, smell, and sip the wine, allow the wine to dance on your tongue before swallowing, as a way of savoring its flavors.

Completeness

When a wine is complete, it has all of the above-named qualities. It is harmonious, balanced, and complex. When you can evaluate the completeness of a wine, you have a solid foundation for a valid claim as a wine connoisseur.

More to come on becoming a wine expert

There is probably no one we appreciate more at Rosehill Wine Cellars than a wine connoisseur because a continuous supply of wine is needed. We understand that proper storage is a critical part of being a wine collector, and we are proud to provide the best in custom wine cellars Toronto. For more details on becoming a wine connoisseur, see our continuing series.