Highway Information
YVR
Weather
Fire Rating
Page 3 of 4
Different winemaking and aging processes also produce different colours, intensities and textures. More traditional processes where time is not a factor will often result in thicker wines, but there are a lot of wines produced with modern processes that are excellent.
White wines are more difficult to appraise for colour, but the colours are there, ranging from almost clear to a murky yellow.
Smell
It’s not by accident that our centres for smell are located right next to our memory centres in the brain. Try sticking your nose in a glass of wine and sniffing. Then try swirling it first, mixing air in with the wine and freeing the aroma, and smell the difference.
With enough practice, you’ll stop smelling just fermented grapes and start smelling things like flowers, oranges, honey, cinnamon, mushrooms, trees, butter. If you’ve had this varietal or brand of wine before, one good sniff will often be enough to trigger your memory.
You can also detect something of the winemaking process. If it were aged in wood barrels for instance, you might smell the type of tree, or a leathery scent. If it’s high in alcohol content it might burn. If it’s high in tannin, it might seem bitter or earthy. If it smells like vinegar or mouldy bread, you might have bought a "skunky" wine.
If your mouth starts to water, you probably bought something you’ll like.
Taste
For an expert, tasting the wine usually just confirms their suspicions, although there’s always something in there you didn’t pick up.
Take a generous sip and swish it around your mouth and over your tongue, hitting all those sections mapped as sweet, sour, salty and bitter on that picture of a tongue in your science class.
Your sense of touch comes into play here, as you feel how light-, medium- or heavy-bodied it is. You can also tell how much sweetness, sourness, acidity, alcohol, and tannin the wine contains, which should tell you something about where, when and how it was made.
There are over 3,000 grape varieties used for wine, although within each general class there are more popular varietals and blends. Merlot is a type of grape, as is a Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Riesling.
Most of the grapes are more suitable for blends, but the brand name grapes mentioned above can be easily recognized over time.
To amplify the flavours in your wine, try holding a small amount in your mouth and slurping it, mixing the air and wine in your mouth.
-
May 18, 2013, 2:00 PM
Water study results positive for Garibaldi at Squamish
Investigation into Paradise Valley water source for mountain resort continues More...
-
May 17, 2013, 11:02 AM
RCMP to use helicopter, road blocks over May long weekend
Sea to Sky Highway to be intensely monitored for high-risk driving More...
-
May 16, 2013, 10:00 AM
Police release sketch of foiled liquor store robber
Store clerk put knife-wielding man into a headlock, chased him off More...
Latest in Arts
-
Foyer Gallery looks for larger than life artists
In other arts news: watch a water documentary and become an artist in residence
- May 16, 2013
-
WFF puts out call for enteries
In other arts news: Jewelry making workshop kicks off at the point, SLCC hosts drum workshop
- May 9, 2013
-
Audain Museum plans double in size
Art museum to potentially become the second largest in B.C.
- May 7, 2013
- More »
More by Andrew Mitchell
-
Freestyle team confident heading into 2014 Games
Young, talented Team looking to win at least five medals in Sochi
- May 16, 2013
-
WSSF 2013 was labour of love
Loss of major sponsors creates funding shortfall, forces organizers to do more with less
- Apr 25, 2013
- More »
