Things I Learned From Taking a Wine Class

View Comments Written by Abby on February 7, 2010 – 6:00 pm

When it comes to food or drink, it’s always fun to educate yourself and pick up some culinary knowledge when you can. Although not much of a wine drinker, I recently went to a Wine 101 Class and picked up some information from a knowledgeable presenter that I’d love to share with you.

Tasting Techniques

When it comes to sampling your wines, it’s a two part process:

Swirl and Sniff: The swirling of the wine in the glass causes evaporation and concentrates the aroma so that you can really get a sense of what the wine smells like.
Take a Slurp: Slurping involves taking a sip and holding the wine on your tongue and breathing in. By breathing in, it agitates, aerates and accelerates the evaporation which allows you to better appraise the acidity, alcohol, sweetness and texture of the wine.

Evaluating the Wines

Sight: Hold the wine glass against a white background and make sure the wine is clear and brilliant and not dull, hazy or murky.
Smell: Use your nose to check on the aroma of the grape and to ensure that what you smell is actually intrinsic to the grape itself. Does the wine smell fresh and properly fermented? You’re also sniffing for depth and complexity. Can you smell hints of cherry or chocolate?
Taste: Does the wine feel smooth, velvety or round on your tongue? What’s the level of astringency coming from the tannins? When it comes to your palate, sweet is detected at the tip of your tongue, acidity on the sides of your tongue, saltiness at the upper front of your tongue and bitterness towards the back of your tongue.

Info About the Grapes

There are some 24,000 names for varieites of wine grapes
There are 5,000 truly different varieities
Only 150 are planted in commercially significant amounts
There are only 9 grapes that are considered to be classic.

Those 9 grapes are follows: White Grapes (Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon) and Red Grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah). Other grapes that are also gaining importance include White Grapes like Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Blanc and Red Grapes like Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Petite Sirah and Tempranillo.

Fermentation of the Wine

Simply, it’s a natural process where yeasts convert natural sugars to alcohol (which stays in the wine) and carbon dioxide (which dissipates).

With white wines, the juice is separated from the skin and seeds after crushing
With red wines, the entire grape is used because the skin adds both color and tannins.
With rose and blush wines, the skins are used for a short time to add color and then removed. After fermentation, the wine is put in either wood barrels or steel barrels to age.

To read about the whole process, click this Wikipedia link.

To end, here are the final take aways I got:

Dry wines have no sugar
Wines that are aged in oak barrels will pick up flavors from the barrel itself
The oak for the barrels come from trees between 100 to 150 years old
Right now, the running cost of a French oak barrel is around $1000 while an American one is around $300
Wines that are aged in steel barrels will have the flavors intrinsic to the grape itself
Barrels are used up to 2 to 3 vintages (up to 10 years depending on the wine)
Whites are usually aged for 8 to 10 months while Red are aged from 10 months to 2 years or longer.
White wines should be stored in 40-50 degree temperature.
Red wines should be stored in 60-65 degree temperatures. If it’s too cold, it’ll taste bitter.

Overall, it was a fun and informative class and if there happens to be a Wine Class or any other kind of class about food, you should check it and who knows what wonderful tid bits of information you could learn for yourself.