Please don’t imagine for a moment that I’m going to tell you what wines you should like, or what glass shape is the one that will impress your snooty co-workers, or whether you should stick your pinky out when you hold a glass of wine. That’s not the point of this column.
Instead, I want to remind you that wine is fruit juice that’s been converted by nature into an alcoholic beverage. Yes, some wines cost a few dollars, and some of them cost thousands, but they’re all just fermented grape juice. Like any other comestible, the only thing that should matter to you, dear reader (and, I’m presuming, dear drinker), is if you like it or not. But here’s where my instructions apply: Don’t be in such a hurry to decide.
Unless you were raised outside the United States, it is likely that you didn’t drink wine as a child. That’s an issue of safety and common sense to most Americans. As a result, some and even many of the flavors and aromas of wine will be unfamiliar to you. Before rejecting new and different flavors out of hand, may I suggest that proper consideration of those flavors is due?
Let’s take a page from the script that blind tasters utilize. Those are the folks who practice at analyzing wine so carefully and specifically that they can frequently state with some assurance the age of the wine, how the wine was made, what grapes were used and where they were grown. It seems bizarre, I will grant you, but I’ve been a member of that tribe for four or more decades. We’re not at all perfect, but with constant practice, we can be fairly consistent in getting correct outcomes.
One of the tricks of the trade is having certain categories of flavors and aromas to focus upon. Fruits are primary because wine grapes, when fermented, can offer notes of citrus, apple, pear, or other tropical, orchard, red, black, blue, and even dried and cooked fruits. Other categories and aromas to focus upon are spices, because wine barrels add those, herbs, flowers, minerals, and all sorts of other foods. Often, you must look for each of those and by finding certain ones among the flavor, a skilled taster can ascertain a wine’s origin. To do so, you must slow down and focus.
The greater challenge in wine tasting is bringing sufficient concentration to the task. Paying attention, it turns out, is difficult, and the constant buzzing, chirping, pinging, and ringing of our electronic gadgets makes it even harder. For me, tasting wine correctly requires me to stop all that noise, both within and without, and find a quiet space to simply focus upon one thing at a time.
I’m as guilty as the next person of glancing at my phone throughout a meal or in the midst of a conversation. It’s a terrible habit and I want it to stop. I want to approach every meal with my friends and family with the utter sense of purpose that I have learned from blind tasting wine. To stop and notice all the things in front of me, to listen quietly, to take in the aromas, flavors, sounds, and textures of the food and drink, and to share in completeness all those wonderful experiences with those around me. That’s how we all can learn to taste wine.
Missouri Wine Flavor Finder
Wine with aromas of herbs: Blumenhof Seyval Blanc
Wine with spices: Les Bourgeois Mizzou Vintage Dry Red
Wine with apple flavors: Eagle’s Landing Ozark Mountain Chardonel
Wine with citrus flavors: Stonehaus Farms Vidal Blanc
Wine with cherry and other red fruit flavors: Noboleis Chambourcin
Wine with dried fruit flavors: TerraVox Wetumka Report
Wine with nutty flavors: Stone Hill Cream Sherry
This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of Missouri Life.
