Hello Frenchies!
In today’s article, we are going to tell you all about wine tasting and developing your palate. So how to taste wine?
First of all, let’s all agree we are not training for Master Sommeliers so there will be no weird noises or spitting involved. Wine is too good to end up in the trash anyways!
There are basically four steps to tasting wine:
- Look at the wine. If you have seen people moving their glass around, while staring at their glass, with their wine threatening to spill all over the table, this is part of this step and meant to check the opacity of the wine.
- Smell it. Professionals, such as sommeliers and wine connoisseurs could tell you where a wine comes from just by smelling it. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, at first, you might not recognize a lot. But with practice, you will be able to tell if it is more on the light side or if it is more or less fruity. Later on, you might even be able to distinguish specific fruits or spices.
- Taste it. This is obviously the most interesting part.
- Reflect on your wine tasting. Just don’t rush for another sip yet!
You can then taste it again, associated with a bite of food and see how it can enhance some foods!
Remember that the most important thing is that you enjoy your wine! So, who cares if you don’t recognize the cinnamon aftertaste? Remember that practice makes perfect and, in the meantime, if you really need to impress guests or just have your know-it-all cousin shut up about his amazing palate, just fake it (chances are he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about).
Cheers to that!
PS: If you’re in the Miami area, Atelier Monnier offers food and wine pairings from $14.95 (our wine pairing flights are at $14.95 and the wine pairing classes are at $39). You can discover wines and their food pairings and start developing your palate or just have a good time with friends! Check out all the info about our food & wine pairing here.
