If you’re looking to become better at tasting wines, take a few blind tasting tips from our Palate Club Sommeliers! Wine tasting should be fun and definitely should not be intimidating. If you’ve ever felt lost when it comes to determining the aromas in your glass while wine tasting, then this video is for you.
Here’s Why You Should Learn How To Smell Wine
Learning how to smell wine has many benefits. First, this step in the wine tasting process allows you to determine if a wine is faulty. Aromas like wet dog or wet cardboard indicate the wine has TCA, also known as a corked wine. While aromas of a barnyard, bandaid, or a sweaty horse indicate brettanomyces. Plus, there are a handful of other faults easily detected by smell, such as oxidation or volatile acidity.
Secondly, by learning how to smell wine you’ll uncover common aromas in specific to certain grape varieties. For example, Sauvignon Blanc is an aromatic white wine with distinctive aromas of grass, gooseberry, and passion fruit. While Cabernet Franc is easily distinguished by herbaceous aromas of green bell pepper amongst its red fruit aromas. On the other hand, Merlot is another Bordeaux variety which characteristically exudes plum aromas amidst its other black and red fruit aromas.
By distinguishing certain aromas specific to a certain grape variety, you can easily recognize what wine is in your glass. Then, you have a starting point to determine different quality levels of the same variety and the wine region of origin. This is when wine tasting gets even more interesting, as you learn how grape varieties vary in aromas depending on where they were grown.
Influences of Winemaking
Finally, by learning how to smell wine you will master the influence of different winemaking decisions on the final wine. Namely, how barrel aging imparts flavors of vanilla, toast, and spices into the wine. Then, how new oak barrels vs. previously use oak barrels influence the wine differently. Additionally, as you discover how to detect aromas of yogurt, yeast, bread, you’ll better grasp how lees stirring and malolactic fermentation affect the wine in your glass.
Discover how to smell wine with our video, On the Nose.
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