In the last post I detailed my internal strategies for smelling a glass of wine. As I mentioned, I think smell is by far the most important aspect of tasting. So I do most of the work assessing a wine on the nose. By the time I taste a wine, I’m only doing two things: confirming what I’ve already smelled and calibrating the structure. To review my strategies for smelling wine, go to the following link: https://timgaiser.com/blog/wine-tasting-strategies-smell/
Eye positions and tasting wine
Previously, I wrote about how important eye positions are in processing a glass of wine. These are called “vertical and lateral eye movements,” or “eye accessing cues.” In particular, I use a consistent starting eye position when I begin to smell a wine. Specifically, my eyes go down and to the left, looking about 15 inches away with a soft focus. At that point, I internally ask “what’s there.” Immediately, my eyes move out front of me about 6-8 feet away. This is my second, or “processing,” eye position, where images of everything I’m smelling in the wine appear internally.
As I go through a wine, using the deductive tasting grid as a check list of what to look for on the nose, my eyes go back and forth between the starting and processing positions. However, after smelling a wine for 10-15 seconds, my eyes move to a place in between, about 45-degrees from center and looking slightly down about 6-8 feet away. I call this my “two places at once” eye position, when I’m in a zone and going through the entire sequence quickly. It’s almost like I’m holding both eye positions—places—at the same time.
Using the deductive tasting grid
As mentioned, I learned the deductive tasting grid as taught by the Court of Master Sommeliers over 30 years ago. I use the grid in some form every time I taste wine to this day. Some of the content on the palate portion of the grid is similar to the nose. Here are those criteria.
- Dryness/sweetness: the presence of residual sugar—or lack of. A wine can range from bone dry to dessert sweet, with several increments of sweetness in between.
- Body: A wine can be light-bodied, medium-bodied or full-bodied. The body of a wine is determined by the levels of alcohol, glycerin, and dry extract—or grape solids leftover from fermentation.
- Fruit: confirming all the various fruits I’ve smelled in the wine.
- Fruit quality/character: confirming the fruit quality. Odds are the fruit will be tarter on the palate compared to the nose. That’s especially true for red wines.
- Non-fruit: confirming the floral, spice, herbal, or vegetal aromas I smelled in the wine. Also, making note of any that are impact compounds—a subset of the dozen or so most important aromas and flavors that are important for identifying the grape/wine if I’m blind tasting.
- Earth/mineral: confirming both and seeing if they are stronger or less present on the palate compared to the nose. Often, if earth or mineral is found on the nose, it’s stronger on the palate. In fact, some tasters have trouble smelling earth and mineral but can more readily taste them.
- Wood: confirming that oak was used (or not) in the aging process of the wine. I’m also trying to ascertain the age, size, or kind of barrels that were used.
Other factors
Blind tasting: If I’m blind tasting, I pay particular attention to impact compounds, the fruit quality/character, and the structure of the wine. Otherwise, I still use the same internal routine listed below, but not in as much detail.
Cause and effect: is a constant throughout the tasting process. From the time I start looking at a wine until I’m finished assessing the structure, I’m trying to connect the dots between how and why a wine looks, smells, and tastes the way it does. A well-made wine will be a seamless experience in that everything about it will make sense. If something’s out of whack, it probably has to do with winemaking (i.e., too much oak), or fruit that was harvested too early or too late.
Goals: what I’m trying to achieve when smelling a glass of wine
Confirming what I’ve already smelled: When tasting a wine, I’m using the deductive grid as a guide to see what the wine offers on the palate.
Balance: once I get to the structure, I’m keying in on a wine’s harmony—the balance of all its important components: fruit, oak, acidity, alcohol, and tannin if it’s a red wine.
Quality: To assess the quality of a wine, I focus on the intensity of fruit, the balance, the complexity, and the length of the finish. A great wine will excel at all the previous.
Improving personal skills: Every time I pick up a glass to assess a wine, I’m trying to improve my skills as a taster.
Enjoyment: Doing all the above but keeping in mind that the process should be fun. It’s wine, after all.
One more thought: Smelling a wine is to discover all the complexities of the grape. Tasting is to discover the skill of the winemaker in the form of a wine’s texture, tannin management, and balance.
Procedure: how I taste a glass of wine
Once I’ve exhausted the number of aromas in the wine I’m smelling, it’s time to taste. Then, using the deductive grid, here are the internal strategies I use when tasting a wine.
Set up and processing
- I take a sip of the wine and swish it around in my mouth for about 3-5 seconds. Unlike other tasters, I don’t keep the wine in my mouth for long. I’m more interested in how it reacts with my palate after I spit it out or swallow it. Also, I swish the wine around gently in my mouth. I don’t gargle it or engage in other histrionics, which are annoying at best.
- After spitting the wine out, I take in a sip of air to coat the inside of my mouth with the wine one more time.
- As I take a sip of the wine, my eyes immediately go to the starting eye position from the smelling sequence: down and to the left, looking about 15 inches away and using a soft focus. Once again, my internal voice asks, “what’s there?”
- My eyes are at the starting position only for a split second before they move to a spot slightly to the left of center between the processing place (6-8 feet away at eye level in front of me) and the map of images I’ve generated for all the aromas (6-8 feet away at floor level also in front of me). As I confirm all the aromas on the palate, my eyes dart back and forth between images as they are generated again and then how they move down and replace the same or similar image in the map.
- As on the nose, once I’ve tasted the wine for about 15-20 seconds, my eyes stay in a middle place, slightly to the left of center between the processing place and the map. Once again, it’s like I’m holding both places at once as I process the wine.
- Movie vs. an image: As with the nose, a flavor with great intensity may be a movie instead of a still image.
- As I confirm things I’ve smelled in the wine, I’m also noting any differences between the nose vs. the palate. Any change is represented in the corresponding image. For example, if there’s a change in the quality/character of a fruit, the image may get brighter (tarter on the palate vs. the nose) or duller (riper on the palate vs. the nose). The image of the fruit itself may also change. For example, the ripe black cherry in an image may become underripe or raisinated.
- Any change in the intensity of a flavor vs. the aroma also changes the image. For example, if the intensity increases, the image gets larger and more detailed. If the intensity is less on the palate vs. the nose, the image gets smaller and less detailed. Submodalities, or the structural qualities of the images, are an important key.
- Any change in an image from the nose to the palate also alters how an image may be positioned in the map; images of more intense flavors move to the front and those less intense move back.
- Per the categories of images on the map (fruit, non-fruit, earth/mineral, and oak): imagine stacks of cafeteria trays facing you, one behind another, going from larger in front to smaller in back. Images of the most important aromas/flavors are always the largest “trays” in front. That changes from the nose to the palate.
- I repeat the sequence: taking a sip of the wine and spitting it out, with my eyes moving from the starting position immediately to a place in between the processing position and the map. Then my eyes go back and forth between the two places as images of what I’m tasting are generated before moving down to join similar images from the nose already on the map.
- One more thing: images of any impact compounds—or other flavors I think might be important—are larger, brighter, and have a shiny border, like how Siri lights up the perimeter of an iPhone. This way I can easily track the most important components in any wine. It’s also useful when I’m blind tasting and putting together a conclusion. Also, when I know the identity of the wine I’m tasting and am judging it for quality and typicity.
Assessing the structure
After I’ve confirmed all the flavors in the wine—and noted anything new, missing or different, it’s time to assess the structure. Like the images for things I smell and taste, I use an internal visual cue to help quantify the levels of structural elements in a wine—acidity, alcohol, phenolic bitterness, and tannin. Also, the level of sweetness/dryness, body, and the length of the finish.
Specifically, I use an internal scale that resembles an old slide rule that’s positioned at eye level 6-8 feet in front of me where the images for aromas and flavors appear. I’ve included the image of a slide rule above because practically everyone reading this was born in the post-digital calculator age. Otherwise, the scale is about six feet long by one foot wide. Instead of numbers and slider, as pictured above, it has marks that correspond to the scale in the deductive grid for acidity, alcohol, phenolic bitterness, and tannin. From left to right, the markers include low, medium-minus, medium, medium-plus, and high. Finally, a red button is positioned on medium in the middle of the scale.
When I taste for any of the structural elements, I watch the button move until it stops at the appropriate mark on the scale that matches what I’m tasting/feeling in the wine. For example, if I’m tasting a wine for acidity, I watch the button on the scale move to the appropriate mark that matches the level of acidity I’m getting in the wine. Then I internally point to the mark and say “it’s medium-plus acid,” or whatever the level happens to be. If I’m not quite sure about the accuracy, I bring the scale closer to me, and smaller increments appear. From there, when I taste a wine for structure, I proceed in the following order: dryness/sweetness, body, acidity, alcohol, phenolic bitterness (white wine only), tannin (red wine only), and finish.
One more curious thing: after I’ve tasted a wine for a certain structural element, that scale with the marker still in place drops down and another scale takes its place above with the red button on medium ready to use. In the end, there are seven scales with the one for finish on top and dryness/sweetness on the bottom. These scales stay in my internal map so I can review them when it’s time to make a conclusion about the wine. If I need to revisit any aspect of the structure, that particular scale moves back up to the top—and it may even become closer and larger.
Here are more specifics about how I assess the different structural elements:
- Dryness/sweetness: Here the markers on the ruler go from bone dry on the left to dessert sweet on the right. The entire progression of markers is as follows: bone dry, off-dry, slightly sweet, medium-sweet, and dessert sweet.
- Body: the markers on the scale range from light-bodied on the left to medium-bodied to full-bodied on the right. If needed, I bring the scale closer with medium-minus-bodied and medium-plus-bodied added.
- Acidity: After dryness and body, I retaste for the acidity level. I’m keying on how much I salivate due to the acidity in the wine. The red button on the scale moves to the appropriate level matching my response to the wine. The acidity scale has the following markers: low, medium-minus, medium, medium-plus, and high.
- Alcohol: I taste the wine again and pay attention to how much warmth I feel in the bridge of my nose, mouth, throat, and even chest cavity if it’s a high alcohol wine. I’m also connecting my response to how ripe or unripe the fruit is. The markers on the alcohol scale are the same as for acidity.
- Phenolic bitterness (white wines): I retaste the wine and note any phenolic bitterness on the finish, which tastes bitter like almond skin and feels slightly astringent. The scale is the same as before.
- Tannin (red wines): I retaste the wine and gauge the level of tannin, matching it to where the button on the scale stops. I also note the difference between grape tannins (front of the mouth) and oak tannins (back of the mouth). Same scale as before.
- Finish: Finally, I assess the finish. Odds are I already have a good sense of how long it is after tasting the wine several times. A low-quality wine has a finish that literally stops in the mid-palate like someone turned out the lights. A high quality wine has a finish that could last several minutes after tasting it. The markers on the finish scale include short, medium-minus, medium, medium-plus, and long.
To repeat: once I use a scale to assess the acidity (or whatever), that scale moves down as the next scale appears. If I need to review any of the previous scales, it moves back to the top. I can also bring the scale closer if I need more clarity or precision.
After I finish assessing the structure, I’m done with the palate. At that point, I may retaste and do a quick pass through to make sure I’ve covered everything. To do so, I’ll bring up an image of the tasting grid, which will appear behind the processing place out in front of me. In this case, the grid is large—about the size of a billboard. I then go down the list in the palate section of the grid to make sure I’ve covered everything.
Finally, after going through the palate, two things may happen. I’ll either write a few notes about the wine and comment on its quality and typicity. But if I’m blind tasting, it’s time to make a conclusion and identify the grape variety, place of origin, classification (e.g. Chianti Classico or Burgundy), and vintage. I’ll cover my internal strategies for making a conclusion in a future post.
In the end, I have to remind everyone that however much all this sounds like science fiction, I never consciously set any of it up. In fact, I was oblivious to all of it until the two video sessions with Tim Hallbom in November of 2009. Then it took someone with the right skills to help me deconstruct what were until then a set of unconscious processes that I did at light speed. And though it may not seem like it, since that time, the original process has become more streamlined and simpler.
Personal Tasting Strategies Part I: Sight
Personal Tasting Strategies Part II: Smell
Learn more professional wine tasting strategies in my book,
Message in the Bottle: A Guide to Tasting Wine
CLICK HERE.
