See. Swirl. Smell. Sip. Savour??
That’s right…it was a wine evening at Johnnie Walker lounge at Palladium mall, lower parel few weeks back; where living Liquidz conducted a wine tasting session for their in-house brand ‘Moksh’.
As the bottles opened and the glasses clinked, there was swirling, sniffing, sipping and chatter. Why the 5 Ss??
See- check the color, it tells you about the variety of the grape used. Also color saturation goes hand in hand with the flavour intensity.
Swirl- heavy wines are deeper in color and more intense on the nose. Swirling intensifies the smell. Also sweeter wines are denser and hence leave streaks inside the glass when swirled.
Smell- wines quality can be judged by it’s smell. The smell could be of fruits, veggies, herbs, spices which will make you anticipate the flavour. This enhances the tasting experience by letting the thoughts flow for the aroma. Let the smell take you to a memory.
Sip- take a larger than usual sip and hold it in your mouth for 2-3 minutes while swirling it inside. This helps you understand the flavour, texture the basic structure of the wine. It also helps you understand the acidity of the wine.
Savor- when you swallow the wine, the taste is different than it was on your palate. Check for alcohol taste, there shouldn’t be one. Also check the length of time the taste lingers in your mouth and helps you understand whether the flavours are well balanced. That’s called the finish time.
There were whites and reds. Check out the list of wines that were served, what did they consist of and what temperature to serve them at-
In whites I absolutely loved Sangiovese Bianco which was just like coconut water and can gulp it down so easily. In reds it was the Pinotage- smooth, fruity and absolutely perfect for my palate. Devoured these with some cheese, crackers and cheese sticks.
LITTLE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT WINES- What I learnt in this tasting apart from just the 5 S’s of wine tasting was also the acidity of the wine. All wines are acidic leading to the sour taste. How do you measure it, is how it makes your mouth water in that first sip. Over a period of time with lot of tastings ull know how acidic a wine is based on where it hits your palate. Sweetness can reduce the sensation of acidity. For eg raw lemon and coke have the same pH; but since coke is sweet it’s not as intense.
Apart from acidity there are tannins in wines. Grape tannin comes from the skins, seeds, and stems of a wine grape. For this reason, red wines tend to have higher tannins than white wines because the extended contact of the grapes skins with the juice give the tannins time to dissolve in. Hence lending a drier, earthy taste to the red wines; more on lines of bbq. Apparently these wine tannins are supposed to be good for health; which is why one glass of red wine a day is good for you.
Tannins also make the wine age worthy.
Having said that I’m not an expert on wines, but yes I do love them, so much that it’s my go to drink of all times. I’ve been a lover of zinfandel and cabarnet sauvignon.
Apart from acquiring this knowledge and tasting all the palatable wines we also gorged on some sandwiches, fries and indulged in lot of pics and selfies.
Have a wine-tastic day people???? Cheers????