Many times we have asked ourselves how to read the wine tasting notes, in order to understand their function much better.

The first thing we must do to correctly understand the wine tasting notes, is to put the five senses in maximum concentration, to be able to perfectly understand the characteristics of the wines.

We are going to define the steps to taste a wine, without losing sight of the fact that we want to do something that illustrates and is pleasant to us, and not boring.

The wine tasting notes are the result of the tasting of the wines, and their summary of what is perceived put on a paper.

The wine tasting notes are reflected in the wine tasting sheet, and are the wine ratings, and these generally speak of:

How to read the wine tasting notes

1.-Notes on Sight

It is the first impression we have of wine. What we see But from the first sight we can already appreciate things, since the view indicates the structure of the wine.

If the wine is dark, it is a fleshy wine. The border also indicates information.

We make a parenthesis to quickly explain what “border” is. This is the name of the part of the wine that touches with the glass of the cup or container of the wine.

So if the border is a violet color, we are talking about a young wine. On the other hand, the aging or reserve wines have a tile-colored border. This is due to the oxidation of the wine, which has occurred in the barrel.

Violet rim: young wine

Tile color border: wine aging or reserve.

2.- The Smell (smell)

When they talk about the aromas of wine, they are the sensations that are perceived with the smell that wine gives off.

A small trick to get the aromas of wine is to tilt the glass so that with the movement the wine moves and releases its odors.

The aromas can be of two types:

Fruit aromas
Aromas a Madera .: as a result of its passage through the barrel (aging and reserve wines). In this case the tasting note will talk about smell of coffee, vanilla, or leather

In red wines

The scents of raspberry, licorice, strawberry, green pepper, truffle, cocoa, vanilla, plum, cherry, banana, cinnamon are perceived.

White wines

They show us smells of: Melon, Honey, kiwi, lemon, orange, apricot, pear, fig, honeysuckle, mint, asparagus, herbs, grapefruit, lime, cucumber, grass, minerals, quince, hazelnut, mango, cream.

The rose wines

They do not offer smells of: cherry, pomegranate, strawberry, blueberries, tangerine, quince, raspberry.

Sparkling wines

We will perceive these scents: cherry, apple, lemon, hazel, yeast.

The sweet wines :

Caramel, plum, pineapple, chocolate, hazelnut honey.
Although wine tasting notes are not going to tell us, when tasting a wine we can perceive other scents, which can indicate wine defects. These scents are:

The scent of vinegar, which tells us that wine is bad.
Cork aroma, which indicates that the wine has a defect.
Normally these odors are caused by a defect in the cork stopper, so we will see many times in restaurants and even in the wine tastings, that the person who opens the bottle, the first thing he does is smell the coke, to make sure that this is perfectly

3.- In the mouth

The notes that the wine leaves in our mouths are the flavors of the wine. Through the mouth we perceive several aspects and characteristics of the wine.

In the mouth are detected:

• the acidity: its level can be lively, fresh, excessive, soft. The more saliva you produce when tasting the more acidic wine is.
• texture
• degree of alcohol

Basically we can detect the following flavors:

Sweets: depends on the type of grape used and the region where it has been produced.
Acids: associated with the freshness of wine
Bitters: determined by the tannins, and whose perception is the dryness in the mouth.
Salted: This flavor is only found in manzanilla wines.
Sour

4.- Sample Tasting Notes

Example 1

TASTING AT THE SIGHT

Dark cherry red color with violet reflections. It is high layer, clean and bright. Dense and very slow tear.

TASTING IN NOSE

Clean and very intense nose in which a good balance is reflected between intense aromas of ripe black and red fruit and pleasant toasted notes, which little by little become roasted. Many spicy nuances (vanilla, nutmeg, pepper), some good notes of tobacco, leather and a subtle mineral touch.

TASTING IN MOUTH

Powerful entrance that fills the mouth. Good attack with a large fruit load, with the wood very well integrated and with spicy memories.

Step very tasty, fleshy and expressive. Sweet tannins, polished and creamy. Good acidity Great structure Long and persistent finish.

This is a clear example of a wine tasting note. I’m not going to tell you what wine it is, but because of the comments above, we can make some affirmations:

It is a red wine
Reserve or breeding
Have you been able to deduce it?

Example 2

Sight: With a lively and elegant shine it shows shades of yellows to greens, with steely sparkles, denoting the latter the youth and freshness of the wine.
Nose: With floral aromas, rose petals and violets together with fruity aromas, especially lychee and ripe banana, also citrus fruits; It is a markedly varietal wine, with a final reminiscent of yeast and pastries, as well as limestone notes typical of resting on its lees.

Mouth: Spectacular attack and very expressive regarding the varietal character of the grape. Voluminous, dense and fatty in its wake and with a megargue aftertaste, very ripe banana and ginger.
In this case we are in a wine that we deduce is:
-a white wine He discovers the yellow tones to green.
– Young wine, for its aromas flowers

We could continue doing exercises to try to deduce a wine for its tasting notes, but if you have a simple guide you see that you can guess many things about the wine that you present us or that we take.

The tasting notes are a series of descriptions of a wine after having made the organoleptic study that corresponds to it.

However, this definition corresponds only to professional experts, because for others there may be a very wide range of qualities and tastes, for the fact that two people do not have the same tastes and perceptions of things.

Do the Tasting Notes work for Something?

The answer is yes. The tasting notes give us an idea of ​​what we can find before drinking a wine, regarding its smell, aroma and flavor, which helps us to fully enjoy that wine.
But they can also help us when selecting a wine that we want to buy, because thanks to them we can bring the purchase much closer to our tastes.
Finally, we should add our personal perceptions to the wines we tasted.
But do not forget that wine is a pleasure, and for that reason it is something very personal.

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