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First contact
The taster sips a small quantity of wine, lets it cover his palette
before spitting it out.
This taste is a means to get two complementary senses in motion :
taste and smell.
It enables the taster to confirm or refute the perceptions felt during
the visual and olfactory examinations.
It is also essential to judge the quality of a wine : if it is great
or remarkable, it will be long to taste, to the extent that the taste
remains long after the first sip. If balanced it will provide present,
harmonious and complementary sensations.
Flavours
The texture is felt by the taste buds. Each area of the tongue is
specialised in a different type of taste.
Even if perception varies from one individual to another a broad sketch
of the tongue’s taste buds can be drawn. The tip of the tongue
is sensitive to sugar. The outer sides for the salty. Acidic tastes
can be felt along these sides, but also on the internal side of the
tongue. Finally bitter tastes are felt on the back of the tongue.
Each of these four main types of flavours give the individual a particular
level of perception, one that evolves with age. Tasting exercises
can outline and develop these levels of perception.
The nose
Retro-olfaction or finish enriches one’s perception of the four
main flavours. The nose communicates with the pharynx through the
back of the throat. By giving the impression that he or she is «
chewing the wine » during tasting, the taster breathes in a
certain quantity of air and thus encourages the rise of the vapours
to the nasal cells that will identify the scent.
This stage is known as retro-olfaction or the finish and enables the
taster to appreciate
the richness of the flavours in the mouth, mixing taste and olfactory
impressions.
Touch
The sense of touch, through the tongue and also the mucus layers that
cover the inside
of the mouth also play an important role in tasting. Astringency,
the grating taste
of the tannins, the burning sensation from the alcohol, the sharpness
of possible gas residue, fluidity, consistence, texture and relief
are all parameters that must be taken
into account.
Finally, the length of a wine in the mouth is often a revelatory indicator
of its quality
and age.
An art to be cultivated
While anyone can, from the first taste, appreciate the most obvious
of these parameters,
it goes without saying that only repeated practice gives the exercise
its full meaning.
Finally, while wine-tasting can be considered an « exercise
de style », it also provides some fantastic taste combinations:
that of wines with certain foods, perfect, traditional
or unexpected matches. In this case, the only limit to the imagination
is pleasure itself. The pleasure of a successful meal, eaten in good
company… a certain « art de vivre ». |
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Who are we?
Domaine de la Vougeraie
