Categories
How do you judge the flavour of the wine?
As with the smell, the purity, intensity, character and complexity of the wine 's flavour are also assessed:
- Is the flavour clear and free of off-tones? (Purity of flavour)
- How strong is the flavour? (intensity)
- How and what does the wine taste like? How does the wine feel in the mouth? (Characterisation)
- How many flavour components can be detected and how differentiated are they? (complexity)
The flavour characteristics of a wine are divided into different dimensions:
Several senses are therefore involved in the perception of flavour: the sense of taste (tongue), the sense of smell (nose) and the sense of touch (oral mucosa).
Flavours
The tongue only registers six flavours:
- sweet
- sour
- salty
- bitter
- umami (savoury, positively flavour-enhancing)
- fatty (scientifically: oleogustus)
The last two flavours "umami" and "fatty" hardly occur in wine. Therefore, the relevant questions are:
- Does the wine have a perceptible sweetness? If so, is it rather subtle and discreet or does it dominate all other sensations?
- Does the wine have a perceptible acidity? If so, is it harmonious, refreshing and stimulating or rather dominant, sharp and unpleasant?
- Does the wine have perceptible bitterness? (This can be the case with red wines in particular, as the tannins they contain taste bitter)
- Does the wine have perceptible salty notes? (This can be the case with particularly mineral wines, as minerals are salts)
Aromas
Flavours are perceived through the nose when the air rises from the oral cavity via the throat into the nose - in a sense, this means smelling while exhaling. The technical term for this is retronasal.
The systematic determination of flavours is aided by the Flavour wheel. The flavours are grouped together (e.g. fruity, floral, herbal, spicy, nutty, vegetable, roasted, earthy, microbiological, chemical) and then successively broken down into individual components (e.g. walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds for "nutty"). In the representation of the wheel, the flavours become finer and finer from the inside to the outside, and this is also the way to proceed when describing wine: Depending on how detailed you can perceive an aroma, the flavour naming becomes more and more differentiated and specific.
Mouthfeel
Mouthfeel or texture refers to the characteristics of a wine that can be felt rather than tasted or smelled. Terms used to describe the texture of a wine include juicy, creamy, melting, soft, firm, pungent, cool or warming.
The body and criteria such as pressure, tension and length are also part of the texture and, last but not least, the alcohol is perceived tactilely: It tastes like nothing itself, but seems sharp - and that is a sensation, not a flavour.
Exemplary questions about texture can be:
- Does the wine stimulate salivation, does it have a mouth-watering and stimulating effect?
- Does the wine have a perceptible melt (like ice cream or pudding), is it soft and smooth like velvet or silk?
- Does the wine have an astringent effect so that the oral mucosa contracts?
- Is the body of the wine rather lean or rather strong?
- Is the wine rather opulent and full-bodied or rather taut, cool and firm?
- Does the wine have perceptibletannins? If so, are they coarse or fine? Are they supple, harmonious and soft or rather furry, drying and rough?
- How strong is the alcohol perceptible? Is it well integrated and supports the wine or is it warming or even pungent?
- Does the wine have perceptible carbon dioxide (like mineral water)?
Finish
The finish - or reverberation, persistence or length - of a wine describes the time that the wine lingers in the mouth after swallowing (or spitting): how long the aromas and flavours can be perceived and how long the mouthfeel lasts. The finish can be measured in seconds and can last less than five (short), five to ten (medium) or over ten, sometimes even twenty seconds or more (long). The longer the finish and the more lasting the palate impression, the higher the quality of the wine.