Wine

It is a generally accepted fact that the aroma of a wine affects our ability to taste a wine. When we smell a wine, it isn’t the liquid wine we smell. When I’m sniffing a wine too aggressively, I get wine in my nose, and let me tell you; it doesn’t belong there.

We smell the air column above the wine; containing vaporized wine. The evaporation rate depends on a number of factors; surface area, viscosity and temperature. I’ve devised a fiendishly simple activity to hopefully increase our enjoyment of wine. All you need is one bottle of room temperature wine.

I chose a bottle of 2005 Castle Rock Mendocino County Pinot Noir ($11.95). To test surface area, take two identical wine glasses and fill one until it has the surface area of a silver dollar. Fill the other one until it has about twice as much surface area. Now don’t swirl it, just stick your nose into each one. I get a thicker, richer smell from the glass with more wine surface area. Now, swirl the wine in the glass with less, and try it again. Swirling a wine increases the surface area, and helps the wine to evaporate quicker… rewarding you with gobs of aroma.

Now pour a bit of wine into a martini glass and compare it to one of the wine glasses. The martini glass seems to dilute the aroma, while the wine glass focuses it (tough to swirl the martini glass isn’t it?). The air column in a wine glass acts as a storage device for all of the vapors. If you fill a wine glass to the brim, you’ll lose the air column and the wine will suffer.

Go ahead taste the wine, recording your impressions on a piece of paper. Here are mine:

Spicy nose of brambly, acidic, black cherry. Enjoyable flavors of cherry liqueur and licorice, medium bodied, with a smooth mouthfeel, and just a hint of tannin. Kind of hot (alcoholic) finish.

Now place your glass of wine in the freezer for five minutes (or one cigarette and an e-mail check)...

Okay…now let’s taste and record:

Smells like mold and frozen cheese pizza (maybe the freezer wasn’t a good idea)

OK…I chilled it in an ice bath this time….now taste and record:

Very faint nose of cherry…maybe a touch of green-ness; light bodied, very refreshing flavors with fresh raspberries, and cherry. Tannin is quite noticeable, but attractive. Lingering raspberry on the finish. Very nice!

Wow! By chilling the Pinot Noir just slightly, I changed the entire flavor profile! Now let’s go back to the ice bath for 15 minutes to get it nice and cold!

Can’t smell much; tastes kind of green, and the tannin is overbearing. Must be too cold!

Well, I learned a few things today. Choosing proper wine glasses is important because it affects the intensity of a wine’s aroma. It is also important to swirl the wine, and to never over-fill a glass. Even inexpensive wines benefit from being treated properly.

The temperature at which we drink a wine has a huge effect on the flavor and balance. Red wines that seem hot and heavy at room temperature might be wonderful with a quick ice bath. I’m going to try to be less judgmental about wines when I first taste them. There is a good chance I will love the wine with just a slight change of serving temperature.

Contact Matt Devan at wineguy@lagniappemobile.com.

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