Thursday, November 22 2012
Critical Drinking
Better living through chemistry. And, in this case, grave-robbery.
Every year for the Limited Edition tastings I try to switch things up a bit, to keep it fresh, and for LE 2012 I tried a completely new tack: teaching people how to taste wine.
Ha, I hear you say, 'Tim, I've been tasting wine for years: put it into your mouth and vi-ola! The taste is there! Quit wasting my time with your science-y foolishnesses!' And you know, you're not wrong. Sometimes as wine educators we get all wrapped up in the minutiae of this delicate aroma or that subtle flavour, until before you know it we're yapping about 'a hint of May blossoms carried on a layer of spice and apricot with subtle hints of boot polish and mild regret, to a long shallow finish of duck pond and figs'.
A few years ago I got tired of all that hoo-hah and decided to do a different kind of tasting education, based on tasting base wines against component solutions of known strength. I made up solutions of acid, tannin, alcohol, sugar and oak, and paired them with a tart, unoaked white wine and a ripe, heavily oaked red. The results have been very good, because while everyone has very different thresholds of detection for aromas, pretty much every single wine drinker can get a very good idea of what these five components represent in the balance and flavour of wine.
I've done four of these for LE 2012, and I couldn't be happier. This year I was mainly guinea-pigging them on unsuspecting consumers, but by gum if it didn't really help folks pick out the balance of flavours in the wines, and when we immediately launched into the tasting of the LE 2012 equivalent wines, you should have seen the lights go on!
I did one event for my friends at Northern Brewer. I got very lucky that it was in a perfect situation: not a huge crowd, in a really great educational area, and my pal Chip Walton recorded it all on video. With their permission, I'm posting it here on my blog, along with the instructions on how to do the tasting below. If you want to do this tasting event in your own home, maybe for a few friends, go right ahead: the recipes for the solutions are here, and the format is pretty clear in the video.
If you don't want to do the tasting, you can just watch the video and enjoy it along with the crowd. Please keep in mind that the cameras add about 15 pounds and I'm more charming in real life--so my mom says.
Winexpert Component Tasting - Northern Brewer
Component tasting solutions are made in one-litre volumes, using any commercial bottled water that is free of flavour or minerals. Generic store brands work very well. Solutions are made for oak, tannin, alcohol, sugar, and acid. When making them up, be sure to taste them as you go. The flavours should be detectable, but not overpowering. Be sure and label your mixtures, some will look similar.
Oak: bring one litre of the bottled water to a boil and add sixty grams of American oak chips (two packages) and remove from heat. Allow to cool and soak for two hours, pour through a coffee filter, and top up to one litre with more bottled water
Tannin: approximately 2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) of winemaking tannin in one litre of water. Mix very well (tannin is difficult to dissolve) and taste: it should resemble the aftertaste of strong black tea. If it is unpleasantly puckering, or if it is difficult to detect, adjust to taste.
Alcohol: replace approximately 150 ml of the water in the bottle with regular 80-proof vodka. The flavour should be vaguely sweet and slightly metallic. If you find it overpoweringly ‘boozy’ or
undetectable, adjust to taste.
Sugar: purchase fructose (fruit sugar) from a health-food store, or the health section of the supermarket. Add approximately one and one-half teaspoons (ten grams) of sugar to the litre of water. The taste should be very gently sweet.
Acid: add one-quarter teaspoon (about 1.5 grams) of tartaric acid to the litre of water. The flavour should be definitely, but faintly acidic.
These components are then tasted against a fruity, unoaked white wine, such as a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a fruity, oaky red—Australian Shiraz works well.[The video above uses Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc for the white wine and Yellow Tail Shiraz for the red wine.]
First, everyone should taste both the red and the white wine, and discuss their character—open forum style. Clear the palate with water afterwards. After this the process is:
Taste the white, taste the component solution, taste the white again
Discuss
Clear the palate with water
Taste the red, taste the component solution, taste the red again
Discuss
Clear the palate with water
Repeat for next component solution
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