Archive for November, 2011
TERMINOLOGY for Communication and Memory
Describing specific smells and flavors of wine is not important to the average wine lover; most decide that a wine simply tastes good or not. Critics and judges, however, need to learn and apply standards of terminology. Wine lovers can enhance their tasting experience by learning these terms in order to communicate better with their fellow tasters, their wine merchant, and, perhaps most importantly, to develop a memory of their likes and dislikes.
Many of the smells and flavors in wine are described in terms of other fruits. Until her retirement in 2003, from the University of California at Davis, Dr. Ann Noble led wine research on smells and flavors. She began to develop her theories on aromas specifically recognizable in wine in the 1980s and her colleagues continue this research today. Dr. Noble headed a project to develop an inexpensive and easy tool to aid in learning wine flavor terminology.
The Aroma Wheel is a kind of pie-chart that lists, categorizes and groups hundreds of smells and odors that may be present specifically in wines. Each of these specific aromas is grouped into one of nine major general categories: floral, fruity, vegetative, nutty, woody, caramelized, earthy, spicy, or chemical.
Dr. Noble’s Aroma Wheel can be used to train your “nose and brain to connect and quickly link terms with odors…using materials available from the grocery store.” You may find many different wines to fill up your wooden wine cooler.
“How good can it be if it’s that cheap?” is one of the great myths about wine. The belief is that price correlates with quality. Prior to the wine technology and science we have today, cheap wines were really awful, but that is not true today.
The actual cost of producing a great wine is surprisingly small – $15 a bottle. Of course, if a winery has a fancy facility, in order to support its overhead, the cost of the wine must be greater than the cost of creating what’s actually in the bottle.
So, try some of those “cheap” wines priced from $5 to $10 – or even lower – you will get a pleasant surprise. We tried a Chilean blend of Merlot and Malbec offered at Trader Joe’s for $4 and got a “big” surprise! The wine comes from Panilonco Winery in the Colchagua Valley (2010) . We bought a couple of cases, because we have a very attractive credenza-style wine cabinet in which to store it.