The Look of Love
The waiter now pours a small offering for your endorsement.
Notice the color. Whether you've ordered red or white, the color should be brilliant and clear, not muddy or murky. This is what's known as clarity.
Colors of wine vary as do colors of grapes. Whites will range from a pale straw color to a rich amber. As they grow older, they will begin to turn a more golden color. With severe age, they turn brown! If you've ordered a 1998 Chablis and it looks like Lipton tea, don't even bother to swirl and sip.
Wines are generally made to be drinkable right away. And, contradictory to common beliefs, not all needs to be aged. They come aged! Generally, whites can age from 4 to 7 years without spoiling. Dessert wines may last up to 30 years. Most reds won't survive aging past 15 to 20 years. If you want to experiment, go for it. It's all a matter of personal taste, anyway.
Younger reds will range in color from translucent cherry to deep ruby, even purple. Reds actually lighten as they get older and, in old age begin to show a brickish hue around the edge. In a young red, it simply means premature oxidation (too much air). Send it back.
As you swirl the wine in your glass, notice the way it sticks to the sides as it falls back into the bowl. The legs will tell you about the body (or weight) of the wine you've chosen. If it drips slowly down the glass like oil, you've got yourself a full-bodied wine. Medium and light-bodied wines fall more like juice and water. The heavier the body, the more alcohol. Other than that, it's just fun to watch it crawl down the glass!
Better than glue
When it comes to sniffing wine, you could sniff all night long and still not discover every nuance. It takes a lot of practice. You can do that on your own. But some basics for getting through the ritual:
Swirl again and take a big whiff. The swirling initiates the mixing of the bouquet with the aroma. You are sniffing out signs of spoilage. Trace fumes of vinegar, skunk, rotten egg, garlic, onion, or any kind of smell you might find on a farm are all signs of a wine gone bad.
Bouquet: The "overtones" caused by secondary blends; berries, fermentation, oak from the barrell, etc. Aroma: The overall smell of the wine; produced by the particular grape used.
As your nose gets more in shape, you will begin to notice the complexities and characteristics of the particular variety, the single notes that make up the entire blend. In younger wines, you will notice the scent of the barrel it was aged in while older wines will lose that smell, leaving a more fruity essence.
