1 Introduction

Why Do We Taste Wine?

The enjoyment and understanding of wine is enhanced as the taster becomes more skilful and as knowledge increases.

Once you learn to pick out the subtle flavours, and store them in your memory, it will bring a whole dimension to your enjoyment of wine, and you will be more confident when choosing wines.

What Is Good Wine?

A good wine is one that you personally like. Not what someone else tells you is good.

The most important person to please is yourself. Just as not everyone likes the same foods, so people differ in their appreciation of wines. If you like it, drink it. If you like it with a particular food, go on, enjoy. Don’t be fazed because others tell you it doesn’t ‘go’ with that dish. You be the judge.

Educated tasting is a combination of knowledge, experience, and learning the disciplined use of the four senses involved. Wine is best judged according to a set of specifications designed to outline the characteristics of its appearance, smells, taste and feel.

· Sight: the appearance of the wine

· Smell: the aroma and bouquet of the wine

· Taste: the taste, flavour and mouth feel of the wine on the palate

· Feel: tactile sensations (astringency or dryness) detected in the mouth.

Keep Written Notes

1. To provide a personal record

2. To assist in the description of a wine when explaining its qualities or deficiencies to other people

3. To help in the assessment of the quality of a wine in terms of value eg, when making a purchasing decision

4. To monitor the wine’s development and ageing potential.

5. It provides you with a wonderful diary of wines that you have had.

Score Sheets

· 20 point

· 10 point

· 100 point

· even a one-ptuee, two-ptuee, orgasmic.

The tasting sheet used here employs the twenty point system in common use in Australian wine shows. Most likely you will end up modifying one to meet your needs.

Tasting Glass

1. Only a small amount of wine should be poured into a tasting glass, (about ¼ full).

2. Filling the glass more than one-third full makes it difficult to perform some of the tasting operations.

3. The specific odours in wine can be more easily detected if the correct type of tasting glass is used. The ISO (International Standard Organisation) glass is ideal. The narrow top end of the glass helps contain the wine while swirling to concentrate the vapours.

WINE AGING

The positive aging process in wine results when all components integrate, change, and soften with age. Acid and tannins soften colours change; fruit flavours diminish and give way to more complex, bottle-aged characters. Rough edges are rounded.

Wines of different variety, style, and quality age at different rates. The secret is to find young wine that contains all the positive components in equal proportions, then as the wine ages all its components will mature at an equal rate. Understand that flavours and textures praised in a wine's youth will dramatically alter with age. The ultimate question is... do you like the flavours they turn into.

How Wine Flavours Alter with Age

White wine becomes darker in colour, loses acid, and takes on more complex characters of toast and honey. These are not necessarily to everyone's taste.

Red wine loses vibrancy of colour and goes brick red. Tannins soften, and earthy, cedar, and leather flavours develop over time.

WINE	WHEN YOUNG	WITH AGE
Unwooded Semillon	very dry, high acid and low in flavour, 'green' and unripe	soft acid, burnt buttered toast and honey
Riesling	crisp acid, lemon, lime, fruit salad and floral	soft acid, honeyed, with kerosene and toast flavours
Shiraz	dry, high tannin, blackberry and raspberry fruit, crushed pepper	soft tannin, wet leather, cedar, tobacco, wet earth
Cabernet Sauvignon	dry, high tannin, blackcurrant, mint, chocolate, mulberry	soft tannin, cedar, tobacco, earthy

STORING AND CELLARING

Temperature

Temperature should be kept constant with as little fluctuation as possible. Ideal is 12-15^oC, but higher is acceptable as long as it does not fluctuate regularly.

Rack Flat

Bottles should be kept at an angle or flat so that wine touches the cork, ensuring they do not dry out or shrink away from the inside of the bottle and let in air. Humidity is required to prevent corks drying out, preferably 70-80%.

Ventilation and Darkness

Good ventilation prevents build-up of off odours and moulds absorbed through the cork.

Darkness prevents light-damage. Keeping wines in their original cardboard cartons is inexpensive and effective.

Vibration

Vibration should be avoided - you do not need to turn or touch your wine on a regular basis. Aging changes the flavours of wines. They lose their primary fruitiness; acids and tannins soften and they become rounder in character.

SERVING

Over chilling a wine depresses flavour, serving a wine too warm accentuates its hot alcohol feeling. Different wines require different serving temperatures.

Higher Temperature	Lower Temperature
Brings out flavour	Depresses fruit and lifts aromatics
Makes any sweetness more noticeable	Decreases any sweetness
Lessens tannins in red wine	Tannins and bitterness show more in red wine
Increases 'hotness' of alcohol	Accentuates acid dryness

When serving any wine it is better to serve it slightly too cold so it can warm in the glass; rather than having to chill it down further once opened.

Ideal Serving Temperatures

The right serving temperature for a wine is the temperature that makes it taste best. There are no hard-and-fast rules, just guidelines -- and personal preference is important, too. Some people enjoy ice water, while others prefer room-temperature water. Custom, common sense and personal taste all play a role.

Generally, full bodied white wines taste best chilled 11-14^oc, light bodied whites &rosés taste best chilled 8-11^oc and sparkling wines taste best chilled 6-8^oc but not ice-cold.

An hour or two in the refrigerator is plenty of time to chill a bottle. If a bottle has been refrigerated for some time, consider taking it out of the refrigerator 15 or 20 minutes before serving. Serving certain wines ice-cold can deaden their flavours.

Full bodied reds, ports, tokays, & sparkling shiraz taste best chilled 14-18^oc, light bodied reds taste best chilled 11-14^oc, and fino sherries taste best chilled 8-9^oc.

The key phrase for reds is cool room temperature. Most people serve red wines at actual room temperature, 21-24^oc, which can make some red wines taste heavy or out of balance. Try popping a bottle of red into the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so before serving, and see if you find the wine more refreshing and better balanced.

BAUME' (Measuring Alcohol Content)

Baume' is the measure of the sugar concentration in the grape,based on the specific gravity of the juice. A sugary liquid is heavier than pure water, and specific gravity is a measure of this difference in density. The more sugar, the higher will be the specific gravity. Winemaking grapes are picked when the Baume' is between 10 and 15^o Be depending on the type of wine to be made. Some grapes used for Sauternes or Auslese styles may be picked with a Baume' reading as high as 22 to 26^o Be.

The grapes are crushed, and to the extracted juice the winemaker will add yeast. This is allowed to ferment until all the grape sugar has been converted to alcohol. Each 1^oBe of sugar in the grape juice will yield approximately 1% alcohol by volume in the wine. Provided all of the sugar ferments, grapes picked at 12^o Be will make a wine with approximately 12% alcohol by volume.

Although Baume' is the most common measure used in Australia, other wine producing countries may use different measures.

2 Wine Tasting Principles

An exceptionally good wine will evolve, developing its flavour, texture, and aromas during the drinking of it. Much of this takes place in the time it takes to sip and then swallow a mouthful.

The very best wines can change with the suddenness of fireworks exploding, with or the subtlety of a chameleon’s change of colour.

If a lot is happening in the wine, all the time, it is considered to be complex. But not all wines need to function on all cylinders at once—and at all times.

First Impressions are important. When tasting a wine for the first time don’t be talking about the great game you saw on TV last night and get through the first half-glass then realize you’ve no idea what you’ve just tasted! Take the time to really concentrate on the smell and taste when your senses are at their peak.

The notes on the bottle are not only there to make it look pretty, they also present the winemaking team’s opinion on the type of wine they have produced.

There are three major steps in the process, Look, Smell, Taste.

1. LOOK AT THE WINE.

· It is essential to have ample lighting in your tasting area and some form of white background against which to view the contents of your glass. This could be a sheet of paper (the back of your values card), a wall or table cloth.

· Turn the glass gently.

· Tilt the glass away at 45° and view colour and gradation and the clarity of its contents.

What Can You See?

Is it Brilliant? Transparent? clear? Hazy? Is the colour consistent throughout, or is it a different colour nearer the edge than in the centre? Do bubbles appear in the glass? Does the colour appear appropriate for the type of wine? Is there Sediment? Jot down your observations.

· Colours. The colours of a white wine may be water white, yellow, gold, straw yellow, amber, brown, golden yellow, pale gold or other. Aged white wines will have typically deeper yellows and golds. Red wines may be pink, orange, light red, tile red, brick red, ripe plum and many other descriptions. Ageing will show orange and browns.

· Clarity. The wine clarity is essentially how clear the wine is (brilliant, clear, cloudy, dull).

· observe the 'legs' – or how the wine runs down the glass. Thicker rivulets may give a clue as to the wine's higher alcohol or fuller body. Watery wines will not adhere very well to the glass sides as it swirls around.

· Age. You can guess the age of a red wine by observing its "rim." Tilt the glass and look at the wine edge. A purple tint may indicate youth while orange to brown indicates maturity. Note the opacity of the wine which can give a varietal clue: Pinot Noir is usually more transparent, whereas a Cabernet Sauvignon might have an inky-black, opaque centre.

· Sediment often occurs in wines with bottle age where tartrate crystals form (white in white wine, red or black in red wine). Red wines tend to leave additional deposits of tannins. Don't be alarmed – sediment is in no way a fault but requires the wine be decanted first.

2. SMELL THE WINE.

· You might sniff for five minutes before any wine reaches the lips.

· There may be more to learn from smelling a wine than from tasting it.

· The nose is more sensitive than the mouth and can pick up subtle stimuli from a wine. It accounts for about 70-75% of your perceptions.

a) Gently sniff across the top of the glass to pick up the lightest vapours. Breathe out away from the glass.

b) Put your nose right into the glass and get as close to the wine as you can, in order to gently detect the heavier vapour near the surface.

c) For the first time, Swirl the wine and stir up and mix the aromas. Put your nose right into the glass again. Capture all the volatile elements that give wine its delicious aroma.

d) Swirl, sniff, swirl, sniff, again and again and again until you feel you've understood exactly what's rising from the glass.

e) Once tasted, the nose is not as keen as it was before.

What Can You Smell?

· After several short sniffs, stop, then try it again. Try to describe what you smell. Don't resist the answers that your mind tries to give you -- you can't force this, but the responses that swim into your mind are likely correct, even if they may seem odd at first. Even though wine is made from grapes, it may smell of many different things -- every imaginable variety of fruit, from blackberries to bananas; flowers; aromatics like smoke and tar; wood; leather ... who knows?

· Give yourself plenty of time before reaching your conclusions.

· Does the wine smell healthy? (It shouldn't smell mouldy, vinegary or oxidized.)

· Does a Cabernet smells like a Cabernet. Does a Chardonnay smell like one? It doesn't have to, but varietal character is a starting point for analysis.

· Does the wine seem to be in youth, middle age, or old age?

· Does anything disagreeable come up? (You might feel there is too much alcohol or oak, perhaps.)

· Is the aroma pleasing?

· Herby overtones on a red are typical of a Cabernet Sauvignon, while a Sauvignon Blanc is often described as smelling of cut grass or cat's pee. Pino is associated with jam and bananas while Shiraz is typically spicy with touches of leather and smoke. Whoever heard of a wine smelling of lemon or roses, not to mention damp earth or paint thinners! But it is important for you to be able to make those associations.

· Making these initial associations can be tricky. You may recognise something but not be able to put your finger on it. Most professional tasters spend time in the kitchen, going through the fruit bowl, the spice rack, the fridge – sniffing at everything. With time you'll find it easier and easier.

3. TASTING THE WINE.

· Use your palate to decide if the wine contains the elements of acid, sweetness, alcohol, tannin in a pleasing proportion (or well balanced).

· You make judgments as to its age (gushy fruit and lots of tannin indicate youth; weak fruit may indicate the wine is starting to decline).

· Only the palate can register texture, from thin, rich, unctuous, buttery, velvety, to coarse.

· Take a first sip, like a cup of coffee, and make an initial assessment.

· Now take a second sip, but don't swallow. Swish the wine around your mouth so a little of it touches every portion of your tongue and palate.

· Hold the wine in your mouth, make an "O" with your lips, and inhale some air over the wine in your mouth. A kind of gurgle will ensue, but this will make you more sensitive to everything in the wine.

Sip The Wine

· Alcohol in moderate concentrations can be perceived as sweet. High alcohol wines may produce a warm or hot sensation. Dissolved carbon dioxide can be felt as a fizz and astringent wines can cause dryness or puckering in the mouth. Wines high in glycerol appear viscous and give a fatter or thicker feel in the mouth.

· Notice how different flavours seem to be concentrated on different parts of the tongue -- sweetness at the front, sourness (acidity) along the sides, bitterness at the back. Swallow, and take another sip.

· Think about the flavours as done with the aromas. Does the flavour seem consistent with the aroma, or is it significantly different? Notice the flavours that remain in your mouth after you swallow. Is this aftertaste similar to the flavour while the wine is in your mouth, or is it different? Does the aftertaste (finish) last long, or do the flavours diminish quickly? Are the flavours pleasant? Is the wine smooth, sweet, sour, astringent?

Checking The Taste

· Acid. Like most things in wine, your experience of acid will be relative. Generally speaking, too little acid leaves a wine tasting flat and lifeless. Too much will leave it tart. Register acid by concentrating on "sourness" or the prickly sensation along the sides of your tongue.

· Sugar All wines have a certain residual sugar – even those that appear bone dry. Don't confuse fruitiness with sweetness (particularly on the nose).

· Flavour may not be as obvious without the prior knowledge of nosing the wine. Is there a follow-through from the nose to the palate. Are there new flavours showing on the palate?

· Texture How does the wine feel. Does it feel light and juicy or heavy and full-bodied?

· Tannins Do the tannins in red wine leave your gums dry or is there a bitter tanginess? Are they soft or comfortable. Younger reds often have gripping tannins and may need cellar time to soften. Wines made for early consumption usually have softer tannins.

· Balance Consider, too, how these different elements harmonise. Balance between wood, fruit, alcohol, acid and sugar are integral to a fine wine. Is there enough fruit to support a heavily-wooded wine?

· Aftertaste Finally, consider the "finish" – the aftertaste. A longer aftertaste is regarded as a plus. A crisp, clean finish on a white wine is also sought-after.

3 Tasting With The Score Sheet

Once the glass has been filled to the appropriate level, the assessment commences.

The Sense Of Sight

Four features which assist in indicating style and possibly quality in the appearance of a wine:

colour

clarity

effervescence

viscosity

Colour

Observe the true colour of the wine against a neutral background. Describe the colour in your own words. and reds have the tendency to span the entire red/blue range of the spectrum from almost violet to a deep brick red dependent upon varietal and age of the wine.

The one colour point is awarded to wines that logically fall within their "colour boundaries." If a new white wine is deep gold colour, bordering on brown, chances are it's been oxidized and should probably rate a zero. Similarly, if your Cabernet doesn't have as much colour as it should, don't award full credit. Make a note to beef up your red wine maceration program.

· Describe the colour in terms of tones and intensity. Is the colour deep or pale? The colour is best seen on the rim of the wine looking down into the glass (held at an angle) against a white background.

· Describe the clarity. Is the wine bright and clear, or is it hazy, dull or cloudy?

· Check the wine for viscosity and spritz and describe if relevant

· Consider what the colour tells you about the wine. Is it young, old, body, etc?

Colour-White Wines

White wines range anywhere from practically colourless, straw or lemon coloured (with tinges of green in very young wines) through to yellow gold (suggesting bottle age in a dry wine or a sweet style, to yellow brown and old gold (in wines which are very old or oxidised). although a brown wine may have gone bad.

If someone pours you a one-year-old white and it's already deep gold, you can predict with confidence that this wine is prematurely old -- meaning, among other things, it already smells oxidized (like a half-eaten apple left out on the counter overnight) or may soon smell oxidized.

Green is a positive tint in young wines. Subtract ½ point if absent from a young white.

Amber is a desirable colour for old fortified whites but undesirable for white table wines.

Brown is a negative tint, so subtract depending on degree.

Score range:

Straw with green tints (2)

Light to medium yellow (2)

Light to medium gold (2)

Colourless or water white (1)

Colour-Red Wines

Red wines range from a pale red to a deep brown red, usually becoming lighter in colour as they age. They start life dark, with purple tints. Their colour changes from purple to garnet to red-brick to brown and finally with great age become tawny. Tawny is a desirable characteristic in aged fortified reds. Reds tend to get lighter as they age.

Score range:

The wine is given full points unless the colour is too light for the style or is excessively brown.

Clarity

Though it's rare for commercial wines to have a clarity problem, it's pretty common for homemade wines to be less than brilliantly clear or as sediment-free as their store-bought counterparts. When awarding for clarity, feel free to be a little lenient. One way to do it is to refuse a wine the point only when the sediment or haze can't be corrected with decanting or bottle age and is a true defect, even by home winemaking criteria. Again, record the character of the haze or sediment, if there is one.

Grade the wine according to it’s transparency through light.

Brilliantly clear wine will have diamond highlights, and as the clarity reduces, then becomes clear, then dull. As the clarity further degrades, a protein haze may be present, a hint of cloudiness, or a brown tinge may be seen. A crystalline deposit or crust in red wine absorbs the grape skin colour.

Score range:

Brilliant (1)

Clear (0.5)

Dull (0)

The Sense Of Smell

The two sources of smell in a wine are aroma and bouquet. Aromas are odours which are derived from the grape itself. Bouquet is odour derived from fermentation, production or aging.

The aromas of the wine can also be graded as:

primary aromas: fruit

secondary aromas: fermentation

tertiary aromas: ageing.

Aroma/Bouquet

Besides defining the aromas, note the overall aroma picture that the wine's giving you.

Does the wine have any off-odours that render it undrinkable? Then award it a zero.

· If the wine has a slight off-odour like hydrogen sulphide or a bit of a chemical smell but is still drinkable it should be awarded a one.

· A unilateral wine with no distinguishing aromas would rate a two.

· A flaw-free wine with a pleasant aroma characteristic of its varietal should rate a 3.

· It gets a bit tricky when it comes to 4. If your wine is defect-free, has varietal character, and has a nice bouquet, go ahead. Similarly, if your Sauvignon blanc isn’t made to age and you think it smells just like a finely made Sauv blanc should, give it full points.

Nose

· List the aroma components and describe them. Is the aroma characteristic of the grape variety? Is the aroma intense or weak?

· List the bouquet components and describe the intensity. Is the bouquet intense or is it weak?

· Comment on the overall balance and quality.

· Consider what the nose tells you about the wine.

Nose refers to the degree of intensity of character of the wine and is the first point to assess.

The distinctness of the aroma and the bouquet can be assessed within the following score range:

Strong (4)

Medium (3)

Light (2)

indistinct smell (1)

neutral (0)

Faults

With practice, the taster will be able to identify the type of fault in wine, such as volatile acidity (smells of nail polish remover) or faulty cork The degree of fault determines how many points are subtracted.

A number of other compounds such as hydrogen sulphide (H₂S, the smell of rotten eggs), the smell of yeast, excess wood etc, can also cause the taster to deduct points.

If any faults are detected, a maximum of three points can be subtracted from the score range:

no faults (3)

detectable (2)

serious (0)

The Sense Of Taste (Palate)

There is a degree of interaction between taste and smell. The olfactory membranes detect flavour and the tongue will detect taste. The soft and hard palate inside of the mouth can detect feelings.

Taste Perceptions Can Be Affected

There are a number of factors which affect how tastes are perceived.

Fatigue: constant exposure can result in an inability to discriminate between tastes.

Adaption: constant exposure to a particular taste can lead to an inability to see the presence or absence of that taste.

Contrast: if a slightly sweet wine is tasted after a dry acid wine, the second wine will appear sweeter than it really is. An example of contrast: salt applied to one side of the tongue increases perception of sweetness on the other and vice versa. Putting salt on an apple reduces the acid taste.

Reinforcement: ability to taste is helped by reinforcing the taste many times. Keep going back to a wine to learn its different characters.

temperature: sweetness is masked by cold; acidity is increased by cold. As the temperature increases, so does our ability to discern certain characteristics.

time: some tastes are perceived more quickly than others. Sweet tastes are noticed almost immediately, astringent and acidic tastes often appear stronger after the wine has been swallowed or spat out.

Tasting and Flavour

The four primary tastes detected in food and drinks are:

sweet

salt

acid

bitter.

And it is thought that all taste sensations are a combination of these four basic tastes.

Besides these four primary tastes, body and flavour can also be detected in wine. The flavours perceived include:

Fruit: the varietal flavour derived from the grape

Alcohol: a hot, mouth filling flavour

Balance: the overall harmony of fruit, acid, sweetness and alcohol

Age: old wines have distinctive flavour of referred to as ‘bottle age

Complexity: wines with subtle flavours harmonising and balancing rather than simple overpowering characters

Oak: Common flavour components of different oaks:

French – Vanilla, German – Nutmeg, cinnamon, American – Coconut, spice

Off Characters: faults in wine which can be tasted as well as detected on the nose

Sugar

This one is simple. If you wanted your Muscat to have about 3 percent residual sugar, and it tastes like it does, award your wine a point. If, on the other hand, your goal was to make a dry Zinfandel and well, it's obviously got a little bit of sugar left, than score this category a zero.

Body

Body is a sensation of fullness (sometimes called "roundness") in the mouth that texturally differentiates wine from water. If a wine has good body, it'll feel less like water and like a wine with substance and should be awarded both points. If your wine is a little lacking in the body department then give it a one or zero. Sugar can give a wine a "fullness" that is really a taste sensation and not a textural one.

· Flavour

List the flavours derived from the grape and describe their intensity and length.

List the complexing flavours derived from the production of the wine and describe its intensity and length.

· Taste

Describe the acid - high, medium, low? Is it balanced? Is the wine dry or sweet? If sweet, how sweet, and is it balanced by acid?

· Mouth feel

Describe the body of the wine.

Describe the tannin in the wine.

Is there any spritz or heat present?

· Balance

Are all the components of flavour, taste and mouth feel in harmony with each other, or is one component present in excess?

Score range:

full flavoured, strong persistence (3)

full flavoured (2)

medium (1)

thin (0)

Most wines will score two 2 points.

Acidity

Very high acidity in a wine will overpower the flavour and leave it unbalanced. Insufficient acidity will give a flat and sometimes soapy taste.

It all depends, again, upon the type of wine. If you've got pretty high acid but a lot of tannin, alcohol, and oak to back it up, then you wine should get all two points. On the other hand, if your wine is too high or too low in acid for its overall composition, award it one or a zero depending upon how off mark it is.

Score range:

high acidity (2)

medium acidity (1)

very high acidity (1-0)

low acidity (0)

Fortified wines should be slightly lower, with medium acidity scoring 2.

Tannin

Tannins come from the skins, seeds, and stems of grapes and oak and are compounds in wine that lend wine, especially red wine, a sense or grittiness or puckering that you can feel on your tongue, cheeks, and teeth. Though it could possibly go under the body category because it's felt as a textural quality, it really belongs in its own group because its presence (or absence) can make or break a wine.

Award a wine a point if the level of tannin is appropriate for the wine. For example if your six-month-old Cabernet has enough tannin to knock your socks off, it's not necessarily a defect. Similarly, if you've a white wine but don't sense a lot of tannin -- which is appropriate for this case -- also award it a one. However, if your red wine is lacking a little oomph, give it a zero.

Faults

Astringency is a touch sensation and bitterness is a true taste sensation, particularly as an aftertaste.

Score range:

no faults (3)

low faults (2)

moderate faults (1)

strong faults (0)

Most wines would score 2 to 3 points. Do not deduct points for a fault which has already marked down under the “nose” section of the score sheet

Overall Quality

Although this comes under the palate score of 10, it relates to the overall impression of the wine. The justification is that quality may refer to the inter-relationship between components as well as to each individual component:

Score range:

very good overall impression (2)

average (1)

poor (0)

A ‘good wine’ is one where the fruit flavours and acidity are in balance. No one character dominates with the possible exception of fruit.

A ‘great wine’ is composed of many different attributes. It is complex in structure. All characteristics are in balance and harmony with each other. No one character dominates, with the possible exception of fruit.

Interpreting And Using The Results

Go through a discussion of each wine. You may elect to analyse each wine as you complete it, or after each flight. Discuss each wine according to colour, nose and palate – share your comments and scores. It helps to have a little wine left in your glass to search for that hint of lime or touch of spice that eluded you the first time.

Now that you've taken a wine through the 20 Point System, tally up all the points. An outstanding wine will score usually between 17 and 20 points, with some weaker and some stronger areas. If your wine scores lower than a 17, check out the areas where it seems to need a little help. Be careful not to fall into the trap of being too absolute in your judgments; if a wine scored an 18, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s that much worse than a wine that scored a 19 or 20. The 20 point system rates many different things, and the numbers are truly meaningless without your notes and comments alongside them.

4 Wine Values Card

*Characteristics*	*Key words* / Comments
APPEARANCE Max 3	Red: purple, purple/red, red, red/brown, brown White: green tinge, pale yellow, yellow, gold, mustard “legs”: None, slight, large Viscosity: sparkle, watery, normal, heavy, oily Sediment: none, slight, distracting
Colour (Max. 2)
*Range:* 2, 2-1.5, 1.5 -1, 1-0
Clarity (Max. 1)	brilliant, bright, clear, cloudy, dull
*Range:* Brilliant 1, Clear .5, Dull 0	brilliant, bright, clear, cloudy, dull
NOSE Max 7	powerful complex pleasant slight none butter, caramel, corky, earthy, flowery grassy, honey, liquorice, metallic, nutty, oaky, salty, spicy, smoky, tannin, vanilla Citrus: lemony, tropical, melon, stone. Fruity: berry, blackcurrant, cherry
Intensity (Max. 4)
*Range:* Powerful 4, Complex 3-2 Pleasant 2-1, Slight 1-0
Nose Faults (Max. 3)	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
*Range:* No faults 3, Slight 2.5-1, Corky; oxidised 1.5-0	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
Palate Max 10	Sweet: Very Dry, Dry, Medium Dry, Sweet, Very sweet Acid: Very Tart, Tart, Refreshing, Thin, Flat Tannin: Astringent, Hard, Dry, Soft Body: Heavy, Full, Medium, Light, Watery Balance: Very Well Balanced, Good, Unbalanced Aftertaste: Long, Lingering, Pleasant, Short Astringent, bitter, harsh, noticeably tart or rough, sour, tapering, slightly bitter, withered
Intensity (Max. 3)
*Range:* 3, 2.5-2, 2-1.5, 1.5-1, 0
Acid (Max. 2)	balanced, flabby, harsh, insipid, raw, slightly low or high, slightly tart, vinegary
*Range* balanced acid 2, acid too high or low 1-0
Palate Faults (Max. 3)	Bitter, Astringent, corky, oxidised
*Range:* no faults 3, detectable 2.5-1, serious 0.5-0	Bitter, Astringent, corky, oxidised
O/all Quality/Balance(Max. 2)	Outstanding, Very Good, Acceptable, Fair, Poor elegant, charming, graceful, stylish, fine, character, finesse, sensitive, sound, no exceptional features, unremarkable cellaring potential
*Range:* outstanding 2, balanced (acid/tannin) 1.5-1

*Characteristics*	*Key words* / Comments
APPEARANCE Max 3	Colour: pale gold, green gold, grey gold, straw yellow, yellow gold, antique gold. Coral pink, salmon pink, deep pink. Bubbles: light, fine, lively, plentiful, slow. Bubble ring: discreet, intense.
Colour (Max. 2)

Clarity (Max. 1)	Clarity: sparkling, silky, dull brilliant, bright, clear, cloudy, dull
*Range:* Sparkling 1, silky 0.5, dull 0
NOSE Max 7	powerful complex pleasant slight none Fruity: citrus, apples, pears, quince. Peaches, apricots, nectarines. Mango, banana, lychee, coconut. berry, blackcurrant, cherry Floral: wild rose, lime blossom, orange blossom, violet. Vegetal: almond, cut grass, fern, leaf mulch. Dried Fruit: hazelnut, raisin, dried fig. Epicurean: butter, toast, honey, candied fruit, vanilla, spices.
Intensity (Max. 4)
*Range:* Powerful 4, Complex 3-2 Pleasant 2-1, Slight 1-0
Nose Faults (Max. 3)	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
*Range:* No faults 3, Slight 2.5-1, Corky; oxidised 1.5-0	corky, oxidised, yeast, sour, sulphur
Palate Max 10	Palate: powerful, solid, comforting, smooth, sprightly, light, mature, opulent.
Intensity (Max. 5)

O/all Quality/Balance(Max. 2)	Fleshy, creamy, delicate, complex. Outstanding, Very Good, Acceptable, Fair, Poor
Emotion (Max 3)	Charm, enthusiasm, intelligence, mysticism, passion, rapture, romanticism, sensuality, tenderness, union.
Select Drinking Conditions	Occasion: picnic, business lunch, celebration, cocktail, gourmet lunch, special occasion, important dinner party. Atmosphere: convivial, epicurean, welcoming, sentimental, refined, sumptuous, magical.
Match Food Selections	Entrée: chicken terrine, foi gras canapé, quiche, crab brioche, marinated salmon, dried meat, oysters. Main course: veal stew, venison, duck confit, trout with almonds, beef carpaccio, roasted sea bass, braised capon. Dessert: red fruit tart, grapefruit mousse, apricot & peach charlotte, raspberry soufflé, apple pie & cinnamon ice cream, butterscotch ice cream 7 whipped cream, rice pudding, crème fraiche sorbet, pear & liquorice tart.

1 Introduction

Why Do We Taste Wine?

What Is Good Wine?

Keep Written Notes

Score Sheets

Tasting Glass

WINE AGING

How Wine Flavours Alter with Age

STORING AND CELLARING

Temperature

Rack Flat

Ventilation and Darkness

Vibration

SERVING

Ideal Serving Temperatures

BAUME' (Measuring Alcohol Content)

1. LOOK AT THE WINE.

3 Tasting With The Score Sheet

The Sense Of Sight

4 Wine Values Card

4 Champagne Values Card