|
Wine tasting is one of those activities where what you
get out depends on what you put in. On those lazy afternoons,
which seem to be fewer and farther between these days, when
I’m on the porch sipping some “pretty little quaffer” from
a terrific little region in the south of France, I’m really
not investing a whole lot in the activity. |
|
But then I’m also not expecting much either:
simple pleasure, relaxation, something to ease my mind of
the drudgery of the day-to-day.
Now maybe it’s the engineer in me, or maybe it’s because
my Myers-Briggs tells me I’m an ENTJ (I like to have a plan…some
would characterize me as obsessive-compulsive…) but when
I’m tasting “with purpose” I need to think of wine tasting
as a structured activity. It’s easier to think about it
in these terms because as one gets more “serious” about
wine tasting, the application of structure is helpful to
create an organized process. Having a simple, consistent
process is really a large part of what makes professional
wine tasters successful.
 Another
important factor in wine tasting is that “the process,”
whatever it is, works for you. We are all individuals and
our sensory thresholds vary, sometimes considerably. Wine
tasting involves assessment through assimilation and interpretation
of sensory inputs. Wine tasting also involves opinion. As
we develop from childhood we are in a constant process of
forming opinions around our taste buds. Often times, flavors
that we didn’t like as a child become tastes we like as
an adult, and vice-versa. Along with the development of
taste opinions comes the development of taste memories.
Remember when you were a child and you got violently ill
on Aunt Philly’s stuffed artichokes? No? Well I do. Maybe
it wasn’t artichokes, but I’m sure there is something in
everyone’s past that forces the “run-and-hide” reaction
(or worse…). Funny thing is, more than 30 years after my
fateful date with those artichokes I still get “squirrelly”
around artichokes. What do you think this reaction does
when I’m tasting a wine and suddenly realize that I’m smelling,
or worse, tasting, Aunt Philly’s fateful artichokes? Yup,
you guessed it, poor marks for that unfortunate wine. Now
it is true that as adults we have the power to acquire tastes,
which is important to undo the bad lessons we learned in
our youth (or sometimes in our reckless college days). “Acquiring”
to me translates to practice. Practice effectively re-wires
our minds so that our “gut” reactions are controlled. More
on this when we talk about developing our “recognition threshold.”
Now, back to process. There are many variables in wine
tasting. Some would argue too many, which is what makes
it so damn confusing. The goal is to develop a process wherein
you try to reign in all of the variables before you. Another
aspect of developing “your process” is keeping in mind that
there are really only three tools available to help with
the tasting exercise: Sight, Smell, and Taste. The final
thing to keep in mind about “your process” is repeatability.
The process must be consistently repeatable. As one begins
to get more serious about wine tasting, one finds that the
ability to consistently repeat the tasting cycle, each time
pulling more data from the sample, is the real distinction
between what I call tasting for pleasure versus tasting
for assessment, or analysis.
Next: Part
1: Sight >
|
