Buddha Kat TV: Episode 3. Seeing

Buddha Kat TV: Episode 3

Starting down the road of wine tasting you will learn that there are 5 S's involved. They may seem a bit strange getting started, but you will find that you probably do half of them already and don't even realize it. Here we will formally cover all of them, and then it is up to you as to how frequently you use them when tasting.

The five S's are
Seeing
Swirling
Sniffing
Sipping
Swallowing (or spitting if you have to drive or plan on visiting more than 3 wineries in a day)

Here we will cover the first S which is Seeing.
Seeing your wine is important because it can tell you about the age of the wine, how it was treated before getting into a bottle, it's clarity, and overall how aesthetically pleasing the wine is.

Color - Notice the overall color of the wine, is the white wine almost clear? Is it a dark straw color? Is it almost brown? And about that red, is it more of a purple? Ruby?

Clarity - Is your white wine crystal clear or is there a haze to it? Maybe it's so cloudy you can't see through it? Reds can also range from such inky intensity that you can't see the bottom of the glass so a dark rose that you can almost read through.

If you tip a glass of wine slightly on it's side you will create different depths of wine in the glass. Around the edge of the wine, where it is the shallowest you can see different color hues as compared to the overall bulk of the wine. Is this area almost clear or is there a brownish hue? The brownish hue tends to indicate a wine that has aged for a while. There is nothing wrong with the wine but it's a good indicator of age.

All of these things should come together to give you an overall idea of what the wine will taste like and how it should feel in your mouth. Unless of course you are drinking a white wine that is actually brown, and so cloudy you can't see through it. That particular wine would probably never make it in my mouth.

Like everything in wine tasting it sounds pretentious, but let's face it, you take notice of all of these things when you drink any liquid. You probably wouldn't be too quick to take a big gulp of water that was murky and brownish, or drink that light lawnmower beer if it was a dark amber color instead of crystal clear straw color. Wine drinkers have just taken what you already do and put it into words. So congratulations you are well on your way to being an un-pretentious wine snob!