WineStar

Murray Almond: murray.almond@winestar.com.au

How I Assess Wine

Murray Almond (Internet Wine Identity)

The rise of the Internet Wine IdentityTM has seen the number of ‘writers’ who now give their opinions about wine significantly increase. The medium of the Internet means that everyone can have an opinion, not just the traditional Wine Writers and the Publicity Machines of the Wine Industry.

I’ve now put thousands of tasting notes online and as such like to think I have a an opinion that is considered, with various degrees of respect, by the online community. This consideration for what others may think of my opinion also applies to my tasting of wines for Winestar and for the local paper. As an aside I’m always amused by those on the ‘net who preface their thoughts by saying ‘IMHO’ (in my humble opinion). Humble? No one who posts anything that they know is going to be read by the online population potentially numbering in the millions can really label themselves as ‘humble’!

So when I’m assessing wine, as opposed to just drinking the stuff, there’s a number of things that I do in making judgments about the wine. These may vary depending on the circumstances or environment however a good basic tasting technique applies to all I them.

This technique, which we’ll call the See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Suck, Swish, Spit/Swallow technique, or the 6S technique, is described in all introduction to wine books and courses, rather than re-peat this again I’ll refer you to what Ric Einstein wrote in a couple of previous columns http://www.winestar.com.au/150501re.html . and http://www.winestar.com.au/220501re.html

Once using the 6S technique for tasting, the methods here are how I assess wines in various circumstances.

At the Restaurant

At the restaurant you’re not really assess the quality of the wine; but rather whether or not the wine is faulty or not. If it’s OK assess it for later reference, but it’s a stretch to knock it back because ‘I don’t like it’, you chose it, go ahead and drink it.

The Sample Assessed at Home

With the sample assessed at home, whether for my own consumption or write-up, I’ll usually know all the details, and the price, of the wine; although this isn’t always the case, many of the samples Bert sends are brand new labels that I have no clue about price.

I’ll assess a wine over a period of time whenever possible, for whites and sparklings this allows me to see how the aromas change as the wine warms up in the glass. With reds it’s more to do with how the aromas develop; or fall apart, over an hour or two. Most often I’ll pour two glasses for myself, one to assess know, and another to come back to after an hour or more. This enables a broader view of the one. I use standard tasting glasses; expect for some wines that I’ll also pop into a Riedel or equivalent.

At Exhibitions or at Cellar Door

The Exhibition or Cellar Door is a bit more tricky, as you only have a limited time at each site. In general I’ll assess in order: sparkling, whites, sparkling red, medium to full-bodied red and then stickies. If I’m at the cellar door I may also taste their fortified as well. At wine exhibitions I’ll leave the fortifieds until later in the afternoon. This means I’m tasting a winery’s full range before moving on. The benefit of this is that I can get a picture of the winery’s character in their wines, and have a decent chat to the person behind the counter.

At exhibitions there are many who’ll taste whites en-masse, and then change to reds, however I find this gives more wear on the palate than doing a stand at a time. The only exception here is fortifieds, which I’ll tend to leave until later.

One thing I do in assessing the wines in either case is ask how long the bottle has been open. This can change the assessment of a wine significantly.

For the Paper

The Wine Jury Panel tastings for the Geelong Advertiser require additional focus. All wines are pre-poured into ISO glasses before we arrive, as such we’re judging the wines double blind. With these tastings the wine are presented in flights of 3-5 wines; for example as whites followed by medium-bodied and then full-bodied reds. Here I’ll go through each of the flights twice, first to note the tasting characters of the wine, flavours, mouthfeel, balance, back palate and finish. Then I’ll go through them again noting if they’ve changed with warmth or air, before providing a final assessment and score.

Only after the scoring sheets are handed in do we find out what the wines are and see whether we’ve scored the cask over the Grange. It’s a challenge but great fun.

In this column I’m talking about assessing wine, which is, of course, different from drinking the stuff; this typically involves good friends, great food and plenty of good wine.

Murray Almond