Picking up right where we left off: if you looked at the wine, discerning its colour (the ‘eye’) and smelled the wine (‘nose’), deciding whether you liked it and whether you could put any descriptors on it, it is time to put the wine in your mouth.
Duh.
The mouth, clearly, is the most important aspect of wine, as wine is meant to be drunk not just looked at and smelt. Here you have two of the five senses acted upon in unison: taste and touch. The taste of the wine, again, is pretty straightforward: do you like the taste or not? Finding ‘pistachio shell’ or ‘freesia’ in the wine is absolutely unnecessary when it comes to enjoyment but may be fun as you progress in your wine knowledge and development of your palate.
The touch or feel of a wine breaks down into two components: the weight and the texture. With respect to the weight, a continuum exists that runs from light to heavy; in other words the question is: “Is the wine more like water (light body) or more like whole milk (full body)?” In the texture category you have a continuum that runs from harsh/abrasive/tannic to supple/velvety/soft. Does it feel like the wine cleans out your mouth like a sponge (or even more harshly like steel-wool) or does the wine gently massage your palate and feel like you are bathing your tongue in silk. Needless to say, unoaked whites like Torrontés or Pinot Gris are said to be much lighter than Chardonnay, particularly oaked Chardonnay, which will be much lighter than reds, especially Malbec, Syrah and Cabernet.
As promised, this leads us to the fifth and final sense, rounding out wine’s ability to satisfy all five senses: hearing. How does one hear a wine? Quite simply, tilt your head to the side, raise your glass to your ear and listen… Do you hear that?
(…Sucker)
In all seriousness, hearing the wine is a symbolic gesture done when all present raise their glasses, touch them together creating that clinking sound and say the word “Cheers!” or “Salud!” or “Prost!” or “Sköl!” or “Kampai!” or “Tchim-tchim!”or “Nazdraví!” or “Slainte!” or “L’Chaim!” and then drink together. Clearly, this is an important aspect of drinking since nearly every culture has its own way of expressing the sharing of good drink together.
Wine is meant to be shared with people and this final step in the wine ritual is evidence of that. How wonderful! So email me and we’ll crack open a bottle or two…
Daniel Karlin is founder of Anuva Vinos, a premium wine club that hand sources limited production wines from Argentina. He makes his home in Buenos Aires where he offers wine tastings to visitors from all parts. www.anuvawines.com