Little Sensory Details
Little details can make a huge difference in a wine. When it rained, when the grapes were
picked, the type of yeast strain used, the type of wood the barrels were made of … The
ability to notice these details and manipulate them for great results is the sign of a master.
In appreciating a wine, details matter too. The more details we notice, the fuller our
experience of a wine can be. We recently read that if you pour a Malbec next to other red
wines, the edge of its coloring is usually more magenta than red or brick. Would we have
noticed this if someone didn’t point it out? Probably not.
And that is a really fun part about wine. It is a sensory experience – we see, smell, taste and
savor a wine, and there can be dozens of impressions we might receive along the way. There
are very few moments in life when we can enjoy this kind of sensory adventure. Everyone’s
palate is different, so how one person experiences a wine can be quite different than the
experience someone else has.
When you taste a wine, can you generally sort out the aromas, and flavors, texture and
finish? Or, do you “skip to the chase” and focus on your overall impression of the wine?