Travel
- I Did It Again!
Last night I poured a glass of wine, using one of my better wine glasses, and damned if I didn't brush my arm against the glass sitting on the countertop and spilled the wine plus broke the glass! I don't know what it happening to me but I do...
- Win Two Nights For Two At A Wine Estate!
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- Following The Wine Routes Of Greece
Wine is an important part of the culture of Greece, both in terms of social traditions and religious significance. Being a Mediterranean country, the climate is perfectly suited to growing a number of varieties of grapes, from which wine is produced....
- The Ascot Festival Of Food And Wine
When most people think of Ascot, they think of the glamour and excitement of horse racing. There's no denying this is a huge draw: every year hundreds of thousands of racing fans make their way to Ascot's race days. For many, though, racing isn't...
- Uruguayan Wine Country
At the Stagnari winery, UruguayUruguay is a rather triangular-shaped little country squeezed between giants Brazil and Argentina. Luckily for its inhabitants, it is located on the Atlantic coast of South America, with miles and miles of beautiful beaches...
Travel
Wine Tasting for Beginners
One of the best things about travelling or going on vacation is that it’s a time to indulge in all kinds of unique food and drink. Seeing different parts of the world gives you the opportunity to try food you might otherwise never get to enjoy, or just to experience the authentic versions of some of your favorites. Real enchiladas in Mexico! Real curry in India! Food and drink is a definite highlight of the travelling life.
Luxurious food and fine wine is one of the things to look for in a top hotel, and it’s also one of the main events on world class cruises such as those offered by Cunard. Their cruises are world renowned in the arena of luxury travel, and food and drink has always been at the heart of that. All their cruise liners include a diverse range of bars and restaurants, all boasting their famous White Star Service – a standard of dining service that is all about going above and beyond guests’ expectations.
This year Cunard have introduced a new wine list which features some top favourites for wine connoisseurs as well as little known speciality wines such as Navaherreros Blanco from Spain and the 114 Corney & Barrow Pomerol. If you’re new to the world of wine tasting, we’ve put together a few tips to get you started learning what to look for in a great wine.
Practice makes perfect
I know this is going to sound like a real chore, but if you want to learn how to appreciate all the nuance and pleasure of a good wine, you’re going to have to drink lots of it. Understanding the complex flavours of different wines is a skill which has to be developed, just like learning to identify birdsong or developing a native-like fluency in a foreign tongue – get your hangover cures stockpiled because there are endless types of wine and lots to learn about classifying and forming opinions about them.
Engage your senses
When you are making an in depth assessment of a wine, you need to engage all your senses. It’s not just the taste, but the smell, look and texture of the wine. Taking the time to really focus on a glass of wine will help you unlock your ability to find the subtle differences between wines, figure out what you like in a good wine and indeed to spot a bad or poorly preserved wine when you taste one.
This is why you see serious wine tasters getting their schnozzles right inside a wine glass before even taking a sip. Assessing the appearance and scent of a wine all comes before drinking any. In fact, you can figure out a huge amount about the flavour and tone of a wine without even imbibing a drop. Or at least you will be able to soon!
Know what to look for
When you first taste a wine, you are particularly looking to understand how sweet, acidic and alcoholic it is, as well as assessing the tannin level. Tannin is a residue from grape skins, seeds and so on which affects the texture of a wine. More tannin leads to a dryer texture.
Once you can spot these basic elements you can start to consider more details such as how fruity the wine tastes and other specific flavours you might be picking up – vanilla, honey, lavender, earthiness, nuts, and the list goes on.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to your preferences, and an expensive wine isn’t necessarily going to be more enjoyable for your palate. The skill lies in exploring the details of a wine’s appearance, flavour and feel. What you like about a wine is up to you, although you may well benefit from learning to tell when a wine has been badly corked or otherwise neglected.
You can get deep into the minutiae of wine tasting over time – but even understanding the basics of what you are looking for in a fine wine will help you to enjoy it more. It will also give you a better shot at choosing a bottle that you’ll really enjoy when you’re faced with an overwhelming selection as you can sometimes be in shops or on wine lists. So get stuck in! Nose first ideally.
Photos by longhorddave & piliarf via Flickr Creative Commons
Photos by longhorddave & piliarf via Flickr Creative Commons
- I Did It Again!
Last night I poured a glass of wine, using one of my better wine glasses, and damned if I didn't brush my arm against the glass sitting on the countertop and spilled the wine plus broke the glass! I don't know what it happening to me but I do...
- Win Two Nights For Two At A Wine Estate!
My One Ingredient Dinners are a unique dining experience for the foodies of Cape Town. One carefully chosen ingredient spreads itself over all four courses of the evening; showing just how much can be done with one ingredient! After a demonstration...
- Following The Wine Routes Of Greece
Wine is an important part of the culture of Greece, both in terms of social traditions and religious significance. Being a Mediterranean country, the climate is perfectly suited to growing a number of varieties of grapes, from which wine is produced....
- The Ascot Festival Of Food And Wine
When most people think of Ascot, they think of the glamour and excitement of horse racing. There's no denying this is a huge draw: every year hundreds of thousands of racing fans make their way to Ascot's race days. For many, though, racing isn't...
- Uruguayan Wine Country
At the Stagnari winery, UruguayUruguay is a rather triangular-shaped little country squeezed between giants Brazil and Argentina. Luckily for its inhabitants, it is located on the Atlantic coast of South America, with miles and miles of beautiful beaches...