What kind of wine taster are you? | New Brief #229

Wine is basically a luxury product. It’s not vital. In the past it was probably more vital, when the water that was available was not always healthy to drink. But today the main (only?) purpose of wine is to bring joy and pleasure. And thus being a social lubricant.

But even if the ultimate purpose of drinking wine is straightforward, it is not always so straightforward what the purpose of tasting wine is.

Many non-professionals do wine tastings today. (People which in French are more simply called “amateurs”, i.e. people who enjoy something. “Amateur” comes from the verb “aimer” which means to like or love. Nothing denigrating in the meaning, quite the opposite.)

Then it is often about one of two things. Either you try to learn more about wine, e.g. “how does chenin blanc from the Loire taste?” Or it’s about choosing wine, “which Côtes du Rhône should I buy?” In that kind of tasting it’s always good to take notes. The more you write down, the better you remember it. What you write is very personal and it can be quite long. It is often good if you take your time and use personal expressions. Summer meadow, rubber boots, the cellar stomped dirt floor in the country, etc. Often you only taste a handful of wines.

Many wine writers taste with a similar approach, but then it is important that they describe the wines in an understandable way, not in a too personal way. “Grandma’s cardigan” means nothing to someone else. “Floral minerality” is a contradiction in terms with no meaning. Brief but illustrative is important.

Another type of tasting is what an oenologist does. (An oenologist is a university-educated wine chemist/microbiologist – not just a “regular” wine connoisseur.) Their purpose is often to identify deviations or inaccuracies, or to assess where in the development phase a wine is. A very technical tasting. In these contexts, they often judge whether a wine is “correct” or “as it should be”, not whether they like it or not.

A third type of tasting is what is done in wine competitions. We are regularly invited to participate in the jury in various wine competitions. Then you assess (subjectively) the quality of the wines that participate in the competition and arrive at a collective assessment together with other jury members. If the wine gets a medal, it is a good sign that many people would appreciate the wine (i.e. that it is of good “quality”). In that kind of situation you can try 50 wines in one morning. Is it even possible to try that many wines?

Indeed so, but it requires some training and experience, and a lot of concentration. A little while back I was on the jury at the Michelangelo Awards in South Africa, 300 wines over five mornings. Earlier this year, at the Concours Mondial with around 180 wines in three mornings. Then it is above all about quickly forming a (subjective) opinion about the wine’s quality (give a score), not about describing the wine with beautiful words.

In the end you are quite exhausted, but it is a fascinating exercise that makes you more humble, especially if the competition is completely blind (you do not know at all what you are tasting). It is never easy to guess “correctly” what it is. At tasting competitions or wine course exams (wine course exams, WSET, Master of Wine, etc.) you at least have an idea of what it might reasonably be. It is rarely a kekfrankos, xinomavro or voltis…

Then we have the matter of assessing the “quality” of a wine, when we have concluded that it is basically subjective. Yes, it works, but that’s the subject of another text.

Winter is also a good time for wine tours. In fact, some of our most exceptional wine tours are during the winter. It’s the “long” tours to the southern hemisphere. They are long both in the sense of “far away” and “long time” (11 to 16 days). And they are filled with very special experiences. In summer weather in the southern hemisphere!

You have three fantastic long-distance tours to choose from:

• Chile-Argentina in January – very few places left
• South Africa in February – book now!
• New Zealand in March – book now, don’t wait!

These are tours with unique and magnificent experiences.

More info on our wine tours here. “World’s Top Wine Tours”. Tours with the people who know wine and who have an unrivalled experience of wine and tours.

Enjoy the Brief!

Britt & Per

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