Vino Thinking School: Wine Tasting

Hosted by: Kerwin and Marvin

We combined VTS Thursdays with Wine Fridays and got a very tasty visual session.

Our objective was simple: Learn a little about wine and what types of wines we enjoy. There were some surprises and there was consensus.

We had three bottles of wine; we covered the labels and numbered them. The wines were varieties that we've had before for Wine Fridays. In fact, they were favorites of many Wine Friday participants. We also had simple foods and water to help cleanse the palette after each sip.

Participants were tasked to pour a little splash of wine into their glass. They swirled the glass of wine to bring out the aroma. They were asked to write down what they smelled. Once complete, they tasted the wine and were asked what they tasted. They did this for all three bottles. Below are the descriptive words people used for the smell and the taste.


Bottle 1:
Smell—Burgundy, oak, needs to breathe, bitter, cherry, currants, musty, earthy heaven, unicorn;
Taste—Alcoholly, little cheap, slight tanning, acidic, tangy almost vinegary, crisp, bitter, strong, dry, buttery, smooth, smoky.


Bottle 2:
Smell—Oak, perfume, earth, tannin, berrie, fruity/floral, mildew, balanced, alcohol;
Taste—Popsicle stick dry, well rounded, bursting with flavors, bitter, sharp, no mouth, quick, smooth, heat, flat.



Bottle 3:
Smell—Fruitata, gravy, warmth, pepper, lite oak, vanilla, raspberry;
Taste—No mouth, flat, thin, lite, crisp, interesting finish, smoother, mild, seafoody, nothing there, dead, thin, less than expected, fruit

Once the descriptions were posted. We heard professional reviews of each wine; without knowing what review matched to what wine, using our new knowledge, we assigned what review to a particular wine. As a whole, we were very accurate in both assigning the professional reviews to the wine and describing the wines flavor and aroma.

One surprise was Shaun's previous favorite wine was her least favorite of the three bottles. In fact, she raved about it in a previous Wine Friday and had a distaste for it during the taste test. Hmm.

Participants included: Shaun, Matt, Chris, Parker, Marc, Joy, Teija, Rich.

What was learnt: It certainly made us appreciate the complex flavors of wine a little more. It also helped individuals hone in on what they liked about particular wines.