Tag Archives: Look
How to Look Like a Wine Expert
Ever wonder why you see wine connoisseurs stick their noses into their wine glass when the wine steward brings a new bottle of wine to the table? They are “tasting” the wine with their noses.
Believe it or not, your tongue can only taste four things: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. All the other nuances of taste actually come through a complicated relationship between taste and smell. It is the nose and the nasal passage at the back of the throat that make what we taste in our mouths flavorful.
Inspecting and smelling the cork and sniffing the wine lets the person who ordered the wine evaluate it before putting into his or her mouth. If the wine has been spoiled, these two steps will usually reveal the problem.
Improper wine storage or contamination with certain bacteria can make a wine taste perfectly terrible. You wouldn’t want to put it in your mouth.
After showing you the bottle and removing the cork, the sommelier, or wine steward, will hand you the cork to inspect and sniff. If the cork appears to have deteriorated or smells bad, you should immediately refuse the wine.
If all appears to be well with the cork, the sommelier will pour a small amount of the wine into your glass.
Keep the base of your glass flat on the table and swirl the wine gently around. This mixes air with the wine and vaporizes the complex aromas. Quickly lift the glass and stick your nose into the glass as far as you can and smell the wine.
Some people say that keeping your mouth open while you sniff the wine will help you perceive the full aroma.
When a wine is badly “flawed,” it will often be immediately apparent in it’s “nose,” which is the term wine lovers use for it’s smell. If the nose of the wine is not inviting, and you aren’t immediately tempted to taste it, don’t hesitate to return the bottle to your wine steward. You should immediately be offered a replacement bottle.
Keep in mind that if there are strong scents around you, they can compete with the wine you are evaluating. If you or the person next to you are wearing strong perfume, this can throw off your nose. If there is pungent food being served nearby, this can also affect what you smell in the wine glass.
Once your nose has had first crack at the wine, and the wine has passed the nose test, then take a sip and swirl the wine around in your mouth. Give the sommelier a nod if you approve, and only then will he proceed to serve your chosen wine to your guests at the table.
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A Wine Taster’s Guide to Environmental Wines – A Look at Lageder Reds
With today’s global attention focused on environmental health, entrepreneurs, citizen groups, and national governments attempt cooperation to improve air, water, and soil quality, to safeguard oceans and forests and especially to control climate change.
You can join the effort at your next wine tasting party by choosing wines from an eco-friendly winery like Alois Lageder. As you pour your guests a glass of these planet conscious wines, you can pass on knowledge that shows this historic Italian winery is no newcomer to environmentalism. This article looks at the aspects of eco-friendly winemaking including how winemakers create a natural balance to increase the vitality and pest and disease resistance of vines with a focus on one of the long time advocates of environmentalism in wine.
Alois Lageder
Winemaker Alois Lageder is one of many with environmental concerns, but for him, they are not recent. Born in 1950, Alois Lageder owns family vineyards located on steep Alpine slopes far from any beaten path in Alto Adige. The region borders Austria where residents speak both Italian and German and the past still dominates viticulture and winemaking. However, Alois Lageder’s visionary plan has always embraced modern technology. Instead of operating at cross-purposes, he sees nature, humans, and technology as cooperative forces with art as an expression of nature that informs people, an outlook that sends him to the top of any eco-friendly red wine club list.
Alois Lageder was named after his great grandfather who founded a winery in Bolzano in 1855. In 1934, the family acquired the Lowengang estate in Magre’ now planted with 77 acres of grapes and subsequently acquired other vineyards in prime locations in Alto Adige including the Cason’ Hirschprunn estate in 1991 planted with 79 acres.
Aspects Of Biodynamic Winemaking
Lageder grows vineyards on steep slopes from 750 to 3,250 elevations above the Adige Valley. All have been organically farmed, and the Lowengang estate is now farmed biodynamically, an even more rigorous and sustainable farming method than organic. Rather than unnatural single crop planting, Lageder cultivates multiple varieties in any given vineyard together with other plants, uses compost instead of artificial fertilizers, and fights parasites with natural predators. Lageder’s goal is to imitate the balance in nature and increase the health and vitality of the vines so they are resistant to parasites and disease.
Completed in 1996, the winery at the Tor Lowengang estate is a marvel of new technology, entirely eliminating the consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels. The winery employs solar energy, geo-thermic warmth, and natural convection currents. The building leans into a cliff that cools and warms fresh air for ventilation. A photoelectric system makes use of solar energy, delivering most of the winery’s electrical needs. And solar collectors heat water. The 50 feet tall vinification tower harnesses the force of gravity in such a way that pumps or other mechanical means for moving the grapes and must are unnecessary. The grapes and must flow down from one vinification phase to the next and end in fermentation vats arranged in a circle around this central axis. After fermentation, the wines rest in vaulted cellars until picked up by red wine club associations and distributors.
By sharing this information at your next eco-friendly wine tasting party, you can help Lageder’s wines and other environmental wines taste a little sweeter to your guests.