Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/133302
WINEOCOLOGY Accounting for THIS RUDIMENTARY SENSE IS ESSENTIAL TO THE EXPERIENCE OF WINE The author shows off her taste buds after a round of tasting. Taste by Caitlin Stansbury, author of Wineocology S omething crazy happens when grape juice is turned into wine. The natural process of fermentation takes a single, ordinary fruit and transforms it into a liquid that can deliver a virtual symphony of diverse colors, aromas, textures and flavors. What other drink can boast that it looks like rubies, smells like blueberries, eucalyptus, molasses, soy sauce and tobacco, feels like silk and tastes like savory meat all at the same time? Recognizing the presence and degree of all the subtle flavors that a wine has to offer starts with understanding the relative simplicity of your taste buds. The human experience of taste is surprisingly limited to five flavor perceptions: sweet, sour, bitter, salt and savory (or umami). Within this limitation, however, is a whole host of important and revealing information about a wine's structural makeup. These not only include information on what I call the "Three V's"—Variety, Viticulture and Vinification—but also residual sugar and alcohol levels as perceived through sweetness or lack thereof; acidity indicated by sourness; tannin and alcohol levels via bitterness; and other trace minerals indicated by saltiness and umami. In my book, Wineocology, I teach drinkers how to identify which category of taste they are experiencing, and its degree of intensity, which gives a picture not only of a wine's makeup, but of its quality and style as well. But if the process of adjudicating wine for its structural components were all that tasting involved, very few people would be interested in it. Thankfully the story doesn't end there. As the wine makes its way to the back of your mouth, some of its molecules vaporize, snake up your retronasal passage where they merge with your powerful olfactory receptors, and presto, they become a scent. Once you "smell" the wine, its taste becomes "flavorful." Your impression of specific flavors is actually a combination of the five taste categories, plus scent. What was only sweet now becomes the ripe berry goodness of strawberry jam. The taste of tartness is now delineated as spicy Meyer lemon. And bitterness becomes the pleasant grip of black tea. By itself, taste may not have the poetry of aroma, but this rudimentary sense is quite powerful. Taste is primal and deep; it provides a safe gateway for food and beverage to literally become part of you by letting you know exactly what it is that you have in your mouth. The art of identifying both a wine's structure and its singular flavor profile is the very essence of pairing and sharing like a pro. To recap, each of the five flavors correspond directly to the Core 4 structural elements—sugar, acid, tannin, and alcohol—found in any given wine in very specific ways. This essential information can be used on its own to develop a flavor profile but can also be used in conjunction with the information you've already gathered using your other senses: sight, smell and touch. This is how a sommelier really puts it together. Like pieces of a puzzle, all of the information gathered can be assembled to form an objective and clear picture of the wine you're drinking. 70 / the tasting panel / june 2013 TP0613_042-79.indd 70 5/23/13 4:33 PM