The Crippled Chef

Tasting Guidelines

When tasting wines, many people use a rating system to keep track of wine attributes and to be able to compare them in a qualitative manner. Typically, wines are tasted for the following features:

Sight/Wine Colour
- view the wine in a glass against a white background or natural light to check for clear, vivid and rich colour.

Nose/Wine Aroma
- lightly swirl the wine in glass to 'oxygenate' the wine and smell aroma for complexity, freshness, spicyness and other special scents.

Taste/Wine Flavour
- Take a little wine into your mouth, swirl it around to expose it to all your tastebuds as you check for texture, different flavours, suitability to you and the food you are eating, length that the 'taste' stays with you after swallowing.

Some people use scoring systems of 10, 20 or 100 points. A simple to remember 10 point scoring system can be used for a total of -
2pts(Sight) plus 3pts(Nose) plus 4pts(Taste) plus 1pt(Good length or unique features).

WORLD OF WINE

The world of wine can be an adventure for the experienced or a confusion for the 'uninitiated'. The wine industry is going through the same 'organic' movement as food in order to ensure the best and fresh ingredients affecting our health.

Matching food to wine is a still a talent that relates to your own subjective experience and opinion according to what you like. We must remember that our experience can change our preferences and with time, so can our knowledge. Some of the best ways to improve our wine tasting and matching skills is through the wine tasting parties and special 'theme meals'.

Wine Matching with Food

Wine Tasting is a popular activity among many food buffs and is a great enhancement to dishes and recipes. There are very few countries that allow free wine tasting at vineyards or the ability to bring your own wine to restaurants. Some wine stores will hold selected wine tastings of what they want to promote. There is abundant information available on wines and how to go about choosing and matching wines to your special situation.

When matching wines with food you need to be aware of how different wines will complement or clash with food tastes. For example, some spicy and rich foods matched with a light citrus flavour wine may tend to make the wine taste like vinegar in your mouth! Here are some strategies for matching the right wines to food:

• First, all tastes tend to be personal - you like what you like....


• Heavy, rich foods are balanced by full body wines


• Light, plain foods are balanced by light, fruity wines


• Hot, spicy foods are balanced by flavourful wines with a slight sweet finish.


• Poultry and fish tend to be matched to white wines, but full rich sauces and accompaniments my justify a light red.


• Soft cheeses and light dips tend to favour white wines, while hard cheeses and spicy dips are popular with reds.


• Consider your audience when matching wines. Inexperienced wine tasters will favour 'sweeter' or fruity tastes, while experienced tasters tend to favour older, full-body wines.

There is a wine for every taste and every person. The fun is in experimenting and finding out the differences certain wines can enhance the food experience.