01/02/07 Wine Tasting Pt. 1

Welcome to Vine to Wine! This is your host Linda Moran and today we are beginning our weeklong series exploring the basics of tasting and understanding wine. Let us begin with the environment in which you might be tasting wine. Perhaps you are just sitting around at home or you may be out at walk around social type of wine tasting or visiting a winery and experiencing wine country. Whatever the case may be, find a place with good lighting and hopefully a neutral white background to set behind your glass of wine. Even a sheet of white paper will do. Begin by looking at the wine and noticing the clarity. It should be bright and clear. There really should not be any cloudy characteristics and preferable nothing floating in it. If there is anything of this nature, you should question it. Check to see if the wine is unfiltered or just has a few wine diamonds those harmless tartrate crystals. In most cases, you will experience a wine that is brilliant and clean looking. Now beyond that the color of the wine should be in character with the varietal, you know, red should be red and white should be well some shade of transparent nearly clear golden or slightly straw or green color. The wine should not exhibit amber or browning colors. If it does, that is your first clue to look for something odd in the way that the wine smells and smell is the topic for tomorrow as we continue our series about tasting and understanding just what you are experiencing in a glass of wine. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.