Wine Tasting
It's fun, it's easy to do, and you learn something from it, either with a group or just another friend. What do you need or need to know? Less than you think ...
Facts
-
9 - 11° C
is the recommended temperature for young, light wines
-
16 - 18° C
are perfect for ripe, full-bodied red wines
Enjoy with all your senses and have fun
The first thing to consider is the clarity and color of the wine. Both provide information about its condition and maturity. For example, the more mature a white wine is, the more golden it shimmers, right down to a rich dark amber.
It is not only the eye that anticipates enjoyment by swirling the glass. The wine also releases its aroma and bouquet into the air. Capturing this scent and translating it to words requires some practice. After all, most people are not very trained to describe their olfactory sensations in words. What helps is the comparison with familiar aromas. Does the wine conjure images of fruits like apples, berries or peaches? Does it have a hint of spring flowers or fresh green fields? Does it smell slightly of wood or something like vanilla? A wine aroma wheel can help you to express your sensory impressions whilst smelling and tasting.
The taste of a wine unfolds in different parts of the mouth. What helps the wine and the taste buds is air. This explains why some wine lovers slurp the wine or draw a little air through the wine and let the wine roll over the tongue. This is the only way to perceive all taste and aroma nuances.
Theme your wines
In order to not overwhelm the sense of taste during an extensive wine tasting, it is advisable to slowly increase: light before heavy, dry before sweet, young before old. Of course, you can also try only white or only red, only dry or only more mature wines – the choice is yours.
Which wine you put together for a sample is entirely up to you. How about a selection from a particular growing region, for example? Then you can discover a characteristic taste typical for the area.
Or you can compare wines of one grape variety, for example Riesling, from different cultivation areas. With the same vintage and the same quality level (such as Kabinett or Spätlese) you will be able to taste astonishing differences. Other ideas for a wine tasting are a quality level tasting, vintage tasting or a surprise wine tasting, where your guests bring their favorite wines.
Little effort, much delight
There is not much to prepare for a wine tasting. Of course, you need the wines and should ensure the right temperature: cool white wine in the refrigerator to 7 - 8 degrees Celsius; red wine is best offered at around 16 degrees Celsius.
If you want to be precise, you can adhere to the following recommendations:
- Young, light white wines e.g. Riesling Kabinett 9 - 11°C
- Ripe, strong white wines, e.g. Pinot Blanc late harvest 11 - 13°C
- Rosé wines, e.g. Weißherbst 9 - 13°C
- Young, light red wines, e.g. Portuguese or Trollinger 14 - 16°C
- Ripe, full-bodied red wines, e.g. Pinot Noir late harvest 16 - 18°C
- Rich and tannic red wines, e.g. from barriques 18 - 20°C
There are two important points to note about the wine glass. Firstly, the glass should have a tulip-shaped bowl for the bouquet to fully unfold - bowls for white wine are smaller than for red wines. Secondly, the glass should be clear and have a stem that you can hold so that you can judge the color without fingerprints. (see also wine glass)
For the wine tasting itself, bread rolls and fresh water are served. A bite of bread between the tasted wines neutralizes the taste. Afterwards, you can have a hearty snack and enjoy the previously tasted wines fully with food.
Enjoy!
Opening a wine bottle is an anticipation enjoyed throughout a tasting. The amount opened is up to you. A small wine tasting can involve 4 - 5 bottles. As the number increases, for example to 12 - 14 wines, the ability of the taste buds to differentiate sometimes decreases.
Uncorking should be done as gently as possible. It is best to use a corkscrew with large turns as it grips the cork without cork crumbs getting into the wine. This is particularly important with older wines when the cork has become brittle. White wines should be opened just before serving.
Rich red wines should be opened much earlier. In order to perceive the scent and aroma of the wine intensely, the wine glasses should only be filled halfway.
Tasting can be studied
As well as trade and gastronomy, wine enthusiasts are also very interested in wine seminars, therefore the DWI has developed a seminar especially tailored to the needs of private wine lovers. The new wine connoisseur seminar is a real treat for wine lovers wanting detailed knowledge, with practice and theory complementing each other in an extremely entertaining way.
What does it mean when a wine forms "chruch windows" when swirled in a glass?
The so-called church windows provide information about the viscosity and thus concentration of various ingredients of the wine. The higher the viscosity, the more it draws streaks when swirled - the church windows.
Varietals
More recipe ideas
Tips from Japanese cuisine JAPAN : Sashimi
German wines have a natural advantage when it comes to entering into perfect harmony with selected Asian dishes. With a lighter alcohol content, sometimes crisp acidity, moderate residual sweetness or soft tannins in the case of red grape varieties, they are a perfect match for a wide range of styles of Asian cuisine.
- 200g Tuna Sashimi
- 200g-250g Squid sashimi
- 8 Blätter Green Shiso
- 10g Spice (garnish, white radish sprouts, etc.)
- 10g Soy sauce, wasabi
- 1,5 EL Soy sauce
- 1 EL Red wine
- 1 TL Olive oil
PREPARATION
1. Mix the sauce in a sandwich bag (ziplock). Put the tuna in it, remove any air, seal and leave it in the refrigerator for 12 hours or overnight.
2. Make a thin cut of about 2 mm on one surface of squid. Turn it over and place green shiso on the front. Roll up from the front and cut into pieces for easy eating.
3. Dry the tuna with a paper towel and cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Serve tuna and squid with condiments, soy and wasabi.
- Pinot Blanc (trocken)
- Silvaner (trocken)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (trocken)
- Pinot Blanc (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Silvaner (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (halbtrocken & feinherb)
Tips from Chinese cuisine CHINA : Steamed scallops with vermicelli
German wines have a natural advantage when it comes to entering into perfect harmony with selected Asian dishes. With a lighter alcohol content, sometimes crisp acidity, moderate residual sweetness or soft tannins in the case of red grape varieties, they are a perfect match for a wide range of styles of Asian cuisine.
- 4 Scallops
- 1 Bündel Mung bean noodles
- 2 Garlic
- 12 Cloves
- 2 EL Oil
- 1,5 EL Chinese rice wine
- 1 EL Light soy sauce
- 1 Fresh chili
- 2 Spring onions
PREPARATION
1. Clean the scallops, take out the scallop meat and marinate in the rice wine. Wash the shells.
2. Mash the garlic, mince the spring onions and the fresh chilli.
3. Heat a pan with oil over high heat, add garlic and fresh chilli, stir for 1-2 minutes, then put it into a bowl, add light soy sauce and mix well to make the garlic paste.
4. Place the vermicelli in a bowl and soak in warm water for 5 minutes until soft.
5. Take the scallop shells, arrange the vermicelli across these, and place a scallop on each.
6. Pour the garlic sauce evenly over the scallops.
7. Steam the scallops for 6 minutes.
8. Sprinkle with chopped spring onions.
- Riesling (trocken)
- Grauburgunder / Pinot Gris (trocken)
- Riesling (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Grauburgunder / Pinot Gris (halbtrocken & feinherb)
Tips from Asian cuisine CHINA : Dumpling
German wines have a natural advantage when it comes to entering into perfect harmony with select Asian dishes. With a lower alcohol content, sometimes crisp acidity, moderate residual sweetness or soft tannins in red grape varieties, they are a perfect match for a variety of styles of Asian cuisine.
- 500g Flour
- 240ml Warm water
- 400g Minced pork
- 100g Celery
- 1 TL Salt
- 1/2 TL Sugar
- 3 EL Light soy sauce
- 1 EL Oyster sauce
- 2 EL Oil
- 100 ml Water
PREPARATION
MAKE DUMPLING WRAPPERS
Pour flour into a large bowl, add 240ml warm water and stir until well-combined.
Wash and dry hands. Dip in some dry flour and knead the dough until it becomes smooth.
Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour.
MAKE DUMPLING STUFFING
Mix minced pork, salt, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil and 100ml water, stir well and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Chop the celery and pat dry with kitchen towel.
Take the pork out of the fridge, add chopped celery and stir well.
MAKE DUMPLINGS
Divide the dough into 8g pieces.
Rub the dough with a rolling pin and press into a circle about 7cm in diameter.
Take 15g stuffing and put it in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Fold the wrappers, use fingers to press the edges together.
BOIL DUMPLINGS
Fill in a clean pot with water, and bring to the boil. Pour in an appropriate amount of dumplings according to the size of the pot, and boil them until they rise to the surface.
Take out the dumplings and serve.
- Pinot Blanc (trocken)
- Pinot Blanc (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Silvaner (trocken)
- Silvaner (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (trocken)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (halbtrocken & feinherb)
Tips from Japanese cuisine JAPAN : Soy braised pork
German wines have a natural advantage when it comes to entering into perfect harmony with selected Asian dishes. With a lighter alcohol content, sometimes crisp acidity, moderate residual sweetness or soft tannins in the case of red grape varieties, they are a perfect match for a wide range of styles of Asian cuisine.
- 1 kg Pork belly
- 120 ml German white wine
- 80 ml Soy sauce
- 80 ml Honey
- 50 ml Water
- 4 cm Leek (green part)
- 3 Ginger (thin slices)
- 4 Boiled eggs
- 1 Vegetables such as Chinese cabbage
PREPARATION
1. Cut the pork belly into large pieces to fit your pan.
Put the frying pan on high heat. When it gets hot, add pork belly, browning all sides, and then put in a saucepan. Add enough water to completely cover the meat.
Add ginger and leek and put on high heat.
2. When it starts to boil, turn the heat down low and boil for around 1.5 hours until the meat is soft (test with a fork). If it is drying out, add more water and let the dish boil slowly.
3. Let the soup cool down, then remove the meat and cut into blocks of about 4-5 cm square. (If you cool it down well at this stage, the meat will not become dry.)
4. Put meat and all the other seasoning except soy sauce, into a new pan (which fits the meat neatly) and heat. When it boils, turn the heat to low and cook for around 5 mins, then add soy sauce.
5. Place a plate, which fits snugly into the pan, directly on the meat (a drop lid is also acceptable). Boil for about 30 minutes.
6. Remove pork from the pan, put the boiled eggs and green vegetable to season them, and boil the broth to half the volume.
Put the meat back in and mix well with the broth. Put meat on a plate, add boiled egg or boiled green vegetables and pour over broth.
- Lemberger (trocken)
- Dornfelder (trocken)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (trocken)
- Lemberger (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Dornfelder (halbtrocken & feinherb)
- Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir (halbtrocken & feinherb)
