| Ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant can be an intimidating experience. First you have to peruse the list, which may consist of anything from a couple of choices to a tome the size of War and Peace. Then, once you’ve made your selection (which was probably based more on price than any sort of intimate knowledge of the wine), you have to endure the notorious tasting ritual that inevitably follows.
This procedure can range from the formal dog-and-pony show entailing a cart, a cloth napkin tied in a fancy knot and a sommelier complete with a shiny little tasting cup draped around his neck (allowing him a splash of your already grossly overpriced wine), to a scantily clad waitress clutching an uncooperative bottle between her knees as she yanks hopelessly on the end of her rarely used corkscrew. But regardless of grace and style, once the wine is liberated, you’ll be required to examine it by the usual swirling, sniffing and tasting routine. But what exactly is it that you are supposed to be looking for? Are you simply deciding whether or not you like the wine, or is there more to it than that?
Actually, the real job of tasting is not to decide whether or not you like the wine, but rather if the wine is sound and tasting as it should – which is pretty difficult if you haven’t had the wine before! Your examination, which starts by simply looking at the label to make sure the server brought what you ordered and the vintage matches the one on the list, is designed to make sure the bottle you get is free from any number of faults that can afflict wine. These various defects can’t be detected just by looking at the wine and must be discovered through tasting, so it’s helpful to know just exactly what you are supposed to taste.
When examining white wine, the first thing to do is look at the colour. In young wines it should always be bright and clear with a vivid light yellow or straw colour. If you see an orange or brown hue starting to appear, it’s your first sign of trouble. The nose of the wine should be fresh with pleasant fruit or herbal aromas. If you detect a strong caramel odour and the colour is a deeper yellow, then the bottle may have succumbed to oxidation. This is a common problem with wines that have been improperly stored or those whose seal has been damaged.
Sadly, bottles of white wine are most commonly sent back due to a visual flaw and not because of a true problem with the quality. Every night after restaurants close their doors, waiters across the country toast one another with a free glass of white wine that was erroneously sent back because of tartrate crystals. These harmless little shards resemble sugar or broken glass to the naked eye and usually result in the bottle being returned. Tartrate crystals appear when tartaric acid precipitates and forms potassium bitartrate (cream of tartar), but the crystals are basically tasteless and are of no concern to the wine drinker. Generally they end up stuck to the side of the bottle as the last glass is being poured.
When considering red wine the colour should be bright (in the case of young wine) and not browning or showing any orange tints. The nose should be clean with ripe fruit and not dull or stew-y. As with whites, reds can often have some sediment or foreign matter floating around and again this is not cause for great concern. Depending on the filtering techniques used, red wines can vary greatly in their brightness, but should never be hazy or excessively cloudy. Small particles of sediment at the bottom of the bottle should be seen as more of a positive than a negative sign, as it means the wine has been handled in a more gentle and natural manner.
There are several more specific faults that can strike down a wine in its prime, including bacterial spoilage and the all-too-common cork taint. Cork taint infects both red and white wines equally and manifests itself as a dank, musty aroma that subdues any fruit character in the wine.
So what do you do if, during your ritual, you detect one or more of these unpleasant conditions? Simple – send the wine back and request another bottle; if you’re not sure you can always ask for a second opinion. Remember, you are paying a premium when you drink in a restaurant, so make sure the wine belongs in your glass and not on your salad. |
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