How to Taste the Quality of Red Wine

The main ingredients of red wine are grapes and sugar. If the grape varieties and the ratio of grapes to sugar are different, the taste of the red wine will be completely different, which also leads to differences between red wine grades. If you don’t know how to distinguish the quality of red wine, you are likely to buy red wine that tastes bad and will be very uncomfortable to drink. So, how should we taste the quality of red wine?

1. Observation: the color of the wine

First of all, the color of the wine should be consistent with the year and grape variety. Different grape varieties will produce different colors of red wine. In addition, the older the vintage, the lighter the color of the red wine will be, from the earliest purple-red to orange-yellow. For this module, the full score is 5 points. Due to the application of modern technology, most wines can get 4 or even 5 points.

The color can be used to preliminarily judge the quality of a wine. Wine with a dark color is generally not bad, while wine with a pale color is definitely not a good wine. In addition, observing the color of the wine is currently the most effective way to determine the year. For example, if a red wine is more than three years old and the color is still bright, then there is a problem. In short, remember that the older the year, the darker the color and the more prominent the yellow tone.

In addition, don't use the method of dropping wine on a paper towel and observing the diffusion of pigment to determine whether the wine is real or fake. Apart from exposing your identity as a wine novice, it is really useless and will make others more calm in cheating you! Just think about it, if it were so easy to tell the authenticity of something, there wouldn’t be so many fake liquors!

2. Smell: the aroma of wine

The aroma of red wine should be pure, fragrant and lasting. For this module, Parker set the full score to 15 points. Pure aroma means that the aroma of red wine must conform to the characteristics of the grape variety, such as the green taste of New World Cabernet Sauvignon and the gasoline smell of Riesling. In other words, if this red wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, it must have the aroma of Cabernet Sauvignon, otherwise the aroma will be impure. When blind tasting, the grape variety of the red wine is also judged by its aroma.

A pure aroma is only the basic requirement for aroma. A good wine must have a fragrant (rich and pleasant), lasting and varied aroma. For a novice in red wine, it is indeed difficult to remember the unique aroma of each grape. So how do you judge? In fact, it can be simplified. Just remember that no matter what aroma the red wine has, it should at least make you want to smell it. Wine with bad and pungent smell is either of poor quality or has gone bad.

3. Taste: Flavor and Aftertaste

After looking at and smelling, the next step is to drink it. After all, wine is meant to be drunk. Parker set a full score of 20 points for this module. It is evaluated based on four dimensions: taste balance, complexity, layering, and length of aftertaste.

Balance refers to the perfect blend of acid, tannin, alcohol and sugar. If you taste it carefully, you can taste the sourness, sweetness, astringency and the stimulation of alcohol, but you will not feel that any one flavor is particularly prominent, thus achieving a balance in taste.