Friday, October 29, 2010

nosey


Wine tasting is a bit like learning a new vocabulary. If you do not have a memory bank of smells in your smell memory then it is impossible to recognise different smells when you encounter them.
It would be like me going to Japan .I don't speak Japanese. I never learnt it so I will not be able to speak it when I get there!

The same with the language of smell.

Solution: Smell things…The coffee before you drink it.The marmalade before you spread it.The fruit before you eat it.The flowers as you pass them.Your dinner before you start it etc.

 Follow your nose and you will learn the language  !

Nosey Tasters


Believe it or not the most honest wine taster is the beginner wine taster because beginners draw on authentic smells that already exist  in their smell memory rather than those suggested by others in their tasting notes .

Your nose is just like a big cave with hundreds of thousands of sensors connected to your smell memory so the flavour of  anything you eat or drink is more or less interpreted by your nose.

The mouth itself only detects sweet,sour,salt and bitter which in conjunction with the flavour helps you assess the balance of a wine.
However in addition to this the mouth acts as a little oven  having a warming effect  thus causing the aroma of things you eat or drink to travel up through the retro-nasel passage and this is then interpreted by the brain.

Wine tasting is a bit like learning a new vocabulary. If you do not have a memory bank of smells in your smell memory then it is impossible to recognise different smells when you encounter them.
It would be like me going to Japan .I dont speak Japenese. I never learnt it so I will not be able to speak it when I get there!

The same with the language of smell.

Solution: Smell things…The coffee before you drink it.The marmelade before you spread it.The fruit before you eat it.The flowers as you pass them.Your dinner before you start it etc.

 Follow your nose and you will learn the language  !

Pezat 2006 Bordeaux Superieur


This is a modern style Bordeaux made by Jonathan Maltus in Chateau Teyssier, a  St Emilion Grand Cru which is located just beside the vineyards of Pezat...or should I really be saying Pezat is located just beside Chateau Teyssier a St Emilion Grand Cru ! Mr Maltus is considered quite an innovator when it comes to St Emilion wines and indeed wine in general with wines from his top sites fetching  up to a couple of  hundred euro.He is involved in  several other wine ventures around the world, including America and Australia.This cross fertilization of styles comes through in this Pezat 2006 .It is rich with stewed blackcurrant fruits ,a hint of cedar yet with that elusive structure which either works or fails miserably  in St Emilion wine.It works in this to perfection and offers a wine that delivers on quality well above its price at around  €16.