How to choose wine: tasting of home - video recipes at home

Because really understand all the nuances of wine - is a science. And even more so to be able to choose the right wine to a certain food. With it you will always be able to help the sommelier - a professional wine connoisseur who knows absolutely all the dishes of the restaurant, in which you came.

In order to thoroughly examine the difference between one terroir - a set of soil and climatic factors and special characteristics of the area - from the other, and as the slope of the slope on which the grapes are grown affects the flavor of the wine, require more than one year. But you can pretty easy and fun to spend the basic wine tasting with friends, without leaving the house, combining wines from different grape varieties with a different set of products. Believe me, you'll be surprised how one meal makes even of rare bottles of obscure "compote", and the other - underlines the exquisite nuances of its taste.

If you are a beginner, keep in mind that European wines have historically been created in order to combine them with a meal. A New World wines from California, South America and Australia - a much more vibrant and full of themselves, so they are more difficult to combine with the dishes.

So planning tasting party, you need to buy 5-6 bottles of different wines.

Less will not be so interested in trying different food, and more - your guests will be difficult to thoroughly understand the feelings of too much flavor combinations. I recommend trying a common and easily available, but significantly different in taste and rich wines from grape varieties Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Syrah, Rioja and Sauternes. On boards or dishes for each guest decompose slightly salted salmon with lemon without lemon, a few slices of chorizo ​​sausage or salami, a few slices of cheddar cheese or semi-spicy cheese, a few thin slices of roast beef, a small piece of cheese "Roquefort" and a few pieces of high-quality dark chocolate the content of cocoa mass by 64-80%.

Well, and of course for every guest to arrange a series of five identical clean glasses. Glasses is desirable to take the same - to ensure that guests are not distracted by the difference in the glass, and it is focused on wines. In the event that you do not have such a number of glasses, nothing terrible will happen if the plastic cups will be on the table. Any taste wine or the festive atmosphere it will not change.

The task of each guest - first try every wine on a tiny sip and write down your feelings about it, try to make it out on the nuances and notes. And only then - with a small piece of the food you offer them. But do not just try and write down on paper what sensations caused them this combination - shades of taste and smell smacked wine in combination with one or another product. And then compare the records of taste in the column without food and with each meal.

For example, Pinot Gris with salmon, sprinkle a drop of lemon juice, will be combined beautifully. But in combination with chocolate wine starts to sour and ugly lose all their honey scent. Sauternes dessert exquisitely combined with the tangy and fragrant "Roquefort", and salmon acquires chemical soapy taste. A Rioja, which is beautifully revealed with cheddar cheese and chorizo, combined with salmon - though with a lemon, even without - will be hard to leave a metal taste in the mouth. When tasting wine makes sense to pay attention not only to the taste, but the color and smell.

It is amazing, but the smell can sometimes complement the taste and sometimes cheat when tasting: in some Chardonnay smell, or as they say professionals, "nose" of wine contains a lot of fruit and floral notes, but only shades of honey and oak remain in the taste. First look at the blame on the light, and then safely inhale the aroma. And pay attention not only to smell the freshness, but also on what you feel fruity flavors - white wine may smell an apple, gooseberry, lychee, passion fruit, pineapple, black currant; and red - red berries, strawberries, raspberries, sweet pepper. The "nose" of red wines can often be discerned even tobacco flavor or skin, the fragrance of the earth or fallen leaves. All these details create a unique bouquet of the bottle.

So now you can carefully take the first sip, by holding the wine in your mouth to give him a chance to open up. Sweet or dry it? How sour? Acidity gives the wine a balanced taste: too much acid - and the wine is tart and astringent. And too little - and the taste will be flat. Is there a bouquet of vanilla? If yes, then most likely, the wine matured in oak barrels. Well, and in red wines must pay attention to the tannins - substances that are found in bones and skins of grapes: if there are too many, they envelop the gums, make the wine heavy knit language. Most importantly, remember that there are no right answers, there is only the right questions in the wine tasting! each wine unique taste, and each person sees it differently. This is not a quiz, there is no need to guess correctly and win.

I assure you that the pleasure of tasting a similar get anything if you do not approach the process too seriously. But most importantly, it will be a party held for the benefit!