Wine Appreciation – Pierre Legrandois
Wine tasting tips from Pierre Legrandois.
Chief Sommelier at the Mandarin Oriental, Pierre Legrandois gives us some tips about appreciating wine at the recent workshop organized by Hong Kong Land’s Boutique Boulevard: So Chic, So Central program.
Pierre’s wine tasting tips;
1. Look at the wine, especially around the edges. Tilt the glass to see the way the colour changes from the center to the edges. Look for the colour of the wine and clarity. White wines become darker as they age and time causes red wines to lose their colour turning more brownish with small amount of dark red sediment at the bottom of the glass.
2. Swirl the wine in your glass. This allow oxygen into the wine and opens up its aromas.
3. Notice the wine’s viscosity- how slowly it runs back down the side of the glass while swirling. More viscous wines are likely to be more alcoholic and more full bodied.
4. Sniff the wine. Initially you should hold the glass a few inches from your noise. Then let your nose go into the glass, what do you smell?
5. Take a sip of wine, but do not swallow. Roll the iwne around in your mouth for a 3-5 seconds to expose it to all your taste buds. You will be able to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (meaty of savory). Pay attention to the texture and sense of weight or body of the wine.
6. Aspirate through the wine. purse your lips as if you were about to whistle, draw some air into your mouth and exhale through your nose. This liberates the aromas for the wine and allows them to reach your nose where they can be detected. The nose is the only place where you can detect a wine’s aroma.
7. Take another sip of the wine. If you are drinking red wine, introduce air with it. Slurp the wine (careful not to be noisy here) and note the subtle differences in flavour and texture.
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