Classic Wines

The Systematic Approach: Judging the Appearance of Your Wine

Tasting and discussing wine among other enthusiasts will teach you what books cannot, so I wanted to share a great tool that will help you understand and describe your wine more clearly. The technique is called the systematic approach to wine, and it focuses on the appearance, aroma and palate of the wine. Each section is very detailed so I will break up the articles into each of the three categories. First we will look into our wine glasses.

Start with making sure you have the proper glassware that will allow you to see the wine's appearance. Next, look at clarity, intensity and color. Clarity is distinguished by judging if the wine is clear or dull. The Clarity is very important because this is where you look for cloudiness, a sign of a problem with bacteria or re-fermentation in the bottle.

Next, you identify the intensity of the wine. This step refers to the hue of the wine. To do this you hold your glass away from you at a 45 degree angle against a white background. You will notice there are two parts of the wine, the clear outer rim and the middle core. These parts can be described as water-white, pale, medium, deep or opaque. If there is variation between the rim and core then describe each separately. Younger red wines may exhibit opaque intensity in both the rim and core. Older red wines may be medium in the core and pale on the rim. Young white wines with oak aging often have pale to medium intensity in the rim and core and older wines have deep cores and pale rims.

Now we can continue by describing the color of the wine with the provided choices, which are typically used by Master Sommeliers and Masters of Wine. However, feel free to use your own color descriptions.

For White - colorless, lemon-green, lemon, gold or amber.

For Rose - pink, salmon or orange.

For Red - purple, ruby, garnet, mahogany, or tawny.

Older whites have darker colors, older reds have more pale and brown colors (I have yet to see orange rose).

Finally, you check for the presence of sediment, bubbles and then judge the viscosity. Sediment is more common in older red wines and can produce cloudiness and sludge in the bottom of your glass. Bubbles are judged by how active they are and their size. Tiny bubbles are a sign of high quality sparkling wine. Viscosity is measured by the way the wine moves in the glass. Swirl the wine and notice how the tears or legs fall from the sides of the glass. This is a measurement of alcohol and sugar content, but in no way tells you about the quality of the wine.

Let's say that we are tasting a 2006 Australian Shiraz from Barossa that has no signs of sediment and cloudiness. We might describe the appearance like so: "The wine is clear with an opaque purple color, no rim variation and is highly viscous." Next comes the fun parts: smelling and tasting.