The Hoboken Guy

Wine Tasting with Tom Kobylarz, Wine Expert

Posted on 28. Feb, 2010 in Hobokenites

Hoboken thrives on a large community of talented experts ranging from the mysterious 14th Street Dancer to the cool dudes of Bustin Boards who make really rad skateboards for a living. My goal is to find the best of Hoboken and that includes the people of this city! As part the first of many HG Spotlights, I’d like to introduce to you Tom Kobylarz, Hoboken’s very own wine expert. He has volunteered to be a guest blogger to share his knowledge on the 5 Steps to Tasting Wine. Enjoy!

THE WINE EXPERT

Hello everyone, my name is Tom Kobylarz from the blog “The Wine Forum” and I am here with the Hoboken Guy to share some wine tips. I have lived here in Hoboken for quite some time and am a regular reader of The Hoboken Guy. I taste multiple wines a week and in a year hundreds, regularly attending wine tasting events in Manhattan and New Jersey. I also lead wine tasting events in my home with family and friends. We will reveal tasting and serving tips and the facts behind why they are important in revealing a wine’s full potential so you can fully enjoy every sip of the world’s best tasting alcohol.

5 STEPS TO TASTING WINE

To me there are two primary foundations to tasting wine and sharpening your palate: the conscious and unconscious elements. The conscious elements are is the 5 S’s: see, swirl, sniff, sip & savor. The unconscious elements are the less thought of perceptions and predispositions we develop from certain experiences and marketing voodoo.

Tasting wine can be thought of as a daunting and snobby endeavor. Most people don’t give wine a second thought after they first taste it. As long as it tastes “like wine”, an involuntary cognitive response kicks in and you either like the wine and move on or you don’t like it and try a different wine until you find one you like (or give up completely to fix a martini). Your palate has a predisposition to what you have only ever tasted and defines these snap decisions: this tastes good, better or worse than what I have ever tasted.

So, what makes a wine great and how do we know its good besides the fact that it just tastes good? That, my friend, is the conscious side of tasting wine. Just tasting good is the tip of the iceberg. Wine also has color, aromas, and an important and little thought of facet: perception. Color, aroma, and flavor are revealed by using the 5 S’s of Wine Tasting. Marketing has a large part to do with implying and extending perception, but usually it’s an experience in one’s past that unconsciously ties you to a certain wine the strongest. Special celebrations like a wedding, a vacation, or a special dinner make you think back to “remember when we had this wine”.

For me the hallmark and classic aromas of a great Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon bring me back to being in Napa and tasting wines in the cellars, vineyards and tasting rooms of some of my favorite wineries. Typical Bordeaux aromas remind me of holidays in North Carolina and our wedding.

Some of these moments are usually a wine drinker’s first wine epiphany, or wine moment, that starts to define your perception of certain wines and why you like them. You are unconsciously beginning to define your palate with these first steps. You may not be able to detect the multiple layers of flavor and aroma (complexity) in the wine just yet, but this experience has maybe made you more curious to do so consciously with the 5 S’s.

The following tips make wine smell and taste better as you will know more about what it is you are drinking using the 5 S’s. The ONLY way to sharpen your palate and learn is to taste A LOT of wine. Reading helps but it’s the tasting that makes the words jump from the pages of books, web blogs and wine magazines and into reality.

Tasting professionals when analyzing wine typically taste multiple wines at one time. This is why I advocate tasting events as they usually pour 5-25 similar wines at a time so you can contrast the wines against each other. Tasting wine in a group is great too because everyone’s palate is different and may detect certain flavors and aromas more so than others and help everyone understand the wine better.

The wines should have a theme so there is an underlying connection to each wine. Such themes include similar wines from the same or differing regions, grape or style. Tuscan reds or Syrah from around the world are two examples. You don’t want the wines to all be drastically different (Champagne versus Merlot). You want a Syrah from Australia and then a Syrah from France to get a sense of the underlying core similarities and then the contrasting differences that make those wines unique, what is also called “Terroir”.

SERVING TIPS

- The ultimate goal in serving a wine especially a fine wine, is to enhance the inherent qualities of a good wine. Whether using a decanter or special tasting glasses, the idea here is to unlock a wine’s potential to fully maximize you’re enjoyment. However, this will not make a $10 wine taste like a $50 wine. Decanting aerates a young wine to help open up its tighter composition. For older wines, decanting aerates the wine but also helps minimize sediment from ruining a wine’s clarity. If you do not have a decanter a glass pitcher or carafe will do just fine.

- Well designed wine glasses make all the difference. I have 3 styles that I consistently reach for: flute, goblet and tulip (shown pictured). Glasses are the first step in tasting a wine and are a window that reveals hints about a wine’s character.

- Flutes are for sparkling wines like Champagne. A tall flute allows you to see the bubble strands. A bubbly with out those silky strands of bubbles is flat and will not taste as good as it would with the bubbles. Bubbles are part of the wines texture and contribute to a wines flavor. A glass displaying the bubble streams is ready to go!

- Goblets are for red and white Burgundy (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) and Barbaresco and Barolo (Nebbiolo). Most goblets are usually wide enough, but not nearly tall enough. Pick one with tall enough walls so you can swirl and smell the wine optimally.

- The tulip shaped glass is by far the most versatile on the market today and should be the first premium wine glass you buy. They are perfect for medium to full bodied red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah or Sangiovese. I also use them with full throttle whites like new world Chardonnay and Viognier. The tulip shape excels because the shape narrows at the top, focusing a wines full bouquet.

TEMPERATURE TIPS

- Many people serve white wine too cold and red wine too warm. If you serve whites too cold the nose and flavors will be muted. The ideal temperature is 50-55 F for white wines. To warm up a wine that is too cold leave the bottle on the counter to warm up. If it’s already poured, cup the glass in your palm so your body heat can warm it up.

-Don’t serve reds too warm, it brings out excess alcohol and metallic aromas and flavors. Reds should have a slight chill when you touch them being served at 60-65 F. Use an ice bucket for any color of wine that is too warm.

TASTING TIPS

SEE

Once the wine is in the glass we are ready to start evaluating and tasting a wine. Don’t fill the glass all the way as you will need room in the glass to evaluate it.

Color can say a lot about a wine. Reds are typically dark red to purple in their youth. Whites are typically straw yellow or pale gold. As red wines age they lose color, while whites actually gain color as they age. Reds will take on a brick color and whites will be a deep gold at maturity. This is typical, and anything not in line with this pattern may be a spoiled bottle of wine. For example a red 2006 Cabernet should not be light to brick in color; it should have a dark purple or red center with lighter red or ruby edges.

Next you will need a light colored or white background to help see the wines true color grading. A white table or counter top, a napkin or a sheet of white paper will do.

Once you have your glass of wine, tilt the glass to its side against the lighter background so the wine is elongated along the side of the glass. By doing this you can see the layers of color in the wine. The center, or core, is the deepest part of the glass and the darkest part of a wine’s color. Now look from the center to the rim of the glass. As you progress to the rim you will see the successively lighter shades moving forward to the rim of the glass. This is called gradation, the gradual passing from one tint or shade to another.

SWIRL

Swirling a wine helps release a wine’s aromas. The action works like a turbine to shoot the aromas in a concentrated stream up and out of the glass and into your nose. Using a counter top to balance the glass makes it easier to swirl the wine so it does not go shooting across the room onto the person in the white shirt!

Swirling also reveals the viscosity in a wine by showing a wine’s “legs”. Viscosity in wine is the thickness and concentration of a wines sugars and alcohols that make up part of a wine’s textural “body”.

I don’t look for legs purposefully that much but that is because they are usually there and are not part of defining a wine as necessarily being good or bad. Thicker legs that are slower to clear usually mean there is more alcohol and viscosity in a wine. Swirl a California red Zinfandel with 16+% alcohol and you will see plenty of thick legs running down the inside of the glass.

SNIFF

The “nose” or “bouquet” of the wine is one of the most overlooked enjoyments in wine appreciation. Many people just skip right to the drinking part and avoid miss smelling the wine. I almost always give my glass a whiff every time I take a sip. It’s a natural part of enjoying a wine. Many times a wines smell is a direct hint of what the wine in the glass will taste like with overlapping aromas and flavors. Sometimes that is not the case and when that does happen, you have yourself a very complex wine!

Many people ask me “How do you smell that? It just smells like wine to me”. Just smelling “like wine” is barely scratching the surface of a good wine. The honest answer behind the “how” is a lot of practice and comparison tasting, reading tasting notes and getting to know what wines exhibit certain hallmark aromas. For instance I know how certain wines from certain places are supposed to taste. But that is not to say there are wines from the same regions that taste completely different, because that does happen. The primary aromas in a young wine should always be fruit, and then followed by the oak influence or the earthiness depending on the wine and who is making it.

Cabernet Sauvignon typically shows us currants, cherries, cassis or blackberry aromas. If the wine was aged in new oak barrels you should pick up a hint of chocolate or vanilla aromas from the toasted inside surface of a wine barrel. As Cabernet Sauvignon wines age they become more complex and throw more aromas of tobacco, sage, thyme, leather, earth, dried red and black fruits.

A wine that has primary and tertiary aromas that pass seamlessly from one to the other is a well made wine with excellent aroma integration or “complexity”.

SIP

Taste has everything to do with smell. Without being able to smell, we would not be able to taste. The “retro-nasal passage” is key to us having the ability to taste anything.

When tasting a wine, the first thing I do is sip the wine to make sure it is in good condition and not spoiled. Next I take a larger sip and swish the wine around in my mouth or suck in air over the wine. By doing so you are getting the whole mouth involved: gums, taste buds and the inner lining. All three are important in evaluating a wine’s flavors and textures.

When evaluating a wine’s taste, I look for certain flavors and traits that are typical of the varietal I am drinking and where it is from, similar to the aromas above. An experienced taster will likely know most of the basic flavors they are looking for before they taste the wine if they know what grape it is and especially if they have smelled the wine. Identifying them blind is not easy and a very humbling way to taste wine with novices and advanced wine tasters alike.

SAVOR

Reflect on what you just tasted, savor the wine’s finish. What is the impression after you have swallowed the wine? Do you feel like the wine was complete or missing something? You may not be able to say exactly what may be missing without having a trained palate, but you should know when you feel like a wine is short or leaves you feeling like its lacking balance. You want to focus on the length of the finish and its balance.

A long finish is a great attribute for a well made wine. A wine’s finish is gauged by the length of time a wine’s flavor stays with your palate after you swallow. How long is the wine’s aftertaste hanging around in your mouth?

A wine’s balance is defined by how well the components of a wine are in harmony. One element should not dominate too much over the other so that it throws a wine out of balance. The main components or elements are as follows:

- Alcohol
- Fruit (or sugar)
- Acidity
- Tannin (not usually for white wines)

By having all of these elements in balance, a wine is deemed to be complete. Balance can be different for certain types of wines, but that we will discuss in a future blog.

BONUS STORAGE TIPS

The two most important things to remember for storing wine for a future use:

1) Consistent temperatures. Temperature fluctuations absolutely wreck a wine. It will be dull or oxidized depending how long you subject it to constant temperature changes.

2) Light. Keep it out of direct sunlight. Your wine will be oxidized with just a few hours of direct sunlight as the wine will cook inside the bottle.

If you do not have a cellar or temperature controlled wine fridge, just keep the wine out of direct light and the kitchen. The wine rack in the kitchen may look good, but the fluctuating temperatures in a working kitchen will wreck your wine. Still whites are fine in the fridge as long as you take them out ahead of time to warm up. Sparkling wine over time will lose bubbles from the vibration of a regular refrigerator so avoid keeping them in there longer than a few weeks.

In closing I’d like to thank you all for reading and the Hoboken Guy for allotting me space to reach out to you new readers. This is quite possible the largest blog entry I have ever completed and possible the best I have done on wine appreciation.

For more wine information and to read more of my blog posts go to The Wine Forum at: tomswineblog.blogspot.com and become a Google follower or join through my Facebook page called “The Wine Forum”.

Cheers,
Tom