Bubbles in Wine Tasting

Video Transcript

"Another step of wine tasting is looking at a wine for bubbles, and everybody knows a sparkling wine has bubbles, and they're easy to see, and they're fun to taste. However; any wine, even a still wine, will have some bubbles in it. You might be able to see them, and you might not. If you want to look for a wine and see if it has bubbles, look straight down in it. Look around the outside; a lot of times bubbles tend to stick around the outside of the glass. They might also stick to the bottom of the glass, and maybe be randomly stuck throughout the bottom of the glass, or you might even have a little bit of fizz, and this is in a wine that's a still wine, even a very sturdy red wine. The reason that all wine can have bubbles in it, is of course that carbon dioxide is a byproduct of fermentation. When the yeast is hitting the sugar and making alcohol, it's also creating CO2, and even if the CO2 is not purposely captured in the glass, a little bit remains in the wine, and will remain in the bottle, and will remain in your wine glass. You might not be able to see it, but you'll definitely be able to taste it. A little bit of carbon dioxide will make a wine taste fresh and interesting, and will move the wine around in your mouth to allow you to taste more and more of it. If you've ever tasted flat coke I hope it was an accident; you know what I'm talking about; because flat coke doesn't taste good at all. Flat coca-cola, flat Pepsi; doesn't matter; it tastes bad, but we all love the flavor of good soda. We love coke and Pepsi, and everything. The difference is carbon dioxide. That's an extreme example; but that's the liveliness, the freshness, and the crisp acidity that CO2 will give to a beverage, and there's a little bit in your wine, whether you see it or not. You might be able to notice it; even in your sturdy Cabernet or your solid Sauvignon Blanc, so take a look at it. See if you see some bubbles before you taste that wine."