Tasting Wine

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Chuck Byers for Expert Village, and I'm going to tell you what a sommelier looks for when he's choosing a wine. For example, I have a red wine here, it's a Bougeleis from Pifaroe Fi, and it's wonderful wine, but how would you choose one. First of all, you look at the color. Color has to be, although this is red, color has to be clear. Not cloudy. If it's cloudy there's some bacteria involved in there, so you don't want to get that wine. And secondly you swirl it. And swirling allows the wine the come in contact with the air, allowing the bouquet to go. Smell. What you do is you take one whiff. Take another, and you make your assessment. Nice wine. Then comes the taste. The sip, and the swallowing allows the wine to go down through your throat, and there's a connection between your nose and the back of your throat which again allows you to sort of smell the wine again. Plus you've got taste buds on your tongue, and because you're got taste buds on your tongue, wine, residual wine, is left over and gives you what they call "the finish". And the longer the finish, usually the better the wine. So, you take a look at the color, you swirl, you sniff, you sip, you swallow, and then there's the finish. And the finish should be clean, yet have some character to it. Enjoy."