Sniff, Swirl & Swallow...

How to taste like a true Connoisseur.

Tasting wine is as simple as capturing your personal sensory experience of whatever wine is in your glass.

No need to be an expert to have fun tasting – if you drink wine, you have taken the first step in how to 'think' wine!

The wine tasting ritual may feel somewhat contrived and pretentious at first, but with some semi-thoughtful regular exposure to a broad spectrum of wines, you will soon be confident and comfortable with the sensory language and appreciation of wine.

Every grape variety has its own intrinsic personality traits that can easily be detected with practice. We recommend starting with single variety wines that are typical. We invite you to put your senses to the wine tasting test in 3 simple steps with 3 wines from Douglas Green's single varietal collection.

The international tasting glass provided in this pack is the specifically designed with a wide bottom for maximum visual appreciation of the wine and a tapered top to concentrate the aromas of the wine

Begin your tasting by pouring around 50ml of wine into your tasting glass.

Step 1: See

The appearance of both red and white wines will give you your first clues as to the style, quality and age of the wine. Tilt your tasting glass to observe the colour and how it changes from the heart to the edge of the glass. The colour can best be judged by holding the wine against a white backgrond.

A white wine that is very pale straw with a green tinge suggests a young wine made in a dry style.

The more golden the wine appears may tell you that it is older, sweeter or has been exposed to wood.

Appearance is key to not only the age of red wines, but also the quality. If the colour of a red wine extends to the very edge of the glass, chances are the wine is high in extract and of a superior quality. The gradation of colour from the heart of the wine to the edge tells a tale of age - a pink or watery edge hints at youth, whilst a brick red or tawny rim is a sure sign of bottle age.

Step 2: Swirl & Sniff

Swirl the wine around your glass to release the fragrances and aromas.

Place your nose into the rim of the glass and take a long thoughtful sniff of the wine.

Did you know that your sense of smell is the most effective memory trigger of all the senses? It is also the most difficult sense to describe with words.

What we smell when we nose a wine is in fact a complex of volatile chemical compounds or esters. Since wine aromas have no original vocabulary of their own, we 'borrow' familiar terms and descriptions to identify the characteristics of the wine that we are tasting. For example, when a taster picks up coffee and chocolate on a Merlot, they are in fact recognising similar chemical complexes that occur in both the wine and the coffee/chocolate.

Your skill in smelling is improved with regular practice and a conscious awareness of fragrances and smells around you in your daily lives - stop and smell the roses, your herb and spice rack, the different fruit in your fruit bowl - before long you will find aroma associations more easily.

Step 3: Sip, Spit or Swallow (It's up to you!)

This is the moment that most of us eagerly await with added anticipation and expectation after staring and sniffing so intently. The taste of the wine should confirm the impression created by the other senses and is the culmination of enjoyment.

Take a small amount of wine into your mouth and roll it around allowing it to reach every area of your tongue and mouth. Breathing air over the wine with the perfectly polite wine taster's slurp is known as retro-olfaction where aromas are forced behind the palate and into the nasal cavity.

It is at this stage that you will decide to swallow or spit the wine. Your decision may be as simple as if you like the taste - go ahead and swallow! If however you are planning on tasting and appreciating a long line-up of wines, it is etiquette to spit into a spittoon (be advised to practice in private first as misjudging your speed and momentum may lead to embarrassing social consequences!)

Once the wine has left your mouth, concentrate and savour the flavours and tactile experience that the wine has created, lingering thoughtfully on the aftertaste.

Since only you are the undisputed expert when it comes to your taste buds, your sensory intellect will swiftly calculate if this is an agreeable wine no matter what the style or variety - and the good news is there are 20 tasting measures in every bottle. Bottoms up!

Douglas Green has selected 3 wines that are perfect practice bottles for beginner wine tasters.

Each of these single varietal wines are very typical of the intrinsic personality of the cultivar (and delicious easy drinking palate-pleasers too.)

HOW DO YOUR NOTES COMPARE TO OURS?

DOUGLAS GREEN CHARDONNAY
Chardonnay is a very versatile variety and is made in various different styles. It is almost always dry and may be wooded or unwooded. The unwooded Chardonnays are generally lighter in body bodied than the ones that have been barrel fermented or matured.

Appearance
Pale gold with a brilliant green glow.

Nose
Appealing vanilla butter aromas with layers of peaches, sweet melon, ripe oranges and flinty mineral nuances.

Palate
Crisp and creamy dry entry exploding into lemon butter and tropical fruit flavours with well-integrated vanilla oak notes.

Overall
A dry, medium bodied Chardonnay with graceful integration of ripe fruit and discreet oak treatment.



DOUGLAS GREEN MERLOT
Merlot could be considered the most feminine of the red varieties making elegant medium to full-bodied wines that are lush and velvety. Merlot is used as the softening influence in the traditional Bordeaux styled blends.

Appearance
Dark ruby of medium depth with a bright strawberry edge indicating the youthfulness of the wine.

Nose
Pleasant complexity of ripe black cherry and plum fruit aromas layered by earthy mineral and spice nuances.

Palate
A soft lush juicy smooth entry with cranberry and ripe red cherry flavours supported by firm yet friendly tannins and slick oak integration with a well balanced aftertaste of coffee and plums.

Overall
A medium bodied Merlot that is immediately accessible yet has the structure to last a few more years.



DOUGLAS GREEN CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Regarded by many to be the ‘king’ of red wines, this Cabernet Sauvignon has a full-bodied robust character and has amazing longevity in the bottle. Some of the world’s finest red wines are produced from this variety which is almost always wooded to develop the true potential of the grape.

Appearance
Medium depth ruby heart with a gradation to a lighter garnet edge.

Nose
Rich fruitcake and sun-ripened tomato aromas supported by a complexity of black cherries, tobacco, nuts, violets and spicy vanilla undertones.

Palate
Smooth, full-bodied entry with intense juicy black berry fruit flavours that are in perfect harmony with the well-defined yet restrained tannins and seamless wood.

Overall
A medium to full-bodied wine allowing early enjoyment yet with potential to develop interesting complexity for up to 5 years.

  

   
 

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