The color reveals a lot about the wine: the age, the heaviness, the origin, the vine type, the fermentation technique and the quality. The examination of the scent of the wine is necessary because our smelling is ten times more sensitive than our tasting. After judging the appearance and the scents of the wine the next step of wine tasting is the savoring. The most important thing is the complex sensation.

1. The appearance of the wine

The color reveals a lot about the wine: the age, the heaviness, the origin, the vine type, the fermentation technique and the quality. As a rule the older the wine is the more intensive its color is. For instance, the young red wine is purple, as getting older it changes to red, and finally to brown. The examination of the transparency of the wine requires a powerful light source and a white background. The weaker translucency (and the slower trickle-down on the wall of the bowl) means a rich, fruity, full bodied wine. The perfectly clean wine reflects the surrounding objects so sharply as if it was a mirror, therefore this kind of wine is called mirror-like. Making the wine spread as large a surface as possible the glass should be tilted 45 degrees, therefore the glass should be filled a quarter of way full when tasting. The glass has to be held by its stem preventing the bowl from blurring and the wine temperature from warming.

2. Swirl and sniff

Swirling the wine in the glass it reveals the aromas of the wine concentratedly, since with the circular motion the wine is exposed to more oxygen and the thin film of wine on the glass evaporates faster, in this way more scent particles can release. The ideal quantity is to fill the glass to its third or half way full. It is worth sniffing the wine holding the glass as close as possible to our nose with small sniffs for 10-20 seconds avoiding big breaths and long smelling, because later ones weakens the sensation. According to experts the wine should be sniffed three times, first holding the glass motionlessly, second swirling it, and then together with a sip of wine a small amount of air should be breathed into the mouth letting the air out through our nostrils.

The examination of the scent of the wine is necessary because our smelling is ten times more sensitive than our tasting. We can differentiate thousands of scents by smelling. You can unambiguously deduce the wine style from the scent of the wine. The scent is influenced by three things: the vine type, the fermentation, and the aging. The vine type determines the aroma, and the aging process the scent. On the basis of this, three aroma groups can be distinguished. The primary aromas come from the grape, for example the fruit aromas, fragrance of flowers and vegetables. The secondary aromas emerge during fermentation and can be sensed swirling the wine in the glass. These can be, for instance, acids, yeasts, milky scents. During aging the tertiary aromas develop, they can be sensed during swirling and smelling at the rear of the nose cavity. These aromas give the bouquet, for example the aromas of vanilla, pepper, nutmeg, tobacco, tar and coffee. Besides the positive aromas listed above, there are negative aromas as well, for instance mustiness, smell of wet wood, clay, which can derive from the faults of wine-making and storing.

3. Sip and savor the wine

After judging the appearance and the scents of the wine the next step of wine tasting is the savoring. The most important rule of savoring is that you should flow the wine in the mouth for 10 seconds to all parts of the mouth to make it reach as many taste buds as possible.

The following English abbreviation is used for determining the quality of the wine:

B.L.I.C.; it refers to the four basic parameters:

Balance: the balance of the components, Length: the permanence of scents and flavors, Intensity: the distinctness of aromas and flavors, Complexity: the connectedness of the components

The most important thing is the complex sensation. We sense the components separately in vain, if flavor, acidity, dry matter, and scent do not harmonize with each other. The good wine is the one that makes us taste it purely by its appearance and scent, and it does not cause disappointment after tasting it, either – in other words, the wine we drink with pleasure. Our taste (and not just our tasting) is different, so everybody has to find their own favorite wines.

There are not only two or three vine types, therefore the classification according to the white-rosé-red ‘Holy Trinity’ may seem to be too simple. The preference of the type and color of wines is a matter of taste, the present mood, and the meal served.

The Character of Wines

The terms used by viticulturists and sommeliers may seem to be affected; their language can be regarded as thieves’ Latin. However, if we listen to it more carefully, we can notice terms used by many of them and always with the same meaning. As we advance in studying wines, we can also put some of these terms to use:

• Sweet, semi-sweet: the unfermented sugar makes wines more or less sweet.
• Dry: there is no residual sugar; the wine tastes pleasantly acid and tart.
• Velvety: characteristic of harmonious red wines with fine tannic acid content.
• Elegant: harmonious, fine acidity wine with noble aroma.
• Harsh: the typical taste of tannic acid and the elegant harshness are the characteristics of the wines aged in new oak barrels.
• Fresh: this is a feature of young wines with a lively acid content.
• Firm: full-bodied, lively wines with definite acid content.
• Round: harmonious wines with softer acids; their overall impression creates the sensation of roundness.
• Harmonious: the perfect harmony of the components (acid, sugar, extract, alcohol, scent, aroma) of the wine affecting our senses.
• Long: wines with abundant aromas and flavors; the aromas of heavy and full-bodied wines can be felt ‘reverberating’ for a long time.
• Characteristic: typical world of scents and aromas.
• Hard: high acid and extract content (dry matter) wine.
• Light: a pleasant wine with low alcohol content.
• Soft: wine with low acid content.
• Heavy: wine with high alcohol and extract content.
• Oily: a heavy, full-bodied wine with high glycerine content.
• Smooth: wine with fine acid and glycerine content.
• Full-bodied: wine with high extract content.
• Heady: harmonious wine with high alcohol content.

The Color of the Wine

There are not only two or three vine types; therefore, the classification according to the white-rosé-red ‘Holy Trinity’ may seem to be too simple. The preference of the type and color of wines is a matter of taste, the present mood, and the meal served. Some people believe it is more difficult to make something special from white wines because one has to be an expert of white wines to be able to call forth the proper flavor, whereas the scents and flavor of red grapes determine the character.

Contrary to popular belief, white wines do not have to be made from white grapes, since the color of the wine is determined by the pigments found in the skin of the berries. If the must is filtered soon, then white wines can be made from red grapes as well, for instance from Pinot Noir.

Examining the color of the wine, several categories of color used in the terminology are distinguished: silver white, greenish-white, yellowish-green, greenish-yellow, straw-yellow, yellow, golden-yellow, greenish-gold, red-gold, amber-yellow, brown, and numerous shades of these colors listed. If a wine glitters lightly and clearly, or we can even see a few bubbles in it, then it is likely to be a newly bottled wine with a vintage date showing the grapes were harvested recently and the wine was made by reductive technology. The deepening yellow color can be the sign of a full-bodied wine aged in barrels before bottling. If the color of the wine is straw-yellow and its full-bodied consistency is shown by the well-visible glycerine ring, it is probably a late harvest wine.

The production of rosé wines amounts to only 3-4% of the wine production of the world. During the production of rosé wines, the white must of the blue grapes is macerated on the marc far less time than that of the red grapes, thus the pigments from the skins of the berries can dissolve less. This process, depending on the color, type, ripeness of the grapes, can take 12-24 hours. In several countries, it is forbidden to make rosé wines by blending white and red wines; however, in Champagne, which is the most famous and richest wine region in the world, rosé champagnes are made this way. In the case of rosé wines, the most widely accepted technology is the reductive technology with fermentation and aging in a steel container, so that the primary fruit aromas can dominate. The origin of the word schiller is German (‘glittering’, ‘shining’) and it is the name of a rosé, which has a darker red shade than the ‘average’ rosés, and is a transition to the red wines. The pigments of the skin of the blue berries dissolve into the wine in a larger quantity during the longer skin fermentation.

Red wines are made from blue grapes gaining the color from the pigments dissolving from the skin of the berries. The time of grape skin maceration may exceed 14 days. The color of the red wines can vary from red to purplish-black, the latter similar to the ink. It is not accidental that in Latin countries they are also known as ‘vino tinto’.

Sweet-Dry

Sugar content significantly influences the taste of wines, and it is a matter of taste we take a liking to sweet, semi-sweet, semi-dry, or dry wines. Above the sugar content of 45 grams per liter, it is sweet wine; 18–45 grams sugar content per liter it is semi-sweet; 4–18 grams sugar content per liter it is semi-dry; and under 4 grams sugar content per liter it is dry.

Other Possibilities for Categorization

Besides the categorizations mentioned above, wines can be classified on the basis of quality (quality wine, table wine, etc.), age (new wine, young wine, mature wine, old wine), and alcohol content (light wine: 9-10% alcohol content by volume, heavy wine: above 13% alcohol content by volume). Of course, besides these, the most precise orientation factors are the wine-growing area and the winery. It is not accidental that in the 21st century, wine production is one of the most well-known activities in which the expertise and viticulturist’s personal guarantee are as important as it was in the Middle Ages.

Almost every wine benefits from resting after fermentation. After some months the flavors melt making the drink harmonious. The process of fermentation continues after the bottling as well. The hundreds of compounds stay in a continual interaction with each other separated from the air outside. However, nowadays there are more and more wines that the viticulturists intend to be consumed within two or three years after the harvest, because these wines do not have a significant (and balanced) acid and tannic content, therefore they cannot endure many years.

The quality and the originality of the wines can be guaranteed by bottling. The viticulturists’ aim is not just making the wines transportable but to prevent turbidity and sedimentary transferring and later keeping the character of the wine evolved during winemaking and storage. However, for this the appropriate quality of the bottle and the cork, the later ensuring proper closing, is essential.

Material

The bottle had been developing for long centuries while its present shapes evolved. In the ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Hellas wine used to be stored in pottery vessels, the so-called amphorae (tall, rotund pottery vessels with wide spouts and narrower neck and handles) and hoses. In the Roman Empire glass vessels were already used to serve drinks, they had a huge advantage making the wine they contained visible with its color. However, we cannot prove they used bottles for transportation or storage.

At the same time the Gauls already in the 3rd century AD made wood casks that became the exclusive tools for transportation and storage of wines in Europe. This method not only made it possible to store the wine lacking oxygen, but it facilitated the ripening too.

Because of the fragility of the glass in the Middle Ages people used vessels made of more durable materials, for example cups made of wood or tin and chalices made of precious metals. Thus glassmaking was pushed into the background. In the 17th century in England the first leers appeared operating by coal instead of wood. In these leers it was possible to reach a higher temperature resulting in a glass with thicker walls, therefore more durable.

Color and shape

The development of glass-production enabled the bottle production on industrial scale. During the centuries in each wine region special shaped bottles spread, typical for the certain region itself, becoming the symbols of the certain region as well. Some of these special bottles are still used, for example the bottles of Bordeaux, the bottles of Burgundy with sloping shoulders and a broader bowl, the bottles of Rhine, which are feminine, slender and tall. The Tokaj and Porto also have a unique and a patented shape. The variety of forms is delight to the eyes but their different volumes and their place-consuming storage have always caused problems.

The unavoidable step of the simplification was the development of cylindrical bottles in the 18th century. The main reason for this was the finding that the leakage of the bottles was caused by the drying of the cork, and to prevent this, the connection between the cork and the wine had to be continuously kept. This can be reached the most easily by using cylindrical bottles laid on their sides.

Nowadays the choice of the shape and color of the bottles is preceded by lengthy market research. The elegant appearance of red wines is highlighted by dark green bottles, white wines are highlighted by brown bottles, and rosé wines predominate in transparent ones.

Cork stopper

The closure of the bottles reveals a lot about the content: the natural cork stopper made of the bark tissue of the cork oak is still the symbol of quality wines in lots of places. Its advantages are the following: it is flexible, hermetic and does not hurt the mouth of the bottle. However, its disadvantages against cheaper screw caps and synthetic corks are that it is made of costly import material and it is difficult to extract from the bottle. Therefore the nicely formed synthetic cork made of the appropriate material is increasingly accepted as equal to the traditional cork.

Volume

Some decades ago the 0,7l bottle size was prevailing; nowadays the 0,75l and 0,5l slender bottles with long necks are more fashionable. It was first ordered in the United States in 1979 that wines should be bottled in three-quarter liter size bottles. Later this 750ml standard was taken over by the viticulturists of the European Union. Nowadays some traditional bottle sizes occur, such as the Italian Piccolo (187,5 ml),the French Chopine (250 ml) and Demi (375 ml),or the 500ml sized bottle used in Tokaj as well. And the names of the bottles larger than the standard size, such as Magnum (1,5 liter), and the following ones named after people in the Bible: the Methuselah (6 liter), Balthazar (9 liter) or Solomon (21 liter), refer to extraordinary sizes.

Labels

The label on the bottles – which can be made of one or two parts – should not be neglected, either. This informs you about the vine type, the time of production, and the region of origin, which is important for the competent people; it also contains the quality category, the reference to the style of the wine, the alcohol content, the name of the viticulturist and the winery, and the trademark.

Nowadays it is natural that the wine is poured into glasses of appropriate shape, but it was not always the case. Glasses were already made in the Ancient Times, but it took hundreds of years to make the production simpler and start the mass production. Not to mention the fact that the price of glass was almost as high as that of precious metals, therefore only the richer families could afford sets of glasses.

In the course of history first the simplest glass types developed: burnt pottery, carved out of wood, made hollow, but still more or less flat bowls. Among stock farmers it was popular to make drinking bowls from the horns of their animals usually decorated with gold plates, precious gems, semi-precious stones. In the Middle Ages the poor drank wine from cups made of wood or tin, from glazed jugs and from burned pottery glasses, while the rich drank from copper, silver, gold, alloys, ivory cups and transparent crystal cups. The shape of the cups or the chalices gradually flared out upwards.

Until the middle of the 20th century mostly the material of the wine glass changed. From the 1960s, thanked to Claus Riedel, the shape of the glass also became important. Riedel realized that by changing the form of the glass flavor and taste can be concentrated, consciously transferring the message of the wine to the consumer and significantly influencing the pleasure of wine consumption. He changed the well-known shape wider toward the top to the shape wider toward the bottom with narrowing top. His son, Georg Riedel, worked on adjusting the shape of the glass to wine types for the sake of harmonious and proportional presence of fruit, acid, tannic content, and alcohol content of the wines. As a result of this the first set of tasting glasses of the world was made, which was presented to the public in 1973 in Orvieto.

Today it is a commonplace that different wine styles match different glass shapes. Basically, there are three main types of glasses: the white wine glass, the wide red wine glass, and the narrow champagne flute. Numerous special shaped glasses were developed relating to certain wine regions and wine types, for instance the glass of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sherry and Tokaj wine.