1. Look.
2. Smell.
- Fruit Aromas
- Wine is made from grapes, so it should smell like fresh fruit, unless it is very old, very sweet or very cold. Fruit scents can help you identify the growing conditions.
- Flowers, Leaves, Herbs, Spices & Vegetables
- Floral aromas are common in cool climate white wines.
- Another common aroma might be characterized as earthy, meaning scents of mushrooms, damp earth, leather and rock.
- Scents of earth, mineral and rock sometimes exist in the very finest white and red wines.
- Wine Barrel Aromas
- If you smell toast, smoke, vanilla, chocolate, espresso, roasted nuts, or even caramel in a wine, you are most likely picking up scents from aging in new oak barrels.
- Secondary Aromas
- Young white wines and young sparkling wines may have a scent very reminiscent of beer due to the yeast.
- Some dessert wines smell strongly of honey, which is evidence of botrytis, often called noble rot.
- A smell of buttered popcorn or caramel means that wine has most likely been put through a secondary malolactic fermentation, which softens the wine and opens up the aromas.
- Older wines have more complex, less fruity aromas.
- Look for off-aromas that indicate a wine is spoiled.
- If you smell burnt matches, the wine may have been bottled with a strong dose of SO2. This will blow off with some vigorous swirling.
- If you smell vinager, that indicates volatile acidity.
- If you smell nail polish remover, it is ethyl acetate.
- An undesirable yeast smell indicates Brettanomyces. A little bit of "brett" gives red wines an earthy, leathery component, while too much obliterates all the flavors of fruit.
3. Taste.
- Balanced - A balanced wine should have its basic flavor components in good proportion. Our taste buds detect sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. If a wine is too sour, too sugary, too astringent, too hot (alcoholic), too bitter, or too flabby (lack of acid) then it is not a well-balanced wine.
- Harmonious - A harmonious wine has all of its flavors seamlessly integrated. It's possible for the components to be proportioned well, but not blended together.
- Complex - Complex wines seem to dance in your mouth. They change, even as you’re tasting them. Simply note how long the flavors linger after you swallow.
- Complete - A complete wine is balanced, harmonious, complex and evolved, with a lingering, satisfying finish.
Come for the wine...Stay for the atmosphere...Remember the view!
Seven Springs is the finest Winery at the Lake of the Ozarks with a full service facility perfect for outdoor weddings, receptions, rehearsal dinners, corporate events and parties. Call us today to make reservations for your special event!
Seven Springs Winery
573.317.0100
846 Winery Hills Estates
Linn Creek, MO 65052
