Seven Springs Winery: how to taste wine

Tasting wine can be as casual or as polished as you'd like to make it. Some people want to enjoy the glass of wine for the sake of enjoying wine while others want to learn every detail about the flavor. All of these are great reasons to enjoy wine, and we'd be honored if you would join us at Seven Springs Winery to enjoy some of the best Missouri Wine around. If you are still uncertain about how to approach a wine tasting, here are a few things to remember as you pick up the glass for your first swig.

Observe the Taste

Before you swallow your wine, roll it around in your mouth and give the flavors a chance to entice you. While wine is basically fermented grapes, you will notice that it can come in a variety of flavors that you may not have expected. Red wines can boast of flavors like dark fruits, tobacco, leather, berries, and cherries. While white wines may exude citrus fruits, apples, pears, toast, and spice. These flavors can come from the grapes, the wine making process, the barrels that the wine is fermented in, and even the way the bottle is stored and the age of the wine.

What Is the Viscosity/Body?

If you've ever heard of someone referring to "mouth feel" when talking about wine, they're referring to the viscosity, also known as the body. The viscosity is how heavy the wine feels in your mouth. Some wines have a bold, heavy feel to them while others are very light. If you're just starting out with wine you may prefer a lighter wine, but don't be afraid to try many different types! You never know what will suit your fancy.

Use Your Nose

Another thing to notice while tasting your wine is what the aroma it has. Along with the taste, every wine has a different aroma, and that scent can aid your tasting even more. The aromatics are caused by many different parts of the winemaking process, from the grapes, the terroir (where they are grown, in this case, we create the best wine at the Lake of the Ozarks!) and how it is aged. After you take a sip of your wine, allow the aroma in the glass to tantalize all of your senses.

Is it Sweet or Dry?

While many new wine drinkers prefer a sweet wine, that doesn't have to mean that it's sugary sweet. Just enough sweet to take the dryness off is all you need. At Seven Springs Winery, we have many wine varieties that will wet your whistle and can fit the many styles you may want to try.

Best Wine at the Lake of the Ozarks

We have a wonderful tasting area at Seven Springs Winery where you can taste the thirteen different Lake of the Ozark wines we offer. You can try three of them for free, or all of them for a small fee. Our winery is nestled in the rolling Ozark hills and as spring starts to bloom all around, we're sure you'll fall in love with our venue even more. Come out and visit us this week and learn about our delicious wines.

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

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Drinking wine is a lot different than tasting wine. You could drink wine the same way you drink a beer or a mixed drink, but you wouldn't be getting the whole experience. To experience the true flavor of a Seven Springs Wine, you must slow down and pay attention to your senses. There are 3 basic steps for tasting wine: Look, Smell and Taste.

1. Look.

The first step is to just examine the wine in your glass. You want to fill the glass about 1/3 of the way up. Start by looking straight down into the glass. By looking down, you get a sense of the depth of color, which gives a clue to the density and saturation of the wine. Next hold the glass up to the light and tilt it so the wine rolls toward the edge of the glass. (Never hold the glass by its bowl, only by the stem as your hand will quickly warm the liquid.) This will allow you to see the complete color range of the wine and not just the dark center. If the color is consistent from the core all the way out to the rim, you can guess that the wine has some age to it. Whereas if the rim has more of a watery color, the wine is probably pretty young.While murky wine could be a sign of chemical or fermentation problems, it might just be that the wine was unfiltered or has some sediment due to being shaken up before being poured. A wine that looks clear and brilliant, with some sparkle is always a good sign. Finally it is important to give the glass a good swirl to really open up in the glass and aerate. Notice how the wine runs down the sides of the glass. Wines that form good legs are wines with more alcohol and glycerin content, which generally means they are bigger, riper, more mouth-filling and dense than those that do not.

2. Smell.

After you've swirled the wine, it's time to take a sniff. Don't bury your nose in the glass, but simply hover over the top and take a series of quick, short sniffs. Now step away and let the smell sink in. Try to look for any of the following aromas to help you better understand the wine's characteristics: Aromas

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.

Wine Flaws

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.

Once you have looked at and smelled the wine, it's finally time to taste it! Take a sip rather than a large gulp. Try sucking on it as if you were pulling it through a straw; this simply aerates the wine and circulates it throughout your mouth. If you've done your sniffing thoroughly, the taste should follow right along where the aromas left off. Aside from the flavors, you are also using your taste buds to determine if the wine is:

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.

Now that you understand the basics of wine tasting, it's time to give it a try! Come on in to our Lake of the Ozarks winery for a taste. Sample any 3 of our wines for FREE or sample all 12 for just $8 and receive a wine glass as a souvenir! See you soon! Source: http://www.winemag.com/how-to-taste-wine/