Sip and swish: the fun part

Finally! We get to actually, you know, taste the wine.

After our previous adventures in wine ogling and wine agitation (see below), we're now ready to drink it. Glory be!

This part, I'm confident, we all know how to do. I'll just throw in a couple of suggestions.

First, don't drink it too quickly. You've probably only got a couple of ounces in your glass. Take your time to savor it. This is especially helpful when you run across a wine that is negatively impacted by the lingering finish of the wine you just had. Of course, if that damned wine steward (a.k.a. me) knew what he was doing, he'd have arranged them correctly so that wouldn't happen.

But I digress.

Anyway, yeah, sip it. Let it hang out on your tongue. Roll it around in your mouth. Even swish it, if you must. Try not to make any unneccessary gurgling noises, though. It's kind of a turn-off for your fellow tasters, and you wouldn't believe some of the noises I've heard experienced tasters make. It can also prove beneficial to breath in through your mouth with some of the wine still in there. This can get tricky with regards to that noise issue, but it can help open up a young wine so you can learn a little more about what it will be like after a little more aging.

Should you not notice the same flavors as the schmuck next to you, don't worry about it. Everybody has varying degrees of sensitivity to different aromas and flavors. So if you taste strawberries when somebody else tastes raspberries, don't let yourself think you are wrong. If you can't pick out any distinct flavors, that doesn't really mean anything, either. You'll get more and more comfortable as you taste more wine. Remember that the ultimate goal is to try to learn what you like and then enjoy the wine. The more wine you taste, the easier it will be for you to identify what flavors and aromas and textures you enjoy.

Now, the big question: should you spit? If you find yourself at a tasting where there are, say, four or five wines, then by all means swallow. You'll thank me for this advice. I'll tell you, though, that sometimes, like when you're at a big event and you have dozens of wines to taste, you have to spit unless you want to be rushed to the hospital before the fun really even starts. Even then, I try to swallow a tiny bit of any wine that I think will be worth knowing more about. There are flavor receptors in the back of your throat that will respond differently to wine.

Anyway, I guess that should about wrap it up. Let me re-inforce, one last time: it's about having a good time. Don't take it too seriously; enjoy yourself.

Michael Adelsheim in the house!

Just a quick note of the "Save the Date" variety. The next two weeks will see some pretty sweet tastings here at Bruning's. On Wednesday, August 26 and Saturday, August 29, we'll be exploring France's Rhone Valley with wines from Louis Bernard. I personally love Rhone wines. They're probably the most consistently enjoyable of all French wines, for me. We'll have a white Cotes-du-Rhone and a red Cotes-du-Rhone, a Vacqueyras, and a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a red Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Wednesday, September 2nd will see us with a special guest at our usual wine tasting. Michael Adelsheim will be here with a special sampling of wines from Adelsheim Vineyard, one of the pioneering producers from the Oregon Pinot Noir movement.

I'm really looking forward to this. As something of a Pinot Noir nut, I've been an admirer of the Adelsheim ethos for a while now. Their releases are truly outstanding examples of what can be accomplished with top quality winemaking in the Pacific Northwest. If you're not a regular, try to make it to this one. It'll be a good time!

We taste every Wednesday night from 5-8PM and every Saturday from 3-6PM at our shop on Fairfield Rd. in Beavercreek.

Swirl and Sniff...or Sniff and Swirl and Sniff?

Next up in the absurdist world of alliterative wine tasting methods, we have the (I've decided) inseperable brothers Swirl and Sniff. Again, the idea is simple: take a moment to learn what the wine in your glass smells like before you pour it down your throat. This is an important step, because so much of what you taste in wine is in its aroma (also called its "bouquet" or, ridiculously, its "nose").

Swirling the wine around in your glass before you smell it, as forcefully as possible (without spilling!), helps. The idea is to get some oxygen in there, which will force some of the aroma to "bloom" into the glass. Personally, I like to sniff, and then swirl, and then sniff again, but only because I like to discover how the character of the wine changes as it "opens up". Take deep breaths, and really get your nose into the glass for full effect.

When you follow these suggestions, you can learn some interesting things about the wine you're holding: basic things like what flavors will be prominent in the wine, but also more complicated things like how well-integrated the alcohol is and how mature the wine is.

That's right, it's time to talk about another sign of a too-young wine!

If the wine smells of green pepper, it's either too young to drink, or was made from unripe fruit and will never be ready. Or, it could mean that it's Chilean, but winemakers there like to refer to "jalapeno" to avoid the stigma of a young wine (I, personally, like to roll my eyes at this). If the green pepper not isn't too overwhelming, just giving the glass some time to open up will help. This can be accomplished with more swirling, or by decanting (pouring the wine into a wider, shallower container so there is more surface area in contact with the air) for a while before serving.

Another thing you can learn by sticking your nose in your glass is that the bottle is bad. Now, I don't mean that the wine isn't good, but rather that something has gone wrong with this particular bottle. Usually, this has to do with the cork, either from a common bacteria that taints some cork and can ruin a wine, or from an incomplete seal, which causes oxidation. Both of these things are bad for wine. Really bad. You'll know it when you smell it (though you can see oxidation in some wines in the form of a "browning" of the color.)

Sometimes, a bottle can go bad from a secondary fermentation if a tiny bit of residual sugar and live yeast make it into a bottling. If a bottle is supposed to be still but has fizz, don't drink it!

Allright, so now we're at the point of pulling in the reigns a bit again. If all of this sounds overwhelming, or too fussy, or just plain weird, don't worry about it. Just have fun, and try to find some new bottles to add to your list of favorites! You'll become more accustomed to this absurd behavior as you go.