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Wine & Dine: Wine Tasting, Wine Glossary, & Grape Varieties

Article · April 2005

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Ángel Carrión-Tavárez
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 J0060115Wine & Dine BY ÁNGEL CARRIÓN TAVÁREZ

WINE & DINE 47 CARIBBEAN BUSINESS THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2005

Wine Glossary
A the tannin. Associated with young red wine.
Asciutto [ah-shoo-toh]. Dry.
Assemblage [ah-sahm-blahj]. The art of
blending wine from different grape varieties.
Associated with Bordeaux and Champagne.
Astringent. Descriptive of wines that have
a rough, mouth-puckering taste. Usually can
BY ÁNGEL CARRIÓN TAVÁREZ be attributed to high tannin content. Tannic
astringency will normally decrease with age.
Wine Tasting However, sometimes the wine fails to outlive
Attack. The initial impact of a wine. If not
strong or flavorful, the wine is considered
“feeble.” “Feeble” wines are sometimes
encountered among those vinified in a year
where late rain just before harvest diluted
desirable grape content.
Attractive. The winetaster liked it anyway.
A veiled criticism of expensive wines, a com-
pliment for others.

Austere. Usually used in descriptions of

o you simply drink wine, or do you

D taste wine? Anyone can drink wine,

the difference is in the experience of
fully enjoying the wine; and appearance, smell,
and taste are integral parts of that enjoyment.
You learn this through wine tasting, an art that
requires knowledge and learning to distinguish
the characteristics of a wine through practice.
The techniques of wine tasting are very easy to
learn. If you like wine, learning to taste it will
increase your enjoyment all the more.
dry, relatively hard and acidic wines that
seem to lack depth and roundness. Such
wines may soften a bit with age. Term often
applied to wines made from noble grape vari-
Grape Varieties eties grown in cool climates or harvested too
C early in the season. ■
Cabernet Franc [ka-behr-nay fron]. One of
the parent grape varieties of Cabernet Sauvi-
gnon; black curranty but more leafy, it is
mainly found in cooler, damper climatic con-
ditions than its offspring. Shows moderately
vigorous growth and earlier wood and crop
maturation than Cabernet Sauvignon. It is
widely grown in the french Loire region, and
increasingly in Australia, California, and
Washington. Wine from these grapes can be
fermented to many varietal styles and drunk
young or aged, having a deep purple color
and herbaceous aroma when young.

Cabernet Sauvignon [ka-ber-nay soh-vin-

yon]. The “noble,” black curranty, cedary,
green peppery grape used to create the mag-
nificent french Bordeaux region blended red
wines. Despite increasing competition from
the Merlot, this is still by far the most suc-
cessful red varietal, grown in every reason-
ably warm winemaking country on the planet.

There are three steps in wine tasting: Look,
Smell, and Taste. You can tell much about a
wine simply by studying its appearance. The
wine should be poured into a clear glass and
held at eye level in front of a white background
(a tablecloth or piece of paper) so that you can
examine its color. You can guess the age of a
red wine by observing its “rim,” by tilting the
glass slightly and looking at the edge of the
wine. A purple tint may indicate youth while
orange to brown indicates maturity.
The color of wine varies tremendously, even
within the same type of wine. Red wines are
not just red; they range from a pale red to a
deep brown red, usually becoming lighter in
color as they age. On the other hand, white
wines are not actually white; they range from
green to yellow to brown. More color in a
white wine usually indicates more flavor and
age, although a brown wine may indicate it has
gone bad. Time will usually improve red wines
and ruin most white wines. ■
Carignan [kah-ree-nyon]. Prolific red
grape used in Corbières, Minervois, and
Fitou, and making either dull, coarse wine or
richer spicier stuff when vines are old and
yields low. In Spain it is known as Cariñena
and Mazuelo, while Italians call it Carignano.
Carmenère [kahr-meh-nehr]. Smoky,
spicily distinctive grape that, although almost
extinct in Bordeaux, is still a permitted vari-
ety for claret. Widely planted in Chile where
it has traditionally been sold as Merlot. Much
Italian Cabernet Franc may also turn out to be
Carmenère. Look for examples like the Santa
Inès Carmenère, Carmen Grand Vidure, or
Veramonte Merlot.
Excerpted, edited, and adapted by Ángel Carrión Tavárez from
Tasting Wine; Wine Glossary of Terms, by Tom Beard and Anthony
Hawkins; and Wine International.

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