The Wine Knows

One of the questions I'm asked most often is how I manage to come up with the various descriptors in wine. In other words, how do I realize a wine smells like raspberries and tastes like Flathead Lake black caps?

Part of that comes from sheer numbers of wines. In any given year, depending on how many competitions I am invited to, I will smell and taste 3,000 to 6,000 wines. Going through that many trains your palate to look for specifics to set various wines apart.

When I give wine-tasting classes, invariably someone will say, "I just can't come up with any descriptors." Here are some tips for evaluating wine:

-- When you get a glass of wine, make sure it isn't poured too high. A full glass gives you no room for swirling, which releases aromas.

-- Take your time smelling a wine. This is where most of the fruit-type descriptions come from.

-- Start with the basics: Do I like this wine? Do the aromas remind me of fruit? If so, are they red fruits, black fruits or blue fruits? If they are black fruits, do they remind me of blackberries, plums, boysenberries, etc.? If not fruit, what does this wine remind me of? Oak? Butter? Coffee?

-- Use your own life experiences to describe the wine. Do you love to cook? Then you probably will recognize some of the spices or herbs you tend to use. I tend to smell everything I can now because I want to have a memory of that aroma for the time I smell it in a wine. That includes spices, fruits, vegetables and herbs. When I come across a wine that is a real train wreck with various flaws, I'll spend time smelling it so I can break down and remember them.

-- If you spend any time at a farmers market, you might want to make a habit of buying small quantities of items you don't know much about, as you could end up with something that provides descriptions of wines. Perhaps they are unusual melons, peppers or vegetables.

-- Buy Torani or similar syrups for your coffee or homemade Italian sodas. There are dozens upon dozens of flavors, and they're often quite accurate. For example, I have had few opportunities in my life to eat a blood orange. But Torani makes a blood orange syrup. Now, I have a very good idea of what blood oranges taste like.

-- Buy jams and jellies from small producers in regions you visit. How do I know what Flathead Lake black caps smell and taste like? Because I buy preserves and syrups from Eva Gates' Homemade Preserves whenever I'm in Bigfork, Mont.

After you get started down the road of training your palate, you will find it pretty easy to pick up more and more specific aromas and flavors in the wines you'll taste.