We talk regularly with customers in the wine shop about how and why wines are described the way they are. What is the best way to learn to associate what you hear and read with what you are experiencing yourself? How the heck do people distinguish black currant from black cherry, for instance? Can you learn to understand, talk about and describe wine like a pro?
We are always eager to walk neophytes through the wine tasting basics, and an elementary education can be had at nearly every wine tasting room in the Willamette Valley. Steps 1-3: Admire the color, swirl the wine and sniff the aromas. Then enjoy!
It is just after this that things can begin to get uncomfortable. The tasting room staff launch into a rote list of all the fruit and herb and earth components that you SHOULD be experiencing. Someone asks for YOUR opinion of the wine! And what about those over-the-top printed tasting notes? Violets and pomegranate? Tea leaves and wet stone? Wow, does this ever make you feel inadequate about your ability to even use your nose.
If you merely want to talk the talk like you know from grape juice, check out this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophie-brickman/how-to-fake-a-distinguish_b_153712.html
Want to learn to actually smell and taste like a pro? Train yourself! Let’s look to the movies for some help! Is there nothing that popular culture can’t do for us?
I direct your attention to three movies that influenced me and lit up pathways to understanding the senses that enable me to enjoy a glass of wine shamelessly. A common theme through selected scenes in these films is people making time to pay attention to their senses – smell, taste and tactile.
A recent movie with Matt Damon called Hereafter showcases a sensuous, entertaining and fun sensory-challenging experience that takes place in a cooking class. Damon’s character and his never-to-be love interest (spoiler alert) take turns wearing a blindfold while the other teases their nose and tongue with bits of food. There is a realness in how everybody struggles to identify common fruits, nuts, etc., and genuine delight when one finally guesses correctly.
The movie gets a bit slow but rent it or add it to your Netflix for the cooking school scenes in particular. Were it not for the actress Cecile de France (ooh-la-la), I might have fallen asleep.
To see two people really get into a blind tasting sensory experience we have to go back to the eighties when the smoldering hot duo of Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger made a movie called “9 ½ Weeks”. This is a movie you won’t doze off to. Apart from watching these two actors at the top of their game, the movie is most memorable to me for the sensuous “refrigerator scene” where Rourke’s character tells Basinger to keep her eyes closed while he leads her on a sensory tour of the cleanest fridge in America. If memory alone of this film doesn’t have you feeding your partner fresh fruit, chili peppers and honey, then search online for “Nine And A Half Weeks - Food Scene by the fridge”.
Finally, to tie together the cinematic sensory journey and the world of wine, we need to screen the movie French Kiss. The scene to highlight here is when Kevin Cline's character is showing Meg Ryan around the family winery he hopes to renovate in France. They come across an old wooden box from his youth and it is filled with flowers and herbs – an aroma box! Each vial and slot contained hand-gathered items to represent different scents one might experience in wine, so that he could learn to identify them by smell alone. Fresh flowers and herbs abound this time of year, but if you don’t create your own aroma box you can purchase such a thing ready-made. Le Nez Du Vin (The Scent of Wine) kits are available online. Watch these movies or at least the relevant scenes for inspiration and for direction. Create a shopping list and get cracking with your own sensory party. Challenge your brain, ward off dementia, build synapses and neural pathways and re-learn how to smell. Don a blindfold and have a partner choose small spoonfuls for you to first smell and describe, and then taste and evaluate texture and every nuance while you attempt to identify what you are experiencing.
Just reach into your fridge today and you could probably come up with a reasonable sensory evaluation menu - a la 9 ½ Weeks. Fruit jams and jellies, maraschino cherries, oranges, lemons and other citrus, melon, olives. Don’t forget the spice rack for dried herbs and sweet baking spices. Throw in nuts of all kinds, both raw and toasted, as well as honeys and syrups.
A shopping list for items to buy for a wine-related sensory experience should read just like one of those winery tasting notes. Pick up fresh and/or canned versions of plums, berries, stone fruits, fresh apples and pears, bell peppers. Any concentrated substance will give you a leg up due to its intensity - such as fruit liqueurs like Cassis or Framboise and the aforementioned jams and jellies. Fresh herbs like lavender, sage, and aromatic plants like eucalyptus and cedar fill your nose with pungent scents but are very tricky to identify blind for many people. A cigar or some pipe tobacco, and dried tea are useful to imprint leafy, earthy aromas onto your brain.
A renewed focus on the sense of smell and taste seems to heighten all of the senses, making people more aware of their environment and of those around them. You'll definitely be a better wine taster, and who knows what else the experience can lead to.
No comments:
Post a Comment