30 — Sunday, November 16, 1997 - North Shore News

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A nose knows

Sle Corse

One woman's introduction to the art of wine tasting

Deana Lancaster

News Reporter
deana@nsnews.com

TO me, wine has always
been, well ... wine.

T know I'm exposing myself
as an ingenue, but I’ve never
been able to take the art of
swirling, sipping and proctaim-
ing wine crisp, fruity, or as hav-
ing a nice finish very seriously.

True, there are battles I like
better than others, and of
course I can appreciate the dif-
ferences between white and
red wine. But wine-tasting has
always seemed pretentious to
me, like something to be done
by peaple with names like
Muffy and Chet who speak
with their teeth clenched.

And secretly I wondered if
it wasn't really a case of the
Empecror’s new clothes —
some wily vintaer managing to
convince the educated classes
centuries ago that to engage in
dialogue about the taste of
wine was a sign of high intelli-
gence. They fell for it, and peo-
ple are still falling for it.

I'm ready to admit the
error of my long-held beliefs.

Last weekend I threw cau-
tion to the winds and headed
up to Whistler for Cornucopia,
a food and wine celebration
put on by the Whistler Resort
Association. By any standard, it
was quite a success. Six hun-
dred and fifty people attended
the opening night wine-tasting:
gala, Crush!, where more thas:
50 west-coast winenes were

represented.

Among other things, I
learned about the value of spit-
ting out a mouthful of wine
after tasting, it. It’s a necessity

in order to remain upright for
the duration of the event,
Unfortunately, I learned
that iesson too lare. Pleading a
“tired palate,” I called an eariy

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end to the sipping.

Saturday was filled with an
assortment. of seminars, with
everything = from Asian
Influences in Pacifie West Coast
Cuisine to Fire and Ice, a sem-
inar on pairing Cuban cigars
with B.C. ice wines. Wine and
the Senses was a basic introduc-
tion to wine tasting hosted by
Russ Weiss, the Pacific Rim
division manager for the
Robert Mondavi Winery. It
was the right choice for a
novice such as myself.

In warer, Weiss isolated
wine components: tannin, oak,
acid and sugar. Participants
sipped the components diluted
in water, then tried them more
concentrated and then tasted
them in wine.

Tannin is found mostly in
the skin of the grape and some-
what in the seeds. The fength
of time the skins are left in con-
tact with the juice of the grape
after crushing determines the
strength of rannin in the wine.

Tannin is evident on the
roof and at the back of the
mouth. Ie’s bitter and. astrin-
gent but when ie’s blended in
to the wine it adds complexity.

“Oak is the one element
which doesn’t come out of the
vineyard,” said Weiss. “This is
where the winemaker gets to
be the chef, seasoning and
spicing the wine.”

Depending on the .type of
oak used, it adds a toasty-ness
and spice to the wine. Isolated
in water, it tastes like ... wood.
But it also has a hint of vanilla

and nut.

Acid is “where it all hap-
pens,” said Weiss. Grapes con-
tain acid in higher contents
carlicr in the season. As they
continue to ripen, the acid
content drops off. ;

The acidity gives the wine
its fruit flavor and the balance
berween the acid and sugar is
largely what makes one wine,
different then the neac.

Unlike tannin, the effect of
acidity in the mouth is immedi-
ate. It’s sour anc gets the sali-
vary glands into action. It
refreshes the mouth. That’s
why dry wines (with a nice
acidity) go well with food.

Sugar content increases in
the grape as it ripens, so the
date of harvest is a key factor in
determining the flavor of the
wine. Sugar smooths out tan-
nin, and often makes a wine
“easier” to drink.

Weiss added that acidity
actually masks sugar, so the -
“sweetness codes” in the liquor
store can be misleading. If the
acid as well as the sugar is high,
then the wine will be dry.

Feeling confident in my
new-found expertise I tasted
my way through the rest of the
weekend, which included a
winemaker’s dinner and a vint-
ner’s brunch on Sunday. Pve
got a long way to go. I’m still
suspicious of anyone who says
they can smell “pears, mangoes
and apricots. A very honest
wine .., with a crisp green apple
finish.” But it sounds delicious,
so I'll keep trying.

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