Happy New Year! The confetti flies, sound makers sound and glasses of Champagne clink... but do you change? No, of course not. If you are anything like me, you make the vow to cut back on drinking, swear to eat better and to start that exercise plan you downloaded, all of which you immediately fail at because you are hungover. FYI the best hangover cure is a spicy Bloody Mary, eggs, bacon and toast. Needless to say this delays a "fresh start".
Many people, better people than I am, over the years have kicked the year off with "Dry January", a tradition I see less and less of since the pandemic. Sure you might lose weight, get more done and actually start back at the gym, but come Mardi Gras, it seems those same people are in rare form to catch up. Instead of the black and white, all or nothing plan, what if we have "DAMP" January?
This leads me to suggest a kick-start your palate workout as your new year, new you plan. Sure cut back on the drinking, maybe select a specific day to open something special or a specific number of drinks a week you are allowed, but don't go DRY... errrrr unless your Doctor has suggested it which probably means you need to listen to them.
How does one kick-start their palate and more importantly why should someone do that? The plan is simple, you are going to retrain your brain and receptors so that you can actually enjoy more of the world's wines! It is a huge world out there full of incredible art in a bottle, but it will remain closed off to you if you stay in a rut. Don't think you are in a rut? If you have recently tried a wine outside your usual go to and said "I don't like this kind of wine", you are in a rut. OK OK OK slow down! I can hear you argue with me even as I type! Yes, there is such a thing as a wine not being to your personal palate (which by the way is the correct way to tell someone that has opened a wine for you that you don't love, or God forbid you are telling a winemaker that they have a "bad wine" when really it isn't that it is bad, but simply not a match for you). But I promise you can train your palate to open up and appreciate a new style of wine! Always drink Pinot Noir from cool climate regions and "hate" Napa Cabs? Only drink bold, fruity wines and "hate" the lean acid driven ones? I promise, you are shutting yourself off from a world of adventure, love, happiness, success and riches! Yes all those things may be only found in your mouth through this exploration, but better there than not at all am I right?
Here is the deal, when someone first starts off drinking wine, they like fruity white wines, then they discover jammy reds, then they come back to appreciate crisp whites, followed by structured reds and finally learn to appreciate a finely made dessert wine. There are also people that stop exploring and stick to a zone that they inevitably tire of and claim wine just isn't as exciting or that they just don't like it they way they used to. Imagine if you actually only ate tacos for every single meal... bad example because tacos are amazing and I'm pretty sure I could eat them for every meal and never get tired of them. Lets try grilled fish, you start having grilled fish every single day, at first you might love it, but over time you'd stop tasting the nuances, it wouldn't even matter if it was trout or salmon, it would be boring fish. You can actually tell a lot about where someone is at in their wine journey by asking them what their favorite wine is. Enough chit chat, lets get into how to kick-start your palate in a few easy steps!
*please assign a notebook to be your private wine journal. Take a moment with each wine you open to note the name, where it is from and at least some kind of description. If you can come up with more info about the wine such as if it has dark fruit, high acid or a smooth finish, definitely add that, but don't feel you need to. You can even describe a wine in non-wine terms, I've seen people use personality traits or even colors!
Step 1. Even if it is only in sets of 2, invest in glasses that have a cut rim, in a white wine and red wine size bowl. My go to is Reidel, but there are others out there. If it rounds at the rim, it is giving your palate a speed bump and the wine doesn't settle into your mouth properly.
Step 2. Try every wine you open in both glasses (small and big bowl). Pour an ounce in each, smell them back to back, taste them back to back. Try to pick out differences. (note it in your journal)
Step 3. Start smelling other things in the glasses. Herbs, fruit (peel vs. rind), grass, leaves, even the glass itself! Yes, I am serious, smell the empty glass. It may smell of musty sponge, soap, cabinet dust or have the residual of a previous wine. All of these things will taint the next thing you smell in the glass. Maybe you don't like the wine because it smells like the sponge you need to throw out. (note differences in smells from having it in your hand vs. in the glass)
Step 4. Now here comes the homework... once a week, do a comparison of the same grapes. And don't skip any even if you THINK you know the grapes, your likes, or the regions. Remember you are training your palate and your palate evolves and changes over time. Pick a time of day and try to stick to it. Eliminate distractions and other smells (don't do this while you are cooking). Pour wine #1 in a glass, pour wine # 2 in the same type of glass (mind the size of the pour, should be the same and only an ounce or two). Smell and compare, taste and compare, do not JUDGE, compare. Make notes on differences and similarities. Now do the same in the bigger bowled glass. Your opinion does not matter, it is comparing the 2. You will do this with the following:
Vivac Riesling vs Alsace Riesling or Finger Lakes Riesling
Vivac Chardonnay vs Chablis (Burgundy) or Russian River Chard
Vivac Rose of Sangiovese vs French Rose or Spain Rose
Vivac Pinot Noir vs Burgundy or Oregon Pinot Noir
Vivac Cabernet Sauvignon vs California Cab or South African Cab
Vivac Syrah vs Washington Syrah or Argentina Syrah
You get the idea, yes I did stick Vivac wines in there, they are winning gold medals around the world after all and represent a varietally correct (that is what we say in the biz for a grape showing through in a wine well, representing place and classic characteristics for that place) wine. You don't have to stick to this list, the idea is to pick 2 wines made of the same grapes from different places. Now COMPARE, what is the fruit like? Is it citrus? Berry? Herbs? Are they the same or different in the 2 glasses? Taste them, what flavors are you getting? Do you get an acid zing along the sides of your tongue? How dry is your tongue when you swallow? Is one wine bolder than the other? How are they alike?
Step 5. Look up the region. You just tried 2 wines back to back, now learn about the wine growing regions! Cool climates (also high elevations like our winery) are leaner, higher acid with bright fruit and lots of complexity. These are in striking difference to warm climates that will have riper fruit, darker notes, bolder body and less acid. Now taste the 2 wines again after learning about the soil and climate, can you taste "place"?
Step 6. Find a pairing. When you look up a wine region, they usually make note of pairings. You can also get a ton of info off a winery website so make sure to start there. Taste the wine, pay attention to fruit, acid, and tannin. Now take a bite of the food selected as the pairing (this can be as simple as a slice of cheese, some nuts or some other morsel you find in your fridge), then taste the wine again. How did it change? Even a bad pairing can tell you a lot, but a great pairing can really change your perception of a wine! Higher acid wines really need food, especially when you are acclimating your palate to them. Big bold wines need acid or fat to help cut the richness, again especially when acclimating your palate.
Step 7. Do it all again! Change up the regions, the wineries, add new grapes to the list, but remember to come back to this classic 6. The more notes you can make the better and using a wine aroma wheel will really help this learning experience.
I know this sounds like a lot, but you wanted to have a "new you"! There is nothing more amazing than appreciating new flavors, I promise, this will create a new you and open up a huge world of amazing experiences.
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