How to taste: Conclusions

Perhaps the most important stage, however, is a fourth stage of analysis, in which all previous impressions are evaluated. This includes most particularly considering whether the measurements taken by the mouth suggest that the wine is in balance, and monitoring the length of the aftertaste, these last two factors being important indicators of quality. A fine wine should continue to make favourable sensory impressions throughout the entire tasting process.

Experience is necessary to judge balance. A significant, if decreasing, proportion of young red wines designed for long-term evolution, for example, are not by any objective criterion in balance. Their tannins may still be very marked and make the wine an unpleasantly astringent drink, even if they suggest that the wine will keep well. (Making red wines with less obvious tannins so that they can be both aged and drunk in their youth has been one of the prime recent preoccupations of winemakers.) Similarly, the acidity in a young German wine may be aggressively dominant, but experience shows that it is essential to preserve a top-quality Riesling, for example, for the ten or 20 years’ bottle ageing it may deserve. (Some would also argue that a perceptible level of sulfur dioxide was also acceptable in such a wine.)