Mustard growing in the vineyards in Napa, Valley,California
photo by Larry Leigon, all rights reserved by Larry Leigon © 2018
The Inner Keys to Wine Tasting
3.5 minute read
Wine tasting is a literal training of your senses. If you can taste food you can taste wine, the skills and the senses are the same.
There are lots of skills to learn in wine tasting but the most overlooked skills are the skills of the mental process of recognizing, naming and processing the input from your senses.
Now I’m talking about the tasting part of it only here. Obviously there are lots of other things going on when you taste wine that may be more important in the moment—social, cuisine, connection, romance, art—strangely tasting wine itself is usually only the most important thing when you’re buying it.
But training your mind is the basic skill for the thing itself—tasting wine. And as a side benefit, it trains you to notice life.
All of these mental skills can be trained and improved along with learning to tell Pinot Noir from Cabernet. For example, training your attention is critical as well as training your memory. Being able to discriminate between the steps of the tasting process, separate the sensory impression itself from all your personal and professional associations, and remember what you tasted back in 1956 all matter.
Here’s are three keys to get you started:
The First Key:
To taste wine, what you are looking for is the direct sensory experience of your first impression. You can go back to the wine as often as you like but after the first impression what you notice about color or aroma or whatever is then dependent on and organized around that first impression.
Tightening up under the social pressure, contracting your muscles in fear or intimidation, worrying about whether you’ll be right or wrong—all those things make it harder to notice what’s going on that’s not worry or fear or intimidation.
Wine tasting has at least one thing in common with athletes--and artists--you need focus and confidence. Doubts and fears of looking bad or letting people down distract you from what your senses are telling you. A mind filled up with social consequences has no room for surprises or insights.
The Second Key:
Right after those first unforced images or impressions your mind will flood itself with assumptions based on what you learned in the past—trying to help you out. This is when I see a lot of people make mistakes.
If that first hit is of blueberries say, then your mind wants to fill in with all the other wines and associations you have with blueberries---deciding it's a Burgundy for instance and filling in with your Burgundy memories. Or thinking about that blueberry scone you want tomorrow or the field of blueberries your grandmother you make blueberry wine from.
You might miss it's from Washington State then because you've already ruled out everything that isn't Burgundy. Try to bring a beginner's mind each time you go back and check your first impression.
That helping out part is coming from the part of you that knows facts about wine—that’s not necessarily wrong. But it shuts the door on insight that comes from direct sensory experience of your first impression.
The Third Key
The fear of not smelling anything is always in the back of your mind if you’re not doing this all the time.
If you breathe in that first smell and you get nothing, that's OK.
Everybody gets nothing sometimes. If you stick your nose in the glass and come up blank, don’t worry. Just wait. Sometimes there really is nothing there. Certain Sauvignon Blanc’s for instance are indistinguishable from ice water. Don’t get me started on Albariño.
Bonus Key:
Don't think. Thinking can only happen when you are dissociated from your senses. Thinking about the smell of roses is not at all the same as smelling roses. There will time enough for thinking and discussion. Be aware of what's in front of you first.
Thinking too early also leads you to doubt your first impressions which most of the time, will lead you astray.
Most people feel obligated to say something right away so they compulsively blurt out things like, “It’s a little like old strawberries growing on the west face of Mount Waxahatchie” or “Tastes like diesel fuel to me”.
If you’re uncertain just nod your head and wait for somebody else to say something and agree with them.
Lots of people aren’t there for the wine at all of course. They are there to make a deal, or impress that assistant accountant from work, or, against all reason, for the food.
The Last Word
It’s also true that some people just want to get plowed. In passing I’ll just note that vodka does that quicker and to more effect if that is your goal.
There are all kinds of other reasons—some people want to overcome shyness in social situations or to forget that day at work or find courage. Warriors for thousands of years have drunk wine (and beer) to get fired up enough to go whack on each other.
Wine can do all kinds of things that have nothing to do with training your senses. If training your senses and expanding your knowledge of wine is not your goal, great!
Enjoy whatever you are there to do instead.
Larry Leigon
I've been in the wine business over 50 years and I've taught thousands of people all over the world about tasting wine and the sensual, meditative aspects of wine.
I started out in wine after I lost my job as an Assistant Bozo at a TV station in Houston,Texas and have been an owner in two different Napa Valley wineries.
The wineries I've worked for, or been an owner in, have produced dozens of 90+ wines across many different brands and have been sold in over 20 countries.
Other Works by Larry Leigon
The Secret Life of Wine
Wine and the Five Senses
Live Like A Baby: The 10 keys to Happiness
Raincrows: 25 Sonnets
God Lives in Mill Valley: 25 Sonnets
The Best of the Secret Life of Wine Newsletter.
The Big Review (music, lyrics and book, produced at Windmill Dinner Theater, Houston, Texas,1970)
Howdy Doody and the Man from Mars (play, 1953, no longer in print)