Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake
10/19/2006 – by Frances Potts – Daily Sun News – Re-Published by Permission
GRANDVIEW- Last night in a classroom on the Grandview campus of Yakima Valley Community College a man in black attempted to unwrap the mystery surrounding the pleasure of wine tasting.
And a pleasure it was, as Master Sommelier Angelo Tavernaro revealed the proper way to open a bottle of wine and how to determine what one is tasting in the glass.
It’s all in the nose, seemed to be his message, but he also drew illustrations to show that the tongue is a tasting board that registers sugar on its tip, salt low on either side and acidity just beyond that on each side.
As he drew the circle in the middle of the tongue at the back where bitterness is registered, he sighed and said, “That’s where you taste the oak. Isn’t that exciting!”
Tavernaro is a man who finds many things exciting about wine.
As a man born and raised on a farm in a valley in northern Italy, he has been exposed to wine since the day he was born.
“We have a respect for wine,” he said, “not because it is a drink, but because we see it as a food, a food that strengthens you.”
He has traveled throughout Europe and the Caribbean pouring some of the most expensive wines for high rollers in some of the best hotels in the world.
Last night, Tavernaro brought that experience to the classroom in the first of a series of wine education classes he will be conducting this fall for Yakima Valley Community College.
How to Taste Wine was the topic last night in the 6 to 8:30 p.m. class.
His protégés learned that the foil at the neck of a wine bottle should be cut away just below the lip of the bottle and the top wiped with a clean cloth before pulling the cork gently free without shaking the bottle.
He explained that the first few ounces are poured into a glass, not just to offer for an approving taste, but also to be sure the cork hasn’t dried out and flaked off into the wine.
“Clarity is what we’re looking for,” said the master.
It was at that point, the nose came into play.
And, not surprising, Tavernaro had some exciting news for his group of eager, but novice, wine tasters.
“These are the olfactory bulbs, here in the nose,” instructed Tavernaro, pointing to an illustration in one of the hand-outs he provided. “Here,” he emphasized, pointing to an area on either side of the nose, just at the bridge.
“And they are the nerve endings of the brain! Isn’t that exciting,” he said.
As he explained, with apparent wonder, that the fragrances the nose smells are carried by these nerve endings to the short and long term memories, one began to understand Tavernaro’s love affair with the fruit of the vine.
And then Tavernaro asked each to put the nose to work.
Three glasses of unidentified wines were put before each person, and Tavernaro guided them through the process of identifying just what scents the nose was detecting.
Was that honey? If so, one might be tasting a Chenin Blanc or a Riesling. Kerosene/petrol? Ahh, an aged Riesling. Green pepper? A less than ripe Cabernet.
Tavernaro is a stickler for serving wine in pristine glassware. He recalled a wine-tasting he attended at which, at the first sniff, his nose detected something other than wine. He ordered the replacement of 200 wine glasses that had picked up odors on their way through a dishwasher.
And so it went, as Tavernaro worked their way around an aroma wheel, that once memorized, could lead everyone in his classroom last night to be master sommeliers who can identify an unknown wine by its appearance, smell and taste, as Tavernaro can do.
Not likely in two and a half hours.
Although by the end of the evening, some accurate guesses were being made as to the age of the wines in the three glasses. Based on the deep purple of one, a correct guess was that this was a young wine, whose pigmentation had not yet begun to fade-or else a very good wine that was holding up well!
The lighter the color, the colder the temperature in which it was grown.
While no one pinpointed Snipes Road as the location of the vineyard which produced one of the ones tasted last night, neither did they mistake it for a German product, where a more complex wine is created.
Every nose in the room was able to detect the difference between a wine aged in American oak and one aged in a barrel of French oak.
“Most wines here come from American oak, but French is preferred,” said Tavernaro.
Cost may be the prohibiting factor in using French oak, with a 50-gallon French oak barrel selling for $950 as compared to $350 for one made of American oak.
“There are 10 different types of oak, each with its own flavor,” said Tavernaro.
To bring out the flavor of oak, the class learned, the barrels are toasted as they are made. A light toasting (or burning) of the wood produces a faint flavor, while a milder flavor can be brought out with additional toasting and an even stronger oak flavor produced with intensive toasting.
Some wines, such as a Riesling, cannot take oak, Tavernaro explained, “because Riesling’s structure is too fragile”. The flavor of oak would overpower such a wine, he said.
And he reminded, remember that the oak flavor will be dancing at the back of the tongue.
Oak and alcohol content were perhaps the easiest components of the wines to identify. The alcohol lies heavily on the tongue, at just about the point the oak is making itself known. The guesses on alcohol content were never more than a point off, with the highest being tasted last night coming in at 14.6, but feeling like a heftier 16 to at least one taster.
“Anything over 14 is taxed higher by the government,” said Tavernaro.
He also shared the good news about wine: It’s good for you. The acidity in wine aids digestion better than Pepto Bismal, Tavernaro said. He cited a study that the French, who eat sinfully rich food, but drink a lot of wine, are not plagued with the heart attacks so prevalent in America.
Tavernaro advised moderation. “A glass or two with a meal,” he said.