Tasting a product is a delicate, specific process. The term itself means evaluating the taste of a particular dish, drink. For example, when a specialist tastes wine, comparing different varieties and types, he should take a sip, hold it in his mouth until the liquid mixes with saliva, and the inspector recognizes all the subtleties of the taste bouquet, and then spit it out. It should be clarified that professional tasting is akin to theatrical performance and is associated with all kinds of accessories.
Some terminology
As mentioned above, a wine taster is a specialist who evaluates this type of drink according to various indicators: taste and aroma bouquet, strength, color parameters. Therefore, it should not be confused with professionals from related industries: oenologists and sommeliers. Oenologist is a specialist in the field of winemaking technological processes, an expert in the manufacture of wines. And the sommelier draws up a wine list, selects wines for certain dishes.
The necessary little things
The wine taster, starting the process, must know some of the subtleties that distinguish the pros from the amateur.
- For example, if you need to evaluate several drinks at once, you should do this according to this principle: first try white, light wines, then dark and red wines. Between the sweet and the dry, the latter are passed forward. By age, priority in the samples is given to the young, followed by more seasoned ones. And, of course, the tasting of the fortress also goes on increasing.
- The taster is required to pay attention to the shape of the glass. By the way, wine is tasted not from an ordinary faceted glass, but rather a glass. Leg is desirable high, equal in length to the hand. Glass is thin. In general, ideally, for each type of drink should have its own glass. You need to hold it by the leg so that the liquid does not warm up from the heat of the hand. And the glass itself should be perfectly clean.
- A competent wine taster will pour exactly one third of the liquid to make it convenient to rotate the glass to evaluate the aromatic bouquet.
- There are only three stages of testing. They go through 4 stages, which can be described as follows: to analyze the sensations received, describe them, compare them with those samples that have already been evaluated, pronounce their own “sentence” on the product.
Profession Features
A wine taster is a profession that combines not only acquired skill, but also innate talent. According to statistics, only about 15% of people possess such abilities. The profession requires special development of the sensory organs, taste, visual and olfactory memory. And, of course, understanding and knowledge, fluency in specific terminology. Be sure to know the wine taster, what is called each stage of the production process. What exactly happens with the drink, and how it will affect the final result. For example, a professional taster by smell, taste and color can rightly say where the wine was produced, in which year and from which varieties of berries.
Do we have special tasting lessons? Unfortunately no. Courses can be organized at restaurants, bars, wine companies. Food industry technologists should also specialize in this profession. A good specialist is highly valued and will always be in demand in his field.