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Knowing a little more about wine will help you pick the right wines for your palate, and impress your friends! So here are a few hints, designed to help you to the end of your journey - the moment when you sit back and enjoy a good glass of wine!

 

Temperatures
White wines should be chilled, but not excessively. Remember, the lower the temperature, the less a wine will smell and the less apparent will be its richness. Most red wines should be served at room temperature, though Beaujolais, red Loire, young Bardolino and Valpolicella should be lightly chilled.

Tasting
This is judged not simply on the taste when the wine hits your palate, but on the colour and the smell. Here are some broad hints:

• White
• Pale, with greenish glints - light in body and from a cool climate
• Yellow-greenish - hot climate (Australia, California)
• Golden - dessert wines
• Red (look at the rim!)
• Intense purple - young and full-bodied
• Ruby - lighter wine (maybe a Beaujolais)
• Chestnut - a more mature wine

Smell
(swirl the wine in the glass and take a big sniff!): Some wines smell distinctly odd - but this is no bad thing, even though descriptions may vary from a sweaty saddle to a farmyard! Most wines, however, give of a range of diverse and delightful smells, which fall into a number of categories:- Fruity, Floral, Spicy, Earthy, Vegetal and Woody.

Precisely how you describe any particular wine will be up to you and your tastebuds. You might find a particular wine scented of blackcurrants, whilst someone else may claim the same wine tastes of plums. Neither of you is wrong; you're simply both describing your personal reaction to an overwhelmingly fruity wine.

Taste
Take a generous sip and roll it around your mouth. You'll be looking for:

• Texture - rough, smooth
• Body - light, full
• Balance - a good (or bad) combination of sweetness, fruit, alcohol - and, in red wine, tannin

Sweetness Guide
White wines are classified from dry to sweet, with 1 being the driest up to 8 being the sweetest. An example of the driest of white wines would be Muscadet (1), with Piesporter (5) being classified as medium. The sweetest of whites would be Moscatel de Valencia (8).

Red wines are classified according to their body, with A being the lightest up to E being the fullest. An example of the lightest wine would be Beaujolais (1) with an example of a medium bodied wine being Rioja, or Vin de Paysd'Oc Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah. The fullest bodied wines would be those such as Australian Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon (D/E).