Tips for tasting Santa Barbara wine can be a handy tool to have in your back pocket during your stay at Marina Beach Motel. Wine tasting is a daunting task for beginners, mostly because you don’t know what to look for or how to voice your preferences. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Below are our tips for tasting Santa Barbara wine. After reading this, you’ll feel like a true sommelier!
Appearance
The first thing you should do with a glass of wine is take a good long look. Don’t sip it right away. Take the time to really observe the color and consistency. You can tell a lot about wine visually. If the wine is murky, there may have been some issue during fermentation. You want to your wine to be clear and bright.
Pale and watery wine may be weak and insipid, whereas dark almost brown wine may be old and past its prime. Move it around and see if the wine clings to the sides of the glass or not. These are called “legs” or “tears,” and wines that have this are generally richer and made from higher quality grapes.
Aroma
The main ways humans taste things is through smell. That’s why when you have a stuffy nose, your taste buds feel dulled. It’s also why smelling is essential to the wine tasting process. A wine’s aroma indicates a lot about it and is typically called the wine’s “bouquet.”
It’s easier to smell a wine’s bouquet after it’s been given some time to “breathe,” either in your glass or just from being decanted (uncorked). Swirl it around in your glass to aerate it some more and release its aroma. Try to detect spices, fruits, bitterness–anything to distinguish one wine from another.
Flavor
Now you’re ready to actually taste the wine! Take a small sip and roll it over your tongue so it comes in contact with all of your taste buds. This also gives you a sense of the wine’s texture.
Be aware that what you taste at first my differ from your next impression of the wine and will most certainly differ from the after taste you get. Take note of every aspect of this in order to really get a full sense of the wine.
So there you have it! This is just a basic guide for beginner wine tasters, but it they’re pretty helpful tips for tasting Santa Barbara wine. For tips on how to select a wine to buy, check out our blog post on it here. And just remember, the best way to experience Santa Barbara wine is in Santa Barbara itself. So book your stay at Marina Beach Motel today to see for yourself.
