How do I know I’m drinking a good wine?

Halfway through the dinner party, my host said, “I want you to try something and tell me what you think.” Oh no, I thought! Up to that point, everything was fun; we drank special wines, laughed, told stories, and had a nice vibe going. Now, all eyes were on me as he poured a glass, leaned in, and said, “Tell me if you like this wine. How much do you think it costs?” I nervously laughed, took a couple of sniffs and sips, and for my life, I could not convince myself it was any good!!

I did not want to speak ill of the wine nor insult my host, so I replied, “It is not as well-made as the other wines we have here.” At that, he hesitated, smiled, and said it was a $6-dollar bottle he liked to drink as “patio wine.” Relief! By the way, I would have guessed $4. Still, he was not insulted in the end. I told the truth, and we left there alive, with our reputation intact!  

But how did I know?

First, we are not discussing spoiled wine or wine with obvious undrinkable faults. We want to compare a tolerable wine with a good, high-quality, well-made wine.

We start with the wine that’s poorly made and sample the odor. Swirl your glass, then put your nose very close to the glass. If not in the glass, inhale slowly, deeply through your nose. While inhaling, think of a line of distinct odors, one after the other, each lasting about a half-second to a second. Close your eyes if it blocks out distractions and helps you concentrate. Identify the odors. If you can’t, categorize them as floral or musty; don’t worry if you can’t. If one or more odors are unpleasant or bad throughout the four to five seconds of inhaling, it’s not a well-made wine! The wine may have some pleasant odors, but if one or more are not, they cause a noticeable start-stop, bumpy-sort-of experience.

On the other hand, when sniffing out a good, high-quality, well-made wine, all the odors are appealing, engaging, and unique. They all connect with a graceful transition from one to the next; once you experience good vs. not good, you will always be able to discern the difference.    

It’s been said, “Wine Gathers all the Scents of Nature.” Well, not all, but hundreds and most are familiar to everyone or can be learned. The source of these odors is the growing conditions, the grapes, the fermentation process, and the aging process—the better the growing conditions and the grapes, the better the wine. A controlled and precise fermentation process produces a good, high-quality, well-made wine, and a well-managed aging environment results in the same. I may note that a well-understood blending process makes for a good wine, too. There are too many odors to list, but a concise and interesting reference is the Aroma Wheel or Wine Wheel. It’s available online and was developed by sensory chemist and now retired professor Ann C. Noble of the University of California, Davis.

Taste

Assuming wine is served at the correct temperature, it has been adequately exposed to air after opening, called “breathing,” and has not been open for days sitting on the counter. If none apply, I will describe not-well-made wine as any food: it’s too sweet, bitter, sour, tastes off, flat, has no flavor, or only tastes of alcohol. The flavors do not work well together and are out of balance or leave a bad taste in your mouth, and you want to put your glass down.       

On the other hand, the taste of good wine is like beauty, art, or architecture. It will have the correct proportions, balance, harmony, and interactions of its elements—sweet, sour, bitter, savory, and salty. The first three, sweetness, acidity (sour), and bitterness, are the most frequent; good wine will have the correct proportion and balance. Another aspect of good wine is a long “finish” or lingering pleasant taste in your mouth after you have swallowed it.    

Feel

Good wine can have many pleasing tactile aspects, including delicate, smooth, silky, rich, refreshing, bubbly, and sweet. The tannin, alcohol, and acid contribute by adding astringency, weight/smoothness, and thirst-quenching properties. Tasting can only detect these, and the wine will be proportioned correctly and in balance.    

Other ways of knowing you are drinking a good wine

One way is a “call for another glass,” like most good things; you want more! Another is people’s reactions, such as making positive comments, asking what the wine is, taking pictures of the bottle, sharing with others, and social-media-sizing it. Bad wine doesn’t make it to Instagram and Facebook as often as good wine. One last way is to see what people finish first at parties, attested to by Gerald Asher’s method, “I made a mental note to watch which bottle became empty soonest, sometimes a more telling evaluation system than any other.” — Gerald Asher, wine critic “Gourmet” magazine.