WHY IS THE TASTING GRID USEFUL?

Every wine has a section called Tasting Grid.

Its purpose is to allow you to quickly visualize all the main characteristics of the wine so as to facilitate the choice of purchase. In the Tasting Grid there are parameters referring to bouquet and taste of the wine and its general characteristics (balance, drinkability, longevity). For every parameter there is a rating from 0 to 5 (where 0 is the complete absence of a certain element, and 5 is the maximum presence).

CHARACTERISTICS:

A) TASTE

  • Sweetness: due to the presence of residual sugar. You can taste when some of the sugar has not turned into alcohol. The taste of the wine turns out to be sweet, or tending to sweet
  • Acidity: an important element for the balance of the wine; in good measure it brightens the color, gives freshness to the flavor stimulating salivation, and promotes the preservation of wine. Non-experts usually thing of acidity as a defect, while it is not like that at all. Clearly, if there is a tremendous acidity without any other element, there will be an imbalance, but this is true for every element
  • Sapidity: is the sensation of salinity and freshness that comes from the presence of mineral salts in the wine. Sapidity and acidity (and minerality) constitute the gustatory backbone of the wine and allow to appreciate its personality
  • Minerality: a set of sensations given to the wine by mineral substances, or something that recalls their scents. Minerality can be the character trait of a specific region; in fact, vines and lands are responsible of this characteristic. It can enhance a wine with shades of freshness, succulence, aromas that relate to the earth, to rock, flint, graphite and smoking
  • Tannins: provoke the sensation of astringency on the tongue, in the palate and behind the lips. You can find it in tannins-rich wines; it is a polyphenolic substance which may be derived from stalks, grape skin, grapeseed and wood of the barrels in which the wine rests. The great red wines are tannic
  • Body: it is said that a wine is full-bodied when its structure stands out for the harmonious richness of alcohol and extractive materials, it is full and robust, well-structured and pleasant to the palate
  • Alcohol content: it is mainly given by the alcohol level of the wine, but not always there is a direct correlation between alcohol level and alcoholic strenght. There are some wines with high alcohol content, but it is not perceived strongly in the mouth
  • Persistency: the time in which the taste and aromas of a wine linger in the mouth intensely

B) NOSE

  • Intensity: the strength with which the aromas of wine are expressed. How much you can smell the odors in the wine
  • Complexity: the richness and variety of odors and aromas that distinguish the wine to the nose. If it has a wide range of shades (such as fruit, flowers, spices, herbs, etc) it is a complex wine
  • Aromaticity: it can be found in wines that have strong and unique aromas of the grapes from which they were produced (defined primary aromas). Usually, they have strong scents of aromatic herbs such as sage, rosemary, lavender and bergamot, but also flowers such as rose. Among the aromatic varieties we find the Gewurztraminer, Brachetto, Malvasia, l’Aleatico and the Moscato. Among the semi-aromatic varieties there are Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Müller Thurgau, Glera, Kerner and Sylvaner, but also red wines such as Merlot, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Lagrein and Lacrima. ▪ Fruity: when a wine gives off pleasant hints of fruit (such as apricot, citrus, cherry, strawberry, exotic fruit, and many more).
  • Herbaceous: when a wine gives off an aroma of freshly cut grass, or balsamic scents from herbs such as wild fennel, mint, sage, basil
  • Floreal: when a wine gives off scents of flowers (such as acacia, hawthorn, orange blossom, field flowers, jasmine, geranium, rose, linden, elder)
  • Spiced: when there are aromas of one or more spices (cinnamon, black pepper, star anise, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg and others, and also cocoa, tobacco, coffee)

C) GENERAL

  • Balance: harmonious effect given by balance between the different organoleptic components of the wine. The balance is expressed both at an olfactory and gustatory level
  • Drinkability: indicates the immediacy in the appreciation of a wine, its pleasantness and the consequent ease in tasting it
  • Longevity: it measures the capacity of the wine to last over time, evolving and refining its organoleptic characteristics. It is higher when there are fresh shades, lower when there are hints of oxidative notes or cooked