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How easily can you identify the wine in your glass if you don't already know what it is? Most beer drinkers probably believe that they could pick out their favorite in a blind tasting of beers, hands down. Indeed, there are still more than a few who would rather fight than switch. Yet, in a blind tasting of a dozen popular beers I once conducted for a group of twelve tasters, not one person correctly identified his own favorite.
And so it is with wine. Some wines are impossible to mistake, even in blind tastings: Sherry, for example. Others are difficult. Even wine professionals sometimes have trouble. The famous wine writer and importer Frank Schoonmaker once admitted feeling relief when the results of a blind tasting confirmed that he had not mistaken a red Bordeaux for a red Burgundy. With access to tens of thousands of professional tasting reports available online, it's never been easier to find those characteristics which distinguish one wine varietal from another; but it does require a bit of effort. Here's one example: These are the words used by a popular wine magazine to describe hundreds of foreign and domestic Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays. (Words used repeatedly appear in boldface type.) SAUVIGNON BLANCcitrusclean crisp flinty floral grapefruit grass> green apple hay/straw herbal lemon light body melon mineral pear smoke spice CHARDONNAYapricotbutterscotch citrus creamy creme brulee earth exotic fruit fig floral full bodied honey melon peach pear pineapple rich ripe apple round smoke spice steely vanilla yeast A careful reading of these descriptors shows that both Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay share some common characteristics: citrus, floral, melon, pear, smoke, and spice. But there are a few words which are used repeatedly to describe one of these wines, but never the other. SAUVIGNON BLANC - defining characteristicscleancrisp grapefruit grass green apple hay/straw When you find these characteristics in a white wine, it is very likely that you are drinking a Sauvignon Blanc, not a Chardonnay. Further, the more dominant these characteristics are in the wine, the more "varietal character" the wine is showing. CHARDONNAY - defining characteristicscreamycreme brulee exotic fruit full bodied ripe apple vanilla Chardonnays are typically full-bodied, creamy wines, characterized by tropical or exotic fruit, ripe apple, and vanilla (which is a product of storage in new, small oak casks). For up to the minute wine news and buying advice, join our mailing list!Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Telling White Wines Apart in California Wine is owned by . Permission to republish Telling White Wines Apart in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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