Guíto SaborGourmet wine tasting: the palate

It is the last of the stages of wine tasting. In it we try to recognize all the types of flavors that are present in the broth. For this, we will use the taste buds, identifying each flavor in a different location of the tongue. So, for example, the bitter taste of what we identified in the anterior part of the tongue; salty at the edges, or the sweet at the tip.

There are four groups of flavours:

• Sweet, produced by alcohol, glycerin and sugars.
• Acid, due to the juices typical of the grape.
• Salt, produced by the mineral salts, but very few times we will find in the wine.
• Bitter, caused by tannins.

Once smelled the wine, we introduce a small amount in the mouth, and what paladeamos, passing the wine for all of our taste buds to rescue all the flavors inherent to the broth, from the tip of the tongue up to the palate. Before swallowing, hold it for a while in the mouth, we inhaled a bit of air through the mouth, and what borboteamos slightly on the palate to extract more flavors.

Once you have done this, we will discover the following components:

• Vinosidad: this is the feeling that provides the level of alcohol, and it can be hot or spicy.
• Astringency: it gives the sensation of dryness and roughness that remains in the mouth. Comes from the tannins and from the stems and pips of the grape.
• Texture: given to us by the fluency of the wine in the mouth, its contact with the tongue.
• Body: it is the set of sensations that we leave the wine on the palate due to its alcohol content and its meatiness and consistency.
• Acidity: the we will distinguish according to their freshness, their joy. We find wines sharp on one side, and wine weak on the other.
• Balance: is the situation in all the sensations mix together to form a homogeneous whole When sweetness, bitterness, acidity, astringency... they counteract each other, in such a way, that the end result is nice and we can produce a sensations enhanced thanks to the entire combination.

Guide to wine tasting

• Wine tasting: the preparation to the tasting
• Wine tasting: the palate
• Wine tasting: the visual phase
• Wine tasting: the nose and the aromas
• Wine tasting: Series and families of aromatic wines