Surely you're familiar with the trope of a sommelier blind tasting a wine, the practice by which they'll deduce a wine's grape variety and region of origin just by tasting it. The trick to blind tasting is following a mental checklist sommeliers call the "grid." The name comes from a literal grid that students are taught that takes them through the steps needed to analyze a wine. A simple internet search of "wine tasting grid" will yield several examples, and they're all variations of the idea.
The steps of the grid follow what I call the SNFS (pronounced "sniffs") formula. SNFS stands for Sight, Nose, Flavor and Structure. We'll go through each of these to unpack each step of the process.
SIGHT
You probably won't be surprised to learn that there's more nuance than just picking out if it's red or white. Here are some of the most important things to consider.
Clarity: This is a big one, especially for red wines. I ask myself if I can read through the wine when holding it over a page of text. The answer is usually "no" for grapes like merlot and cabernet sauvignon, but "yes" for lighter grapes like pinot noir and gamay.
Color: Over time, you'll notice that different grapes take on different colors. Chardonnays -- especially oaked versions -- are distinctly yellow, while sauvignon blanc always seems to have the faintest tint of green. For red grapes, a distinctly orange-brick-like color always makes me think of Italy's nebbiolo. Is there a hint of magenta? Then it's probably malbec.
Legs: Legs, also called tears, are the way the wine slides down a glass after being swirled. Sometimes, you'll notice that the wine begins to fall down the glass immediately, other times you'll notice it will stay in place for several seconds before it falls. A general rule of thumb is that a wine with shorter legs (one that falls faster) will have either less alcohol or less sugar than a wine with longer legs.
NOSE
Just give your glass a good swirl and you'll be ready to go!
Intensity: Have you ever noticed how the aroma of some wines fills an entire room as soon as you uncork them? That's intensity. The farther you can smell a wine from your glass, the more intense it is. Aromatic whites like torrontes and viognier are intensely perfumed and hard to miss.
Fruit aromas: What does the wine actually smell like? Are you getting notes of red plum and blackberry or green apple and pear? Grapes all have their telltale aromas.
Fruit character: This is your chance to dive deeper into what your nose is picking up on. Are you smelling an apple? Or is it a tart, just-underripe one? Or maybe it's an apple that's sat on the shelf too long and has begun to bruise? A tartness in fruit aromas can signify the grapes were grown in a cooler climate, while notes of overripe or cooked fruit can often point to warmer regions.
Non-fruit organic aromas: This is always a tricky category -- everyone's palate is different and everyone picks up on something different. Maybe you smell violets or baking spices. These can point to different grapes and different wine-making techniques like aging in oak barrels.
Inorganic aromas: This is where things always get really fun! Just like with our "non-fruit organic aromas," different people can pick up on different things, and I always enjoy hearing different people's take on the same wine. For me, graphite and leather are two notes I often pick out, especially in Bordeaux, but I've heard everything from gasoline to baby poop!
Next week, we'll explore flavor and structure as we finish out our blind tasting grid.
As always, you can see what I'm drinking on Instagram at @sethebarlow and send your wine questions and quibbles to sethebarlowwine@gmail.com