Wine lovers fill their wine cellars in Houston, TX with bottles from around the world; but a surprising number of wine drinkers and collectors don’t really know how to savor wine instead of just drinking it. We’ve all seen some version, in movies and on TV, of the pompous wine aficionado swirling his wine, sticking his nose in the glass and then basically gargling with it before spitting it out. Though this is meant to be funny, looking at wine, smelling it and tasting it are the basic ways wine lovers can truly appreciate everything the wine in their wine cellars in Houston, TX have to offer.

✦ Observe

The color and opacity of your wine can give you a lot of information about the wine including its approximate age, potential grape varieties, the amount of alcohol, sugar and acids and even the climate in which the grapes were grown. As wines get older, their colors change. Red wines can become more brown over time and whites can become more yellow. Red wines also tend to become more translucent as they age. In fact, murkiness in wine can indicate a defect in the wine. When you swirl your wine and let it climb the side of the glass, the way the ‘legs’ or ‘tears’ of wine streak back down into the glass can tell you about the amount of alcohol and sugars in the wine.

✦ Smell

The aroma of wine can give you quite a bit of information including the grape variety, whether or not it was oak-aged, how old the wine is and where it’s from. Wine aromas fall into three categories. Primary aromas are fruity and come from the grapes and the climate in which they’re gro wn. Secondary aromas come from the yeast in the fermentation process. These smells tend to be sour and are often described as ‘bready’ or ‘yeasty.’ Tertiary aromas or ‘bouquets’ come from the aging process and include aromas associated with oxidation, wine barrel aging and bottle aging. One of the most common examples of these aromas is the vanilla smell associated with aging in oak barrels.

✦ Taste

wine cellars in houston txThere are two elements that make up the taste of wine - flavor and structure. Flavors can be anything you taste from coconut to lemon to raspberry. Structure is the level of sweetness, acidity, alcohol, tannin and body. Wines with high sugar and low acidity taste sweeter than wines with high acidity. Additionally, wines with higher acidity tend to taste tarter and lighter. Tannin is mostly found in red wine because it comes from the grape seeds and peels. The flavor of tannin is often described as tasting like unsweetened black tea and it imparts a dry flavor to the wine. Alcohol can give wine spiciness and texture and it is a good indicator of the intensity of the wine and the ripeness of the grapes that went into it. Body can make a wine linger longer on your palate or feel bigger than other wines you’ve tasted.

Paying attention to the way wine looks, smells and tastes not only lets you enjoy it more completely, it’s also a way to learn more about the characteristics of different wines so that you can choose bottles wisely for your collection. If you’re ready to begin, start with your wine storage. For the finest wine cellars in Houston, TX, call Vineyard Wine Cellars at (866) 615-4008. You can also visit us online at Vineyard wine cellars website to see a gallery of our completed wine cellars.