Assessing quality

When tasting the wine it is important to remain objective about it's qualities that make it valuable as a product as opposed to other wines. Well all have our preferences, our likes and dislikes, however our aim here is not leisure, but to rank these goods and to predict their future potential. Well allright then, a little bit of a leisure too.

First things first

The glass. It has to be clean and dry, and polished. Washing up liquid stuck to the side of the glass would totally ruin and alter the perception of the qualities of the wine and that would be a shame wouldn't it?

It's not a good idea to wear parfume on yourself either, for the same reason. All in all, the enviroment where you perform this assesment has to be free of disturbing odours, has to be as neutral as possible. And bright. For first we are going to look into our glass of wine...

...they look so...different...

Surely, so far you might not know a lot about the subtle differences in the color of claret wines, other than they leave a more or less equally ugly stain on your white tablecloth if you knock over your glass.

Much more rewarding though is to observe the color through your glass! A lot of information is gained at this - often overlooked - 1st step. For a start, check whether your wine is clear or may be hazy?It will be clear most of the time however very old wines may become more opaque and loose their shine, and may appear to be slightly hazy. That is fine. This does not decrease their value. Avoid extremes though.

Next you will notice that the wine has a certain depht of color to it. Is it quite transparent or mostly opaque. I can tell you right now that observing a claret that is very transparent, well ... not a good sign. Although an inky, dark wine does not guarantee quality either! More about that later. The color itself may range from inky purple to brown. The latter is a sure way of telling that your claret bit the dust and you can't derive any pleasure from drinking it, likewise it has no money value either. But these were the extreme ends really, and in most cases you will encounter 3 main colors, ruby – garnet – tawny and myriads of their intermediaries....

You know when you leave a half apple on the kitchen table? The flesh slowly takes on a brown color. The same happens with wine and for the same reason. It is a slow oxidation. Oxygen both supports and destroys life. But that is not necessarily a bad thing because it is oxygen as well that matures our claret, helps it to realize complexity and finesse.

For now, just remember that the sequence in which claret changes it's color is this: purple - ruby - garnet - tawny - brown. In a nutshell.

Therefore a wine at the beginning of it's life will be of a ruby color and by the time it becomes tawny or brownish you can safely bet it reached the end of the road. And it is a bad idea to invest in it when you see this happening...