Here comes the translation for all of you who didn't understand anything of the Italian version, not in Swedish, as normal, but in English (!) To practise and to make my Uncle Roger proud of me :).


When one talks about wine it’s important to have an appropriate language that corresponds to the language of those who you’re talking to, otherwise it’s easy to end up in a conversation of confused nonesense. The classification of different tastes, fragrances, the visual view and the feel of the wine is quite a complex language. Professional institutions have elaborated these shared parameters by producing multiple schedules and scales for wine tasting.

Wine tasting starts with the visual sense and the distinction of how the colour appears in contact with light, or to put it simpler; it’s limpidity, transparency and tonality. The transparency and the limpidity have varying levels using precise names for a correct classification. The tonality of red wine can, for example, be distinguished as red violet, garnet or ruby red. If the wine is white, the colours to examine can be: paper white, greenish yellow or amber. Further more, the intensity and the vivacity of the colour are also important for establishing the precise shade.

Smelling the wine comes next and starts with the intensity, quality and complexity of the fragrance before clearly distinguishing it's nature. Classifying the nature of ta wines fragrance is a moment where the wine- taster has more freedom of expression. It’s in this phase you can hear words such as: "it smells of chocolate, liquorish, hay or leather", words that may seem out of context for untrained ears. A professional has to know how to classify different fragrances without passing the limited borders of the language of wine.



An interesting matter is that different grape varieties originally have their own typical characteristics in fragrance and taste. The Cabernet Franc could taste like green peppers, the Sangiovese like cherries and red fruits. Wines that have been aged in oak normally have a fragrance of vanilla and spices and so on.

After such a complex examination, the wine- taster already has an idea of what he/she is on his way to taste. The decisive test for many of us, the actual tasting, although secondary, not for this, less important. It’s in this phase one decides if the hard and soft components are in balance and therefore understanding if a wine is pleasing or not. As far as alcohol is concerned you can say that a wine is warm or light. The suppleness could be round or creamy and it's acidity distinguished as fresh. The tannins, that are present in red wines only, could be described ashard or astringent and for the body of the wine terms like robust, fleshy or lightare used.


Such a precision in the wine tasting procedure might (for some) seem too technical and objective and therefore loosing its original idea of pleasure. It’s true that the language of wine-tasting is important, but more for the professionals than for those passionate amateurs who would like to aquire a deeper understanding of wine and wine-making.

In modern society, we are not so used to activating our senses anymore and we need to learn once again how to examine, observe, smell and taste. The key is to open ones senses and start observing and examine to consider the wine- God Bacco’s favorite drink- for what it actually is: Wine is a product that through agricultural techniques and enological development presents itself, in its glass, as a genuine example of liquid culture.