?Developing your wine tongue?

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TJsBasement

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I just wanted to ask anyone if they had anymore tips to help newbies with enjoying wine, not really what to eat with what wine but more along the lines of things to change in everyday life. For instance Deezil questioned the amount of soda/pop and highly sugared coffee that I drink, after thinking about it more the answer is, an unhealthy amount. I have stopped adding any sugar to my coffee and am close to replacing half of my pop consumption with water, Sprite just gets me, nice cold fresh can......um thats good stuff. What other common things are we doing that prevent us from enjoying them great big dry reds that are so beloved by many serious wine drinkers. I know that smoking screws everything up but that's a whole other world of problems.
 
Interesting thought! I've never been one to like anything really sweet (Never in my life have I put sugar in my coffee, I'm polish, I like my mud!) and have always favored the really bold, dry, oaky reds over sweet wines (although I am starting to develop a taste for white wines in all my recent exploration). However I do love anything sour! I guess that might explain a lot.
 
I've never really considered ruining ones pallate for wine through different foods and drinks. Along the same lines I remember a buddy of mine who is a chef telling me how iodized salt has damaged his pallate. He says that the iodized salt is so much saltier than sea salt that he tends to make his foods on the salty side as his pallate doesn't recognize it as much.

I wonder if all the high fructose corn syrup and chemical food additives have ruined our pallates as a whole? Smoking is always a detractor like you said. A large portion of the way you detect taste is through smell and when you damage your mucous membranes throughout your airway, it does hamper your ability to smell. By the way I am a frequent cigar smoker, I'm not by any means on a soapbox!

TJ, I would suggest to you that maybe you should buy a wine tasting kit. It comes with all of the different aromas that a wine can offer so you can smell them by themselves and be able to train your brain to realize what each one smells like. I know there are many different kinds out there in various price ranges but it may be the answer you are looking for. My same chef buddy told me part of his training was having little takeout ketchup containers filled with different spices that weren't marked and he had to identify them by smell and taste alone. I believe there's something to it...
 
Thanks Joe, a tasting kit sounds just like what I need. Add another thing to the "things to get" list. That one looks very complete with all the small vials of common wine taste/smells.
 
I found that my palate changed by its self. Before starting this wine making obsession, I would drink a sweet wine like Riunite Lambrusco or a beer like Coors Light. Now I favor bold dry red wines like a Cabernet or a Malbec. My beer has changed to an IPA like Dogfish head 90 minute IPA or New Glarus Moon Man. This evolution was over the course of three years. It may happen to you or may not. I suggest you experiment a little but always make something that you like!
 
Thanks Joe, a tasting kit sounds just like what I need. Add another thing to the "things to get" list. That one looks very complete with all the small vials of common wine taste/smells.

TJ look at this site. http://www.wineawakenings.com/shop/the-wine-faults-kit/ I was one click away from ordering this wine fault kit this week. They also have other kits like joe was referring to. Do a Goggle search as there is another company that is less expensive but I have a feeling you'll get what you pay for. My wife was going to get this for me for my birthday after hearing Rodo talking about (he got one from his wife) but decided on something else. I wanted the wine fault kit as I want to learn all the different faults to look for and be able to recognize them.
 
I'm with Phil on this. Continue to drink wine, and you will get drier and drier in your tastes. My wife, who does not drink near as much wine as I do, has remarked over time about how my tastes have changed. Drier and more oak-tolerant is the way my taste buds seem to have gone, though I still don't much like the uber-dry wines and still have have an appreciation for a good fruity dessert wine.

I keep making sweet wines and unoaked wines because those are the ones my wife and everybody else seems to demand. My oak tolerance has grown so pronounced that I enjoy wines many could say are over-oaked. I really enjoy a semi-dry wine that is oaked so it must be sipped rather than swallowed.

That's a far cry from the sweet stuff I liked best when I gave up beer and started drinking wine.
 
Thanks for all and any comments. That diablo has oak so it will be my first time tasting oak
 
Aside from the "rot-gut" wines we used to drink when I was a teenager (Maddog 20/20 anyone?) I was always a beer guy. My wife got me into drinking sweet fruity wines, then I started making my own. Now I'm much more "oak-tolerant", as Jim says. Now, I like to try it all. And I have to say, I am yet to meet a wine I didn't like on some level.

I love wine. Wines are like women. You have to appreciate each one for what they are...women! :)
 
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i first got started years ago with the soda pop wines, such as arbor mist....then i went to fruiter, still sweet "real" wines, so to speak, such rieslings, which are still my favorite....now, even though the semi-sweet to sweet wines are still my favorite, i do find myself also enjoying drier wines from time to time....before, i couldn't even stand to take a sip of a dry red at all...now i find i at least have an appreciation for most styles of wine....my pallete did have some time off, so now it's time to continue the maturation of my pallete...i have found it truly is a development process for sure....
 
I've noticed that I'm enjoying dryer wines as time goes by. I started by backsweetening my homemades to 1.020 but now, 1.010 is so much better. I opened a bottle of the 1.020 this past weekend and cane syrup came to mind. That's a bit of a stretch, but it seemed soooo sweet. I couldn't enjoy it.
 
Good comments here all. I would only add that the best way to gain increased appreciation for wine is to drink a lot of it. No, not a lot of wine at one time! But broaden your tastes by drinking different varieties of wine, especially including those which you think you don't like. I buy commercial wines and pay attention to the scores given it by Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc. I may not favor the wines they give high scores to but I learn what the best of that variety is supposed to taste like. And that helps me to compare my wines with those highly rated by the experts.

In time, my tastes have broadened and like others here I find I like wines I did not like initially. If I had not made an effort to branch out, so to speak, I'd still be drinking mostly Yellow Tail. And what's the fun and what's to learn by doing only that?

NS
 

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