Wine Tasting

Summer 2008 students used alll thier senses last night in a bilingual introduction to wine tasting. We were guided through the evening at BLA3 by expert enologist Juan Manuel and the BLA3 team.

With the aid of a bilingual information pack and presentation,we found out about the history and processes behind winemaking.With the help of a color chart, we identified colors and tones. We tuned in with our noses to identify aromas, after gently swilling it around in the wine glass to release even more depth and character we picked out some surprising touches of horse and smoke along with the more conventional aromas of fruit and flower.

Then we finally got down to tasting the wine, a selection of whites, reds and a rosé from different wine producing areas of Spain. After locating different sensory zones on the tongue, we carefully and slowly tasted the wine. The white and rosé wines were a great start to this hot summer evening. We discovered that the younger the wine, the more agressive and acidic the texture and taste. With older, oak barrel aged wines the flavors are mellow and even on the tongue.

The white, rosé and red wines that we tasted were accompanied by some delicious tortilla de patata, jamón and pan tomate.

And so we learnt how to taste, not drink wine and appreciate the complex processes and regional differences that make Spanish wines so great.