I haven’t posted in quite a while and I do have some associated guilt but in fairness I have been very busy. I have been teaching the WSET Intermediate course for the last 7 weeks and we have tasted some really great wines. Last night we covered sparkling and sweet wines and I realised that sometimes I take for granted that people have a certain level of knowledge when they don’t and should not be expected to have at this level.
When discussing the appearence of a wine I have often gone straight to tilting the glass 45 degrees and commenting about its appearence. Really when discusing the appearence of a wine it should be done in 3 stages.
Firstly you should look at the wine from above the glass to accurately assess the depth of its colour. Secondly look at the side of the glass for any inclusions, haziness, bubbles etc and then finally tilt the glass 45 degress to see the actual colour of the rim and the core.
This may seem quite obvious but although I would have covered these steps I have previously not highlighted them as being separate. The image below is a great poster I bought which shows the different colours for certain wines. I find it helps students get their heads around colour in wine and how subtle they can sometimes be.
Copyright Bouchard Aine
Vinotheque 
