3-hour intro/mid-level wine tasting seminar including some viticulture, enology, and food pairing tips

1. An Introduction to Wine Tasting
and Winemaking
Road Scholars
“North of Napa: California Wine
Country As it Used to Be”
Pietro Buttitta
Prima Materia Vineyard & Winery
www.prima-materia.com

2. Introduction
• Your taste preferences are a flexible starting point for future
wine exploration and learning about the wine world
• We all have different taste sensitivities, but we can train and
refine how we process them, plus our tastes do change
• Part of the fun of wine is learning where and how the wine
was grown and made – context is important
• Talking about wine shouldn’t be stressful, it just takes a little
practice, like any specialized language
• Soft, fruity, and oaky wines are a relatively new thing – very
sweet or very tart was normal for a long time

3. Brief History
• The oldest winery dates from 4100 bce, and grape
domestication was common by 3000 bce
• Noah, King Tut, Homer to Dionysus/Bacchus
• The Romans = universal wine culture
• Medieval monks – Dom Pérignon, Burgundy,
Bordeaux, the Renaissance, and the Dutch
• The Spanish brought vitis vinifera to us
• Phylloxera and Prohibition bring change, California
becomes ground zero by 1880

4. California History & Prohibition
• The opening of California made wine a real factor
• By 1890 Napa and Sonoma had established their wine
pedigrees and other regions were exploding
• Railway transportation had a huge effect
• Until Prohibition the wine consumers preferred
European-style lighter dry wines without oak
• After Prohibition most wine was sweet and decidedly
not French-style until the 1970’s
• Today – the new category of “natural wine”

5. Talking about tasting wine
• French system based on analog descriptors – think of
describing wine like describing food
• Language works both ways. It shapes how we
understand internal experiences and how we
communicate it externally
• Increasing your wine vocabulary will increase your
tasting ability and allow more nuances to arise
• The flavor wheel is a good tool to become
comfortable with using descriptors

6. The 4 “vinotypes” of tasters
• Sweet – most sensitive to alcohol, acid and tannin.
Sweet, soft. 21% of women, 7% of men
• Hypersensitive – largest group at 37%. Foodies.
Tend toward lighter, elegant side. Balance is key
• Sensitive – Go with the flow, adventurous types.
25%. Complexity is key and can enjoy a wide variety
of styles
• Tolerant – 32% of men, 16% of women. Bigger,
louder, stronger preference. Like spirits. “Iron
palate”

7. Viticulture and Enology

8. Viticulture
• Location, location, location
(water, temp, soil, tractor, labor,
previous land use, etc.)
• Wine type (delicate, bold, heavy
production, blending, mechanical?)
• Clones & rootstocks
• Yearly – cover crop, thinning, crop
load, Cab?, mildew, pests
• Vineyard to winery
• Post-harvest dormancy

9. Enology

11. Aging and bottling
• White or red, stainless or breathable, rack clean or
keep dirty, focus on tannin or acid, fruit or maturity?
• Adjustments while aging – additions or subtractive
fining?
• Reduction versus oxidation
• Bottling – do you filter or add sulfur? Closures?
• Bottle shock
• Ready to drink or long aging?

12. Basic tasting principles
• Your first sniff is the best, so get into a focused and clear
mental state – be ready to smell and taste deeply
• Think of tasting as a circle – start with immediate
experience, pick it apart and analyze the components, then
return to the integrated whole picture
• Do some memory work by attaching profiles to your wine,
like the grapes or the place. You are building a mental
rolodex. Some wines change dramatically with time, so be
patient and observe the changes as well
• Get comfortable spitting, and avoid rinsing with water

13. Looking at wine
• Visual Components
Color – it is important, but not too
important. Don’t get hung up on it
Age – whites will get darker, reds get lighter
Color Density – varietal, barrel, winemaking
Clarity – a component of integrity
Sediment – not necessarily a bad thing
A word about “orange wine”

14. Appearance

15. Appearance
• Most reds clarify themselves, so a hazy red may have
a defect. Nearly all whites are highly stabilized, so
sediment is rare, except in very small production or
unique bottlings
• Sediment can be
tartrate crystals or
pigments in older wine, but
don’t worry in either case,
just decant through a sieve

16. Smell/aroma
• Smell is a primal brain/nose interaction. It plugs
directly into emotional centers in the brain
• 10,000 smells and the 80/20 rule
• Use your retronasal
slurping skills
• Caution – the nose adapts
fast and needs time to
reset, so your first sniff
is your best!
• Smell the first wine

17. Smell/aroma continued
• We are born with relatively equal senses, but
generally women have a better sense of smell
• Our individual sensitivities vary, but we can train the
brain to improve its sensitivity and descriptive
abilities
• Taste declines with age, but…
• Mental ability to identify and
remember smells can increase
with age

18. Smell/aroma continued
• What does the wine smell like? How intense is it?
Varietal, age and winemaking style matter
• Oak can have a huge influence
• Aromas are primary like cherry and apple, bouquet is
secondary and comes with age like truffle, leather,
mushroom or ???
• Don’t fear funk, but assess quality. Is the bottle in top
shape? Is it just reductive and needs oxygen?
• More on defects later…

19. Palate/Taste experience
• Tasting combines aroma with tactile sensation
• Sip a small amount, aerate, swish wine around mouth,
spit or don’t, concentrate through the exhale and
carefully observe the finish
• In general, the more complex and longer the
pleasurable finish, combined with a sense of balance,
the better the wine is = $$$$$$$$
• Describing the tactile aspects of wine can be more
contentious than aroma descriptors
• A trick for assessing alcohol level

20. Palate/Taste
• Taste buds regenerate every ten days
• Ignore the old tongue map – you taste lots of things
everywhere, though it can be clustered
• Texture and weight is sensed in several ways in
addition to actual taste bud activation. Tannic wine
can be felt on gums without taste buds, acidity can be
felt in effecting saliva glands
• Mouth damage can really skew tasting

21. Palate/Taste factors
• Acidity
• Tannin
• Sweetness/dryness
• Astringency
• Oak
• Alcohol
• Viscosity/body
• Balance assessment
• Finish
• “Minerality”

22. Palate/Taste – sweet versus sour
Champagne styles based on added sugar (dosage)
• Brut Nature = no added sugar and under 3 grams/litre
of residual sugars (less than 1 teaspoon)
• Extra-Brut = between 0 and 6 g/litre of residual sugars
• Brut = less than 12 g/litre of residual sugars (1 tbl.)
• Extra sec (or Extra Dry) = between 12 & 17 g/litre of residual
sugars
• Sec (or Dry) = between 17 & 32 g/litre of residual sugar
• Demi-Sec = between 32 & 50 g/litre of residual sugar
• Doux = more than 50 g/litre of residual sugars

23. Palate/Taste - sweetness
• Sweetness – sugar is an important tool, it adds
weight, balances acid, moderates tannin, holds
onto aromatic molecules
• BUT fruitiness is not sweetness! Even though
sweetness holds onto and can accentuate
fruitiness
• Champagne and Riesling styles are the best
example of sugar/acid balancing act

24. Palate/taste - acidity
• Acidity – often the defining characteristic between
“Old World” and “New World” wines
• Acidity + Tannin = astringency (tactile dryness)
• Acidity is the backbone of white wines
• Acidity is extremely important in food pairing

25. Palate/taste - tannin
• Tannin causes the drying, fuzzy, chalky sensation you get
from aspirin, seeds, strong tea, coffee, chocolate, etc.
• Tannin levels vary between grapes and oak adds tannin as
well compounds that moderate tannin perception
• Tannin is present in both skins and seeds of grapes, but they
have different properties
• Oxygen softens tannins, so
decanting or aerating your wine
if it is too tannic can be helpful
• Tannin is part of the beauty in red wine food pairing

26. Palate/taste – mouthfeel/texture
• Body is a general assessment with multiple aspects
like acid, tannin, oak, sugar, etc.
• But, bigger/smoother is not necessarily better.
Assessing body can be a fuzzy value judgment. Do
you want Pinot Noir like syrup or Cabernet like
water? Flabby white wines? Crisp reds?
• Grape variety, climate, tannin profile, acid, and lots
of winemaking choices result in body, and there are
lots of legal additives as well

27. Palate/taste - alcohol
• Alcohol has conflicting attributes: it is warming and
cooling, thick and thin, and sensitivity to it is highly
variable
• High alcohol wines tend to extract more oak from
barrels, and balance can be difficult
• Grapes from warm climates develop more sugar and
more alcohol - not necessarily a bad thing
• Knowing your alcohol sensitivity can be helpful

28. Palate/taste - oak
• Oak use is a very complicated subject that bridges
smell, taste, color and body sensations (and price)
• Oak adds to the nose and mouthfeel as body and overall
complexity as spice, smoothness, etc.
• Oak can cover up or diminish unwanted flavors, such as
pyrazines or under-ripe grapes
• Use oaked wine strategically in pairings
• With winemaking and consumer tastes,
oak is the elephant in the room.
Americans love it, Italians hate it, French say “meh”

29. Palate/taste - astringency
• Astringency is a composite sensation of tannin + acid,
usually in red wine. A lot is bad, a little can be good
and lively
• White wines can be astringent too, usually high acid +
high phenolic content
• Human saliva production can vary 10-fold, which
indicates variation in taste experience, astringency,
tannin and acid perception
• It is the longest-lasting sensation and builds up over
time, and you can not adapt to it

30. Palate/taste - balance
• Balance is a judgment call, usually the balance of
sweetness, alcohol, acid, fruit and tannin for you
• Some grapes produce wines that may be unbalanced:
Tannat, Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, etc. Their
balance points may be different or unique to them, so
varietal is important
• New grape varietals
can surprise you with their
unique balance points, and
that is a fun things

31. Blending
• Some areas blend historically– Bordeaux, Rhone,
Veneto, Portugal, Rioja
• Some don’t – Burgundy, Barolo, Brunello, Ribera del
Duero, Alsace
• Each has advantages and disadvantages
• Very hard to make generalizations about quality, it is
more about how the vineyards are planted, paradigms
and regional tradition
• There is a lot of silent blending that goes on legally
but is not mentioned

32. Wine flaws and faults
• “Corked” wine - musty, dank, lacking aroma
• Volatile acidity – vinegar (can smell sweet)
• Ethyl acetate/acetoin - nail polish remover/glue
• Brett - horsey, sweaty, barnyard, band-aid
(can be confused with corked wine easily)
• H2S – rotten egg, sewerish
• Some flaws like Brett can
enhance complexity at low levels
• Mousiness

33. Corked wine
• Corked wine is the most important defect to detect. You
can return corked bottles to the store. It is usually not
the winery’s fault if the bottle is corked
• TCA overwhelms and anesthetizes your sensory bulb,
so the first sniff is the best at detecting it as you adapt
quickly
• Look for smells like damp basement,
wet newspaper, moldy, and the wine
will seem lacking in fruit and taste flat
• Saran wrap trick

34. Food and wine pairing
• When in doubt, keep it regional and balance the
weight of wine with the weight of food
- match (duck and Cahors, truffle and Barolo)
- weight (oaky Chardonnay with butter sauce)
- flavor keys (smokey Syrah with grilled food)
- match acid levels (tomato and Italian reds)
- echo a textural element in the food
- Bubbles. When in doubt, bubbles

35. Food and wine pairing
• Troublemakers:
- Acidic salad dressings, lemon juice
- Spicy/chili hot exacerbates alcohol perception
- Sweetness gets messy, desserts should be slightly
less sweet than dessert wines, many sweet sauces
(Teriyaki, BBQ, Panda Express) will overpower
any red wine
- Bitter (radicchio) + bitter wine = bitter x 2
- Losing a delicate wine or an aged bottle
- Umami can make wine bitter or metallic

36. Food and wine pairing
More advanced:
• Counterpoint is beautiful when it works
• Can’t like flavors nullify each other?
• Acidity is your friend and work horse, in the wine and
in matching food to the wine
• Sometimes, pair the sauce, not the protein
• Temperature – ice cream numbs taste buds, heat can
bring out tannin
• Sometimes rosé is your best friend
• Always think about adaptation when pairing

37. Pairing with special wines
• Port – typically a cheese plate wine, tremendous values
can still be found
• Sherry and Madeira – very versatile styles (Fino,
Manzanilla for sherry, Sercial and Verdelho for Madeira)
range from dry to sweet, can be very food friendly and
interesting
• Late harvest and fortified dessert wines – produced all
over the world, often take place of a dessert or best with
simple fruit or pastry
• Amarone – like Cabernet on
steroids, let it shine

38. Winemaker tricks
• Legal: adding water or acid, removing water or alcohol,
adding concentrate, Mega Purple
• Additives during fermentation: enzymes, yeast products,
yeast food, tannins, oak, micro-ox
• Aging: fining products (milk, egg, gelatin) or removing
by filtration, oak, ml bacteria
• Additives at bottling: grape
concentrate, DMDC, gum
arabic, tannin,
polysaccharides, oak products

39. How to read a wine label
• Appellation: when a county appellation is used “Lake
County” at least 75% of the grapes must be from that
place
• When an AVA is used “Red Hills” 85% is the minimum
– it is a tighter designation
• If the label states “California” then 100% of the grapes
are Californians of some sort
• Vintages are more important in some places than in
others. They are very important in cooler climates, less
in reliable warm climates
• Labels will tell you were the grapes grew, not
necessarily what parent company made the wine

40. Reading a French wine label

41. Reading a domestic wine label

42. Thank you for your time. I hope you have enjoyed Lake
County’s wine country and feel free to reach me (Pietro)
with any questions or suggestions:
info@prima-materia.com
A few recommended books for further learning:
Wine Folly by Madeleine Puckett (great for varietal and visual info)
The Wine Bible by Karen Macneil (general reference)
The Story of Wine by Hugh Johnson (general history)
Reading Between the Wines by Terry Theise (importer wine love)
The World of Sicilian Wine by Bill Nesto & Frances di Stavino
(there are lots of regional histories out there to read,
this is one of the best)
American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine by Paul Lukacs
(history)