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If you’re reading this piece, it’s probably because you want to understand the differences between tasting still wine and beer. You must be familiar with the saying, “It takes a lot of beer to make great wine” but do you know what it means? Well, that’s mainly because after tasting wine all day, winemakers just want to drink beer. It’s the same for brewers as well, you who would rather prefer a glass of wine after tasting beer all day.
Whether you prefer wine, beer, or both you may have often found wondering to yourself whether it’s alright to swirl, sip, and spit beer when tasting it, which is how you taste wine. We’ve done the hard work for you and did some research to give you the answers you need.
Important Fact:
In the past year, it was claimed that only taste buds in specific areas of the tongue could detect flavors. It was believed that the front of the tongue tastes sweetness, while the back of the tongue would taste bitterness, and so on. However, that research has since been debunked and current research states that taste sensations may come from all regions of the tongue.
Tasting Still Wine
Professional wine tasters discovered that swallowing every wine they tasted out of a barrel at wine events wouldn’t allow them to be thoughtful tasters. That’s because by the time they reached the ninth or tenth wine they would be intoxicated and that’s why spitting was accepted as an alternative.
Wine doesn’t have CO2, so swallowing it isn’t required to fully taste a wine. If you’re unaware about the proper procedure to taste wine, here is how it goes:
To taste wine properly, you should put your nose in the glass and take a whiff
Now take a sip and leave the wine in your mouth for 10 seconds
Swish it around in your mouth to thoroughly taste the wine
Now find a proper spittoon and spit the wine without spraying it
Then you can continue tasting the next wine
You can enjoy as many wines as you want during the wine tour and even take home some bottles to drink at home later. There’s nothing wrong with swallowing the wine, and if you’re out with friends or family, you could share a bottle or enjoy a glass with them by sipping and savoring the wine.
Tasting Beer
Here at Coastal Tours, we have a sensory panel that tastes beer throughout the week and we even offer weekly training classes on properly tasting beer, tasting standards for the style, and how to pick out off-flavors. We ensure that all beer is inspected before it is sent out for tastings. Here’s how you should taste beer the proper way:
When tasting beer, you must swallow it
After smelling and swirling you should take a sip and swallow
The lingering flavors from malty sweetness or hops can be detected then
Beer has carbonation (CO2) and when you take a sip, CO2 escapes the liquid as gas
It rises from your through to your nasal passage and carries the flavor of the beer
The sense of smell mixes with the taste and gives you the overall flavor of the beer
To get the complete flavor of a beer during beer tasting you must swallow the beer to get the full flavor experience.
Cheers and don't drink & drive,
Coastal Tours
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