located in our nasal passage.White wine is made by fermenting juice that has been pressed and separated from the grape skins, seeds and stems. Red wine, on the other hand, is made by fermenting the juice in contact with skins, seeds and sometimes stems. It is the skins that make red wine what it is, contributing not only the tannin but most of the flavor.
The components of wine that we perceive through our senses of taste and smell are acids, such as the malic acid in apples; "fruit" or flavor that comes from the grapes; flavor components that come from the fermentation process, that can to some extent be controlled by the wine-maker; and flavors that wine-maker deliberately adds (oak) - or removes (tannin) by filtration, or fining.
The taste buds in our mouths are sensitive to only sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
Everything else we taste comes from our sense of smell - via our olfactory bulb located in our nasal passage.
We do get a sense of texture or "mouth-feel" from our mouths - such words as viscous, chewy, light or full bodied describe mainly mouth-feel sensations, but our mouths are relatively rudimentary sensors. On the other hand, a few molecules contacting the olfactory bulb, enables the brain to identify those molecules from the signatures of as many as 10,000 others stored in the recesses of the brain. Often the recognition of the smell or bouquet will recall associated incidents, and memories, sometimes instantly, or sometimes after days or weeks of teasing thought.
To experience a sense of smell we need to volatilize some of the aromatic molecules
so they can reach our olfactory bulb. Very volatile aromatics, give the impression that the wine is literally jumping
out of the glass, but many, if not most of the aromatics in wine need to be volatilized by aeration, by warming,
or by some kind of chemical reaction in the mouth. They need to be coaxed out by "chewing", or by "slurping"
air through the wine. Guzzle good wine (or good beer for that matter) and you will experience little if any of
the pleasure that the wine-maker was able to capture in the bottle, and which is what you paid for.
Worse yet, the tannins in red wine are percieved by the taste buds in the mouth to be bitter or astringent, and
the response is almost instant. So, if you chug the wine you may taste the tannins, but never get the fruit, and
you will be left wondering what all the fuss is about and why anyone would want to drink the stuff.
Come to a Wise-up on Wine tasting and you will be cajoled, harangued or otherwise
persuaded to chew and slurp.
This is an appropriate place to make my pitch about white wine chilled to death. The colder the wine the less volatile
are the flavor components and the harder you will have to work to get the fruit you paid for. My comfort level
for most white wines is about 68 degrees. Find yours!