Corner of a new installation of Nero d'Avola

The art of Tasting

There are various types of wine: still, sparkling, champagne-type, all of which differ in body, fragrance and balance; all wines should have a concentration and strength to enable you to enjoy them.

Every wine reveals a complexity and intensity of flavour of its own. White wines can be identified by their pale fruit colour, the hint of acidity, and a flavour such as melon,peach, or nuts such as almonds.
In a red wine it is fruits like cherry or plum or a hint of spices which give the flavour. It is not easy to anlyse and describe a wine.
There is a wide range of perfumes coming from a wine which may exceed 400.
What are you to do? Let's leave it to the experts to produce the detailed descriptions. For wine consumer and amateurs, let's agree that the wine should be pleasing and we should be able to drink it and, if we wish, we can use just a few words to describe its colour, fragrance, flavour, body, and aftertaste.

Colour: fill a glass one-third full and hold it by the stem against a white background to observe the colour. Tip the glass to better observe the depth of colour. The Mamertino Millennium is ruby red in colour whilst the Mamertino Bianco is straw yellow.
That's the first step. Now rotate the glass and swirl the wine all round the inside of the glass to liberate all the aromas of the wine. Thus it is exposed to the air which vapourises the wine so that the various fragrances diffuse and confront our olfactory senses.
Fragrance is the most important part of a wine. We have noted the colour, we have sniffed the wine and now we'll sip it and appreciate all its complexity. Make sure that you just sip it, don't swallow it, and then you will experience the after-taste.

What is the language of wine?

Wine has its own language. I am not about to bore you by listing all the terms which are used to describe a wine. I'll just give you some of the terms which are,let us say, fundamental:

- Acidity: the level of acid in the wine can make it vivacious or silky.
- Alcohol: with more or less alcohol content.
- Aroma: the fragrance of the wine which usually closely matches that of the fruit.Whena wine is aged the bouquet is an expression of the aromas acquired during the process of ageing
- Body: the perception of the weight of the wine in the mounth, applies to red wines.
- Denominazione: the provenance, a well-defined area
- Fruit: a wine which has a 'nose'reminiscent of fruit. The Mamertino Red 2001 has the mature cherry nose characteristic of the Nero d'Avola grape.
- Finish: the final impression of the wine which is feft on the palate.
- Structure:the structure or balance of the wine taking into account total acidity and tannin
- Tannin: gives balance to the structure and allows red wines to age.
- Grape variety: the specific grape variety used to produce a wine, for example Nero d'Avola, the variety used to produce the Mamertino Red.