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Investment in wine worth the money

Sight, smell and taste all part of the Lodi-area wine experience

When you invest your hard-earned greenbacks in a bottle of wine, you might as well get your money's worth.

Knowing what to look, smell and taste for will ensure the full wine tasting experience, and perhaps let you forget how much you just paid for that bit of liquid delight.

The following are a few tips from Michael Perry, manager of the Wine and Visitor Center in Lodi, on how to properly taste a glass of wine:

Visual appeal

Examine the color and clarity of your wine. Perry suggests holding the glass by its stem or base to avoid blurring the color with your fingerprints. He notes that one's hand can also cause the temperature of a wine to heat up a bit.

Younger vintages — wines produced within the last two or three years — typically have a deep and dark purple color. Older wines will develop a brown or brick red color by about 12 or 15 years, Perry said.

Holding the glass over a piece of white paper will help you detect the color a bit easier.

For new tasters, learning what a wine looks like helps you "get a comfort level that your wine is sound, that it's a quality of wine you want," Perry said.

Today's young wines are darker in color than in the past because many wineries are using less intense filtration systems.

As far as clarity, Perry said wines can range from opaque to completely clear.

He notes many appear a bit cloudy, also because of the change in filtration.

Aroma

Once you've inspected your wine's appearance, get your nose ready for some sniffing. Lodi's young wines are known for their vibrant fruit aromas.

"You put your nose in the glass and the fruit just leaps out of the glass," Perry said.

There's no reason to be shy, place your nose nearly all the way into the bowl of the glass and take a couple quick inhalations.

For older wines, the fruit smell, or bouquet, won't burst the way it does with younger ones. Instead, you'll detect a more mature scent.

As with the visual examination, smelling a wine can help tasters learn and gain comfort with different wines.

If you smell something you don't expect, Perry said, it might not mean the wine is unsound. Instead, it could be a chance to learn about a new approach taken by a winemaker.

Or it could be a chance to learn a new varietal. Some, like viongier, have more of a floral than fruity aroma, Perry said.

After your first couple inhalations, give your glass "a good, vibrant swirl" for up to 30 seconds.

This will release new layers of aroma that can go unnoticeable at first sniff. Taste

Finally, the part you've been waiting for.

Perry recommends two steps when actually tasting the wine.

First, take a quick sip and swallow.

Once you've done that, get ready for a more thorough taste test. Take a second sip, and cautiously draw in some air while the wine is in your mouth.

Perry suggests you then "chew" the wine, swishing it along the sides of your mouth.

This second test should give you a fuller tasting experience, revealing the wine's sweetness on the tip of your tongue, its acidity on both sides of your mouth and an overall taste that will likely linger in your mouth.

The key to tasting, Perry notes, is to ask questions while at wineries and tasting rooms. There's no reason to hold back on those queries, he said, as everyone should know the basics to a great wine tasting.

"From there," he said, finishing a glass of zinfandel, "you can go so many places, and it's all fun."