The making of a great palate

We have all tasted with folks who have great palates. You know the ones. They can identify every nuance in the flavor and depth of wine as they taste. When we go to dinner with them, they pick wines that they know they will like, but also appeal to their guests' tastes. Much of this is natural talent, but the big question for wine consumers is, is there a way to develop those skills? A way to take our natural aromatic talent and move beyond its limitations to enhance our wine experience?

Understanding that 90 percent of what we "taste" in wine is actually what we smell in wine is the first step. This is true of all we taste, food and beverage, as the human palate only picks up four flavors: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. This is why "wine geeks" are always swirling, smelling and slurping to not only allow the wine aromatics to develop as it warms and opens up, but in the case of slurping, to allow the aromatics to flow to our sinuses through our mouth to further allow the aromas to impact our sense of smell.

Another important recognition is that as the wine flows into our mouth over our palate to the point we swallow, the different aromas flow to our aromatic sensors. This is why you will hear wine professionals, both producers and consumers, talk about entry, mid-palate and back palate flavors. For wine consumers, the important first step is to recognize the potential differences in palate areas, and then you can start to identify them.

As wine professionals, we taste new and different wines constantly - sometimes 50 in a week! This gives us much needed practice; like with any skill, this constant exposure to tasting wine allows us to develop our palate and, more importantly, something called "palate" or "aromatic memory." This is the ability to go back into our memory bank, pull out a particular aroma, and then attach it to what we taste at that time.

For consumers who don't get the opportunity to taste 50 times a week, though, how do you get the exposure needed to increase your ability to detect aromas and improve your wine experience? Taste every chance you get. Whether it be tasting events around town or pushing the edge of your comfort zone by ordering something completely different from a restaurant's glass pour list, try as many new things as you can.

Pay attention to tasting notes, especially when drinking wine at home. As wine professionals, we nearly always have tasting notes that we write when we sample wines from our distributors. It is how we go back and decide which wines to order and put on our shelf, and to know which wines to recommend to which folks so when you buy a bottle, we can easily describe the aromatic profiles and other characteristics of the wine.

When you have these "notes" while tasting at home, read them as you taste the wine. At times, the simple suggestion will allow you to find the aroma in your own memory bank, allowing you to more easily identify it immediately and also in the future, when you come across it again.

Here is another trick. When you read a descriptor in a tasting note or hear your favorite wine professional identify a characteristic, replicate it. If the descriptor is vanilla, smell some vanilla extract and then try to pick it up in the wine. Do the same with herbal descriptors or fruit aromas. Pull the spices out of the cabinet and smell them, or slice into an apple, or crush some fresh berries and take a good long whiff, then return to your wine. Next time we get a spring shower, or you're down by the river, smell a river rock wet with the rain, and then deposit that in your memory bank for wet stone minerality. The examples are endless, but all of the descriptors for wine, no matter how exotic, are grounded in some smell we encounter outside of wine.

While we can't change the aromatic talent we are each born with, these steps can help wine consumers of every experience level make the most of their palate, and therefore their wine experience.

If there is a topic you would like to read about, or if you have questions on wine, you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner with his wife Mary Lancaster of the dinner party, a wine and table top decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George has also worked as a judge in many wine competitions; his articles are published around the country. He is also the wine editor for Coeur d'Alene magazine www.cdamagazine.com. You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles, as well as other great wine tips, by friending us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.