1. I first collected the glasses to use. Because I was at Summer's, we used all the glasses we could find at her house. She had a pretty good variety for the white wine and red wine glasses, and we found a good variety for the other glasses, as well. For the fishbowl, we used a jumbo Texas margarita glass from El Rods.
2. Summer helped me pour the Gewurztraminer using the shot glass into each of the various glasses because apparently, I can't pour anything without spilling at least a little bit. We did the same pouring using the shot glass for the Shiraz after the Gewurztraminer test.
3. This section is broken up for both the Shiraz and Gewurztraminer smell test and taste test (Section 3, 4, 5), I swirled a lot before sniffing and tasting, too.
Gewurztraminer
Shot - Smells like acid and alcohol, couldn't detect anything else. It also, unsurprisingly, tasted like acid. Battery acid, to be exact.
Rocks - More of a fruity, citrus smell, less acidic than the shot glass. Lots of swirling and sniffing had to happen to detect anything, though. It tasted like pears and light fruits that weren't detectable to my palate.
Water - It didn't smell like anything, which was surprising. I asked Summer if she smelled anything, and she said no. We both had our noses deep into the glass and it still didn't smell like anything. Somehow, it also tasted like water, I think due to how tall the glass is and the shape of the glass.
Small Wine - Detected some spice and orange, had to really sniff it to smell, though. It also tasted less acidic than the shot glass and the fruity taste came out, as well as the spices.
Big Wine - Super easy to detect the smells right off the bat. Smelled VERY fruity, definitely detected the citrus and was able to place the spice as cloves and maybe cinnamon. Unlike the small wine glass, it tasted more acidic than fruity. I couldn't taste the spice that I smelled. I think this is why white wines are in smaller wine glasses than red wines. The taste is more pleasant in the small wine glass.
Marg Glass - Smelled more like honey than anything else. It was a mixture of acidic and fruity. I was easily able to detect the honey smell, but the acidity and fruit took a few deep sniffs. I was hit with the acid taste, but after letting it sit in my mouth for a bit, I definitely got the fruity, pear and orange taste.
Shot - Smells like acid and alcohol, couldn't detect anything else. It also, unsurprisingly, tasted like acid. Battery acid, to be exact.
Rocks - More of a fruity, citrus smell, less acidic than the shot glass. Lots of swirling and sniffing had to happen to detect anything, though. It tasted like pears and light fruits that weren't detectable to my palate.
Water - It didn't smell like anything, which was surprising. I asked Summer if she smelled anything, and she said no. We both had our noses deep into the glass and it still didn't smell like anything. Somehow, it also tasted like water, I think due to how tall the glass is and the shape of the glass.
Small Wine - Detected some spice and orange, had to really sniff it to smell, though. It also tasted less acidic than the shot glass and the fruity taste came out, as well as the spices.
Big Wine - Super easy to detect the smells right off the bat. Smelled VERY fruity, definitely detected the citrus and was able to place the spice as cloves and maybe cinnamon. Unlike the small wine glass, it tasted more acidic than fruity. I couldn't taste the spice that I smelled. I think this is why white wines are in smaller wine glasses than red wines. The taste is more pleasant in the small wine glass.
Marg Glass - Smelled more like honey than anything else. It was a mixture of acidic and fruity. I was easily able to detect the honey smell, but the acidity and fruit took a few deep sniffs. I was hit with the acid taste, but after letting it sit in my mouth for a bit, I definitely got the fruity, pear and orange taste.
Shiraz
Shot - It smelled like balsamic vinaigrette. Summer said it tasted like church wine.
Rocks - The smell of rubbing alcohol was overwhelming, but then I got hints of cherries. It tasted like dark cherries, was bitter, tart, and tannic.
Water - This glass made the Shiraz smell like a wet dog, it was unpleasant. I found it interesting how with the white wine, I couldn't smell anything, but with the red wine it was much more of a pronounced smell with this glass. It tasted like battery acid, like how the white wine in the shot glass tasted.
Small Wine - At this point, I smelled cherries. Concentrated cherries. All of the cherries. It was super easy to detect the cherry smell with minimal effort. Upon tasting, however, it tasted like blackberries.
Big Wine - Summer described this smell as death. I, however, smelled chocolate and dark fruit. The dark fruit was overwhelming. Summer refused to smell the margarita glass after this glass because she thought the death smell was so strong with this glass. The taste was not like death, it tasted like sweet honey and blackberries.
Marg Glass - I had to really stick my nose in the glass for this, but it smelled like blackberries and summertime. The margarita glass really opened up the flavors of the Shiraz and I tasted a more concentrated blackberry layered with honey. It tasted much sweeter and more honey-like than any other of the glasses made the Shiraz taste.
Shot - It smelled like balsamic vinaigrette. Summer said it tasted like church wine.
Rocks - The smell of rubbing alcohol was overwhelming, but then I got hints of cherries. It tasted like dark cherries, was bitter, tart, and tannic.
Water - This glass made the Shiraz smell like a wet dog, it was unpleasant. I found it interesting how with the white wine, I couldn't smell anything, but with the red wine it was much more of a pronounced smell with this glass. It tasted like battery acid, like how the white wine in the shot glass tasted.
Small Wine - At this point, I smelled cherries. Concentrated cherries. All of the cherries. It was super easy to detect the cherry smell with minimal effort. Upon tasting, however, it tasted like blackberries.
Big Wine - Summer described this smell as death. I, however, smelled chocolate and dark fruit. The dark fruit was overwhelming. Summer refused to smell the margarita glass after this glass because she thought the death smell was so strong with this glass. The taste was not like death, it tasted like sweet honey and blackberries.
Marg Glass - I had to really stick my nose in the glass for this, but it smelled like blackberries and summertime. The margarita glass really opened up the flavors of the Shiraz and I tasted a more concentrated blackberry layered with honey. It tasted much sweeter and more honey-like than any other of the glasses made the Shiraz taste.
The Gewurztraminer wine review is: A fan favorite, this Gewürztraminer is a flavorful wine with bright, expressive fruit and clove spice. This is a lush style of Gewürztraminer with intense floral character, yet it still maintains the grape’s natural crisp acidity (ste-michelle).
For both the red and the white wine, the wine glasses brought out the flavors faster in comparison to the other glasses. The margarita glass with the red wine brought out the flavors the most, and the rocks glass in my opinion brought out the white wine flavors the most. The smells were all over the place for the glasses, but the small wine glass made the white wine smell more concentrated in the spices and fruit even though it took more sniffs. I was honestly shocked for the red wine and how I got such different flavors and smells depending on the glass used. The rocks glass for the red wine also brought out the tartness that the wine review stated, but the red wine glass brought out the blackberries more.
As discussed in the lesson and in previous lecture videos, the difference in taste and smell with each wine and wine glass was due to the concentration of wine molecules being detected by the nose. What you smell is what you taste, basically. The shot glass was so small that you could only smell the alcohol and acid, but the margarita glass had such a wide surface area that in my opinion, made the aromas more concentrated all over the glass so it was easier to detect the smell and the taste was much more pleasant. This is different than most books would say, as the larger the glass doesn't always mean the more concentrated and more aroma, but hey, every nose is different. The wine glasses definitely brought out different aromas and flavors than the shot and margarita glass, which is why wine glasses are used to drink wine... they do a great job of making sure the wine molecules are concentrated for the nose to detect all those smells and tastes. The rocks and water glass had kind of the same effect, it was harder to taste and smell anything because the wine molecules were basically free to go right out of the glass and not into the nose.
6. For this step, we poured some of the Shiraz into the margarita glass and the small wine glass. I let the small wine glass sit while I coated the inside of the margarita glass with the wine molecules by wrapping my hands around the glass and warming it, while swirling the glass quite a bit. Upon smelling and tasting the small wine glass with the Shiraz, it smelled like cherries and tasted like darker berries, and was very tart. Upon tasting the margarita glass, it smelled SO MUCH sweeter, like light honey, and tasted more like blackberries and less tart, and more honey-like. It's amazing how warming up a red wine in a larger glass will bring out the aroma and flavor so much more than solely letting it sit out in a small glass. The aroma was much more focused with the margarita glass than the small wine glass.
This lesson taught me that size does matter (lol) when it comes to wine, but the shape of the glass also matters just as much. Shape and size can have such different effects on the aroma of a wine.
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