Wine Tasting Review September 8th 2021 with the students of Spanish language

21 September, 2021

Instituto Hemingway's latest wine tasting featured white wine, light snacks, and a brief introduction on basic wine terminology. Students got the chance to taste four different white wines this week and learn about their flavor profiles and what to expect while tasting a white wine. We learned that when analyzing wines we learn 10% from seeing the wine, 20% from smelling, and 70% from actually tasting the wine.

This week's tasting put an emphasis on learning how to smell the wine and how to detect different aromas in the white wine varietals we would be tasting. We passed around different aromas packed in small vials and guessed with the other classmates what the smells could be.

Those aromas included, apple, bananas, coconut, grass, citrus, pineapple, and pear. These aromas are commonly found and can be detected in white Spanish grape varietals such as Verdejo, Albariño, and Macabeo. It is very crucial to understand how to detect different wine aromas because our sense of smell has a profound effect on the way our brain processes flavor. We then got a brief introduction on basic wine terminology which included the names of the different aspects of a wine bottle. We then learned a bit about the production and the fermentation process of wine, we talked about harvesting, crushing, and must. Finally we got to the actual tasting where we smelled and analyzed the wine thinking about the information we just learned.

We were able to taste pear and apples in the first wine by Gorkas Izagirre from Bizkaia. The second wine was by Tierra Leal from Valdepeñas which had some earthy and oaky notes. The third wine was an Albariño by Martin Codax from Rías Baixas which was a medium bodied wine and mouth watering to the taste.

The taste profile of this wine featured lime, pear, and apple. The fourth and final wine was a Verdejo Sobre Lias by Matarromera from Rueda. This wine was bursting with bright fresh acidity and was the most complex wine of them all because it’s extended aging process, we were able to detect citrus, greenapple, and pear. Overall it was a great turnout and fun experience for this week's wine tasting, anyone interested in extending their basic wine knowledge and engaging conversations should consider participating!

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Melanie Sáchez Leisure activities at the Spanish School in Bilbao