Dr. Seymour Wineblut, renowned Viennese therapist, bon vivant and wine lover, started our weekly session with a query  “Mein boy, I heard through the grapevine that you were telling your wine group how to become wine schnapps.”

 “It’s wine snob, my good doctor, and this unfounded accusation is not true. The group simply wanted to learn how to taste wine in a more knowledgeable manner, rather like a connoisseur would.”

He looked somewhat relieved. “So, tell me about it. It sounds much more interesting than your usual list of psychoses.”

Connoisseurship — one can enjoy a painting or a symphony without knowing much about the artist and his or her works. However, it seems to be human nature that when someone really loves a subject, that person wants to find out more about it. When one wants to learn a great deal more about that subject — let us say wine — that person is on the way to becoming a wine connoisseur — ipso, sip so.  

When many folks hear the words “wine connoisseur,” they dash away to hide behind the nearest potted palm. They fear what might be a wine bore of the first magnitude, who might say to them, “Have you begun opening your 1927 Ports yet?” Or drone on and on about some vertical tasting of 1961 Bordeaux at a three star restaurant in France. Let’s get rid of that notion and discuss how to learn about the art of tasting wines sans the snobbery.

By consent, our wine tasting group wanted to dip their collective noses into the world of wine connoisseurship. To make it interesting, we took six excellent, older cabernet sauvignons, all from the fine 2001 vintage, all from the mid-Napa Valley and all from very highly regarded wineries. The wines selected were Caymus, Flora Springs, Raymond, Joseph Phelps, Far Niente and BV Private Reserve. Sounds yummy so far.  

We poured the wines so we had six full glasses in front of us. Then we discussed the three steps in wine tasting — look, smell and taste.

The look of wines varies tremendously. Red wines can range from pale red to deep dark purple. Some red wines that are cloudy or brownish — could be aged or spoiled. In this case, we all noticed that all the wines were very close in color and, considering they were all rich, young Napa Valley reds of the same year; this was no surprise.

Next, we smelled the wines. By concentrating just on the smell, all of the tasters noticed marked differences. Some were very assertive, some were restrained. I even suggested that we close our eyes, not for stage effect, but to block out other senses and focused on what the wines tasted like just from the nose.  

Finally, the taste. To get the full expression of taste in a wine, we followed three steps. First, we concentrated on the initial taste, or first impression, the one that wakens the taste buds. With rich cabernets, as these were, there was a very strong initial impression, usually a big burst of what we might refer to as complex, rich fruit tastes. The mid-taste is where we sloshed a bit of the wine in our mouths so we could give all the taste buds a crack at the full taste spectrum. Here is where we received further complex fruit impressions and other tastes, such as oak notes, tannins, as well as texture — smooth, rich, soft, harsh.  Note, we are not talking about those often bizarre terms one sees in the wine journals — let’s leave aside leathery, plummy, elderberry, cedary, barnyard-y and on and on. We just concentrated on the essence of the many tastes of the wine as each one perceived them. Not trying to describe them, but to remember them.

Finally, we concentrated on the aftertaste; the taste that remains in the mouth after the wine was swallowed. Here we looked for the impressions of pleasant, tart, balanced and how long did this taste sensation last? Generally, the longer the better.

We had a jolly time discussing the results. Then, our tasters stepped out of the room. All the glasses were removed but one and then, on return, our tasters tried to guess what wine was in the one glass left on the table.  

Out of the 10 tasters, only two guessed correctly. Not too good. This is fun, but not easy, especially when the wines all are very rich reds. No surprise that the two winners were women — women have a keen sense of smell and taste. The men’s faces were wine red.

There was general agreement, too, on the wines. Five were delicious. The Far Niente was full of flavor, beautifully balanced and easy to love. Joseph Phelps was also delightful, very concentrated yet elegant, well balanced and also a great value, since the Insignia, the Phelps top wine, is more than twice the price. Caymus was rich, multi layers of flavor, making it wonderfully complex. Raymond was also very well balanced and rich with a compelling taste that so firmly states mid Napa Valley cabernet and, as always, a terrific value. The Flora Springs Hillside Reserve was extremely rich and full bodied, a gripping and powerful effort. The only wine to fall short was the BV Private Reserve. The first and mid-taste went by in a flash and what was left was a huge, tannic aftertaste that curled the tongue and sucked in the cheeks.  

Our tasting group had a pleasant surprise when a major wine magazine was very close in its scoring of these wines, giving very high marks to all the wines but the BV, which suffered.

This is the kind of tasting that we can all learn from. In fact, you should try this at home!  It’s fun to be a connoisseur, even a junior varsity one.

E-mail Ed Schwartz at Ejsprwine@aol.com.